Small Pleasures

Sarah Susanka, a former colleague, famously wrote a book called The Not So Big House. I’m going to suggest she write a sequel extolling not-so-big cabin furniture.

I’ve actually had to redesign rooms to allow for oversized sofas and armchairs, tubby ottomans, and behemoth beds and dressers. I’m all for rustic, Northwoods-appropriate furnishings, but I believe we should lean toward the twiggy end of the spectrum instead of toward giant sequoias. Or, as an alternative to overstuffed, overlogged décor, how about something along the lines of the basic slat rocker created by Amish furniture-makers, who understand the virtues of grace and proportion?

The cabin furniture I’m partial to is modest stuff made by local craftsmen who draw and improve upon patterns torn from handyman magazines. Such is the provenance, more or less, of the simple pine furnishings I discovered in Barbara and Jim Curry’s summer place on the Whitefish Chain in north central Minnesota.

When the Currys built their cabin in 1968, they wanted to furnish it in a hurry so they could put it to immediate use. So, from an emporium near Little Falls called the Knotty Pine Furniture Store, they bought a sofa, side chairs, end tables, footstools, a dining room set, desk, and two bedroom headboards—all new and all for about $600. When some years later they added a sun porch, much of that furniture was moved to that space. It’s basic stuff, but perfect for the setting.

“Our kids have been teasing us about this furniture for years,” Jim told me, “but it feels right at the lake.” It also “feels right” down the road a piece, at the popular Norway Ridge Supper Club in Pequot Lakes, which is likewise furnished with the gracefully enduring pine décor.

Dale Mulfinger is a partner in Sala Architects and an adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota. Cabinology, his fourth book, will be published by The Taunton Press next year.