This Modern Stone Cabin Looks Like It Belongs in Middle-Earth

London-based firm McLean Quinlan was asked to create a vacation home that could take advantage of its spectacular location outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming, while also blending in. The resulting design "unites elements of both European chalet and classic American cabin," says the firm. Architect Fiona McLean travelled the area for inspiration and especially appreciated the Cunningham Cabin, an 1888 Appalachian-style ranch house in Grand Teton National Park.

Now, the long and low-slung home is nestled into its four-acre site. For the interior, McLean Quinlan limited the materials palette to fir and hemlock, then balanced the wood with soft white plaster walls and stone accents. Substantial openings frame the panoramic canyon views. By aligning the openings in the main living area, they created a pass-through effect, successfully seeming to merge the new home with its landscape. 

The home has an unobtrusive silvered cedar shingle roof and an exterior composed of stone, the latter of which took two years for masons to complete. McLean told Architectural Digest of the choice: "The stone, which is from Montana, gives the house a European feel in some ways and also this sense of sitting very firmly in the landscape." The architects anticipate that lichen and sagebrush will grow on the stone and up around the house, to truly marry the home with the spectacular setting over time. 

Project Credits:

-Design: McLean Quinlan

-Executive Architect: Berlin Architects 

-Structural Engineer: G&S Structural Engineers 

-M&E: CN Engineers 

-Landscape Design: Verdone Landscape Architects 

-Contractor: North Fork Builders Inc 

-Lighting Design: Becca Foster Lighting Design

-Photographers: Peter Cook, David Angello