How Much Space Do You Need For Your New Log Home

Log homes have appealed to Americans for centuries. Finnish, Swedish and German immigrants were the first to construct log cabin homes in the United States. While the urbanization of the United States led to a gradual disappearance of original 18th Century log cabin homes, a "back to earth" movement and a desire to get back to the basics of traditional American country-living, have brought upon a resurgence of custom built log homes.

Log homes can either be built as a permanent residence for you and your family or a romantic, relaxing and leisurely getaway from the stresses of everyday urban and suburban life.

Typical log homes these days have over 2,000 sq. feet of living space. Log home design used to have much smaller square footage with more simple amenities. Today's log homes can have practically anything the owner desires.

However, the building of a log cabin home requires a lot of hard work and some careful planning. And the greater the square footage - the greater the cost! There are four factors to consider when determining the size and space needed for your log home.

1. Your Basic Preferences
2. Lifestyle Needs
3. Budget
4. Strategic Design


Start by asking yourself some basic questions. First, will the log home be a residence or casual retreat? If it's a residence, how many occupants will inhabit the log home? This is important when it comes to determining the number of bedrooms, the number of full or partial bathrooms and the number of stories that you want the log home to consist of.

As for lifestyle needs, if you commonly entertain friends or host family dinners, this will require a lot of open space. So you'd ideally want your log home floor plans to include a lot of wide-open space rather than cozy or quaint little nooks.

Entertaining company may also lead to you wanting more outdoor space as well, whether it's a patio, porch or deck, or parking options, these are things that should be taken into consideration when putting together your log home floor plan. You may also need to include a guest room for overnight guests.

In regard to budget, a log home builder or contractor will typically use the range of $100 and $150 per square foot to quote a quick estimate. However, this is not representative of the true price because lineal and cubic footage are not factored in.

The lineal footage measurement reveals the length of the exterior walls, which just happens to be the most expensive component in a log dwelling.

Cubic footage represents the volume of the home. For example, you can have two bedrooms with the same square footage but if one bedroom has a flat ceiling, while the other bedroom has a 20-foot high cathedral ceiling, the bedroom with the cathedral ceiling will cost the most.

Log homes will typically have high cubic footage dimensions because a selling point of many log home kits is a natural, open, airy feeling, which often includes high ceilings.

Finally, strategic design is important, especially for those on a tight budget, because it's a matter of evaluating your lifestyle and factoring in what's important to you rather than what looks good or impressive to company.

The bedrooms need to have closet space. Bathrooms should be near the bedrooms. The kitchen, often the center of many family activities, should be functional for family meal preparation with plenty of counter and cabinet space.

One strategic design strategy, especially if you are trying to minimize total square footage because of expenses or general preference, is to minimize walls between rooms. The foyer could open freely into the living room, which can extend right into the dining room and kitchen to create the illusion of a much larger space.

You could also do things like building a guest room over the garage or using part of a bathroom as a laundry area rather than having a separate laundry room. Some strategic design can go a long way - be sure to factor in some space saving tips that may save you some dollars and make day to day log home living more comfortable.

How To Build A Log Cabin