This Dreamy Diamond Cabin Is Straight Out of a Fairy Tale
Jacob Witzling and Sara Underwood are designing and building an incredible collection of cabins in a Pacific Northwest rainforest—and they recently unveiled their latest dwelling. It’s called the Diamond Cabin—and it draws inspiration from geometry and fairy tales.
The cozy hexagonal cabin has a footprint of just 93 square feet.
The walls flare out at 30-degree angles, which creates more space for counters and seating inside the cabin.
"The geometry is realized in the hexagonal pyramid roof and 16 triangular and trapezoidal skylights," Witzling says. "Using salvaged decades-old, hand-split cedar shakes as siding and draping the entire cabin in moss brings the fairy-tale element to our work."
With a footprint of 93 square feet, the cabin is shaped like a hexagon with six-foot sides. From the floors, the walls flare outwards at a 30-degree angle until they are 4 feet high.
The exterior of the cabin is clad in hand-split cedar shakes that were salvaged from another structure on the property.
A metal roof is adorned in moss that was found on the property.
"Because of the flared walls, we gain nearly 70 square feet of countertop, seating, and shelving," Witzling says. "At its widest point, the walls then bend in toward each other."
A ladder from the first-floor living room and kitchen leads to a 65-square-foot sleeping loft that stands 9 feet off the ground. The roof comes to a pinnacle at 22 feet.
Although it’s only 93 square feet, the first floor appears larger with its flared walls.
The interior of the cabin is constructed out of salvaged Douglas fir.
The walls, ceiling, countertops, and shelving in the Diamond Cabin are constructed from Douglas fir that was salvaged from dilapidated structures on the property or purchased from a local sawmill that cuts windfall lumber.
The cabin’s exterior is clad in hand-split cedar shakes salvaged from an old structure on the property, and the metal roof is covered in moss picked from the cabin’s wooded landscape.
Shop the Look
The hexagonal structure is a geometry enthusiast’s dream, with plenty of angles and lines.
A ladder leads from the first floor to a sleeping loft.
Inside the cabin, the comforts of home include electricity, a gas stove, and a sink with cold running water. For outdoor showering, water is warmed up by a propane on-demand tankless heater. Covered in moss, the cabin blends into its wooded surroundings, while standing out with its angular roofline.
The 65-square-foot sleeping loft has just enough room for a bed.
In the sleeping loft, six tall triangular windows offer up views of the rainforest canopy.
"We like to make our structures do many—sometimes contradictory—things at the same time. We want them to look as though they grew in the environment, but they were also built to stand out," says Witzling. "We want those who view them to think they look natural in their surroundings, yet at the same time, supernatural."
Want to experience one of Underwood and Witzling’s cabins? The design duo are considering renting out cabins at Cabinland, their 15-acre property cloistered in the Pacific Northwest’s temperate rainforest.
The hexagonal cabin comes to a pinnacle at 22 feet off the ground.
The property will consist of six to eight "fantastical cabins" alongside the Diamond Cabin. Underwood and Witzling have already constructed a wardrobe cabin, a pump house cabin, a wood-fired hot tub, and they are working on their "cabin castle"—a single-family home that they say "is actually three crazy little cabins connected by floating hallways." We can’t wait to see it!
The Diamond Cabin lights up at night like a lantern in the woods.
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