Lauren Blanford, owner of the Lost Woods glamping and event center in Northern Michigan, was looking for something unique to add to her site. She had started the compound with some spacious canvas tents and later added an A-frame cabin. But in an area where ski slopes and snowshoe trails abound, Lauren wanted a singular attraction that no one else in the area had, one that could be inhabited year-round. The answer: a geodesic dome, equipped with heat for the colder months, that welcomed its first guests last March. It was a “major level up,” she says.

The dome itself was ordered from Polish company FDomes. The primary variable was the amount of insulation that should be included, and Lauren needed all she could get. “The cost of the insulation was about the same as what we paid for the structure,” she notes.

For the interior, she turned to local design firm SpotLab. Lauren was impressed by SpotLab’s ability to blend order and creativity in small spaces. At a little under 400 square feet, the dome needed to pack a lot into a tiny area, but in a coherent and tranquil way befitting the rustic-luxury-with-bear-spray environs. The first thing SpotLab designed and built was a bathroom and kitchenette unit, consolidating the most complicated and space-hungry programs and letting everything else orbit around them. The self-contained volume felt like a “big custom piece of cabinetry,” says cofounder Zeb Burge, who focuses on the construction side of the design-build company.

The smooth edges on the bathroom and kitchenette unit call out to be touched and “pull you through the space,” Burge says. Subtle details echo the dome’s geometric shape, like the small, curved bedside shelves and an arcing pocket door carved from solid white oak. Shelving appears when one of the bathroom or kitchen unit walls ducks into another, creating a narrow cavity for dishes, a teapot, and a bear horn. The bathroom is pushed next to, but not quite against, the edge of the dome, keeping the skylight at the center free and clear and the perimeter of the interior open.

“Everything has a place,” says Lauren. Plopping a mini fridge on the floor across from a space heater would “make it seem more like camping,” she adds. “I wanted it to feel more intentional.”

To keep a sense of spaciousness, “it was important to use as few materials as possible,” says Burge’s partner, Tessa French. Oak cladding and floors are uniform. A deep-purple tile defines the kitchenette, and burnt-orange tile covers the bathroom. White plumbing fixtures match the white frame of the dome.

“We tried to capture every square inch of space possible and make it usable.”
–Tessa French, designer

But on the dome’s hillside site, there’s no escaping the outdoors. In the fall, a field of wildflowers seen through a panoramic window contrasts with the monochromatic dome—gray fabric on the inside and waterproof architectural PVC on the outside—and creates a cloistered feeling of depth and color. Beyond, paintbrush strokes of fall foliage get richer as the sun lowers onto the horizon. There is a series of trails spread across Lost Woods’ acres; apple trees and blackberry bushes augment what’s stored in the kitchenette.

The subtle, slow drama of the landscape finds its match inside the dome—no wasted space, no visual noise. “People are here to truly disconnect,” Lauren says. “I want guests to lie in bed and look through the skylight,” a connection between heaven and earth in this retreat from the rest of the world.

Project Credits:

Interior Design, Builder, and Cabinetry: SpotLab / @spotlabdesign

Geodesic Kit Manufacturer: FDomes / @fdomes

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In Northern Michigan, a Geodesic Dome Offers Visitors an Escape Pod From Daily Life