7BELOW: The best way to come up with your great room design is to clip photos and jot down your likes and dislikes: For example, do you want your fireplace in the middle of the room, against a side wall, in a corner, or anchoring the window wall? 8RIGHT: Great rooms have become a staple of log homes because owners love the combination of an open space, comfy furnishings in front of a roaring fire, and easy access to the outdoors.

BY HATCH-CLOOS PHOTOGRAPHY

HILLTOP LOG HOMES

ing additional diversions: trusses, lofts, stairs, log accent posts and beams, a soaring ceiling and different flooring.

7. Study plans and photos. Trial-and-error wastes time and money. See how others — homeowners and interior pros — have solved the problem of managing space to their liking. Maybe you’ll spot an arrangement you like or that inspires your own imagination.

8. Ignore the problem. It isn’t one. How can wide-open space be a problem if openness is the reason you want a great room? If

that’s your attitude, don’t be talked into a great room you won’t want to live in. Unlike formal living rooms in ordinary houses, great rooms in log homes are where people do most of their living.

These are just starting points for your great-room design. Your budget, house size, outdoor terrain and views, and your furniture — all will determine the look of your great room. The important thing to remember is to plan a great room that best expresses your idea of what a log home should be. CBLH

Make space livable

While you may prefer the drama of a great room with a cathedral ceiling, you also need to feel comfortable, not overwhelmed. Here are three ways to make open living space look warm and inviting and feel comfortable to live in:

• Purchase oversized couches, armchairs, tables and armoires.

• Separate all the furnishings into several groupings to encourage coziness and conversation. Grouping furnishings not only fills up floor space, but also gives rooms a casual, homey feel, even though the room’s proportions may be oversized. Tie together groupings with oversized rugs and runners.

• When all the rooms on the
main level face each other, it helps

that they all reflect one style.

Often the common thread is color. Try to coordinate colors by matching furnishings with the grain of the wood of the logs and floor or with the natural tones in the home’s stone hearth.

• Avoid acoustics problems in large-volume rooms by including sound-absorbing pieces in your décor. One trick decorators use is strategically placing plants (real or simulated) along the walls on either side of a room. The plants act as shock absorbers, taking the edge off of sound, and fill out some of the wall space.

Plants help fill some of the wall space around a great room, take the edge off sound, and add color to the room. (This Pennsylvania family, by the way, owns a greenhouse, so they can be forgiven for going overboard on the greenery!)