How to Decorate a Log Cabin

A Portland interior designer crafts a delightful, rustic-meets-modern retreat in Black Butte Ranch

written by Melissa Dalton | photography by Kayla McKenzie

When interior designer Wendy Scott bought this log home in Black Butte Ranch, the sale included not just the house, but everything inside it. “You name it, we inherited it,” said Scott. “Forks, cups, art, baskets of dusty fake ivy upon baskets of dusty fake ivy, log beds, phones from 1980, linens that were thirty years old, and games with missing pieces.” As one of the oldest, most traditional forms of American architecture, log cabins are storied enough without all the additional stuff.

This one, built in 1990, is a more contemporary version, but still came with the design problems unique to its typology. For Scott, deciding what to keep or toss was the first of many issues to tackle. Add to that, the fact that the thick log walls can’t be moved, or even wired for new lighting. And then there’s the visual dominance of the wood, with its pronounced shape, color and exposed grain—all part of the charm, but also a challenge.

“We had no choice but to embrace the logs,” said Scott, who alongside Teal Davison co-founded the Portland design studio Teal & Scott. “But that’s what I really enjoy about design, is taking on work that isn’t our normal. It pushes us, and we can solve problems that we haven’t solved before.”

Embrace Imperfection

Despite making a splash in the local design scene with a project on the Portland Modern Home Tour, the log home was a far cry from that. “When you look at designs that Teal and I have done, every surface is clean and every piece of hardware is straight,” said Scott. “When you go into a log cabin, every circular shape is different and every knot in the wood is different.”

The redesign worked with those irregularities, rather than against them. For instance, when the great room needed a new furniture layout to create zones for lounging and playing games, Scott specified a custom L-shaped bench complete with storage in the base, to anchor one side of the room. Carpenter Sean Martin of S.G. Martin Woodworks fabricated the bench to fit flush against the round logs. “When you put cabinetry up against logs, it’s not straight,” said Scott. “So, you basically have to hand cut the back of every box.”

Don’t Be Afraid of Color

It’s easy to assume that, with the logs providing the home’s predominant hue—and orange at that—that the best approach would be to stick to neutrals for everything else. “But I just really wanted more color,” said Scott. “If you think about orange, or any [strong] color, complementary shades do wonders.” (That means bringing in the colors that are opposite on the color wheel.)

More colors run through the kids bedroom with a teal steel bunk bed and a sewing station repurposed as a desk.

For this approach, Scott had the great room’s built-in bench painted a deep blue-green, Green Essex by Benjamin Moore, then topped it with a custom cushion made of a classic Pendleton plaid. The pattern added in more blues, greens and grays, which also synced with the existing river rock fireplace. “The design really started to feel cohesive when we got the Pendleton fabric on the bench,” said Scott. “I took it everywhere with me when I made purchases.” Additional analogous colors, like red, pink and burnt orange, offer fun accents in things like a metal bed frame, pillows and picture frames.

To offset the orange hue of the logs, designer Wendy Scott added bold colors and patterns, such as the custom bench covered in a Pendleton wool with blues, greens and grays.

Create Unexpected Contrast

Despite the traditional tableau, Scott didn’t want to abandon a love for modernism. “The one thing that I was always trying to figure out was, how do you modernize this house?” Scott said. To this end, vintage pieces, like an antique sewing table in the kid’s bunk room, were joined with more contemporary picks, like a rainbow floral wallpaper and teal metal bunk bed. “Even though we felt like we could go a little bit kitschy-er, I really tried to mix vintage with modern wherever possible,” said Scott.

Kitsch meets art and history in art and prints hung on cabin walls.

This contrast also played out in several of the art vignettes around the house, which include pieces from Scott’s family, like a landscape painting her father had since his 20s, and a cowboy oil portrait bought from a local thrift shop. These are mixed with modern prints, like one of a contemporary quilt design—“That’s a fun nod to Sisters,” said Scott—and works from local Bend artists.

Subtle elements of design can be found around the home, such as these fixtures.

Go Slow

After a year of chipping away at the interiors, Scott is happy with the home’s newest incarnation, primarily accomplished with just the right combination of art, furniture and soft goods, and nary a basket of dusty ivy in sight. “We didn’t even change the carpets,” Scott said.

The interior designer stresses that the process always involves a lot of trial, error and time to reach a result that’s truly unique, rather than perfect. “You want to get it to a place that you’re excited about and it’s livable, as it’s not realistic for most people to change everything over at once, nor should we,” said Scott. “And you have to embrace the funkiness and the quirkiness of it, because listen, it’s not going to be perfect.”