My wife and I have completed the construction of our custom log cabin weekend retreat in Stratton Vt. Now we need to focus on the interior, kitchen, bath, great room and sleeping loft. The cabin is only 20x24 with a 12x20 gabled sleeping loft. Our two biggest hurdles have been the kitchen and stairs to the loft. Anyone out there with any advice on how we can best utilize our small space?

Thanks

I would have though all that would have been laid out before you even began building so you did not place the stairs In the way.
With that small a space you kind of stuck with having to buy apartment sized appliances and much smaller furniture.

Exactly. We want to maximize our space and plan on using the apartment sized appliances. Would love and planned on building a marine style galley, but there are very few resources out there to help us visualize various options. Thanks

One simple way is to go by some graph paper, lay out the area you have to work with on one sheet and on another lay out the sizes of cabinet boxes, ref. stove ect. label them and cut them out. Now you can move things around until you get the flow and feel your looking for.
Ikea also has that program you can down load for free for kitchen lay outs. It will show there cabinets but you can get an idea of what's it's going to look like in 3D.

"Da Yoopers" call that a hunting shack for the boys. so you might as well build a ladder with a handrail to get up to the loft. use 2x6 for the rails and you can use 2x8 for the steps, dado, glue and screw. attach to the loft joist using a header board and to the floor with a footer board, using bolts.

once that's up, and ideally you put it to one side so you only need one handrail and it doesn't eat up your precious space, build the handrail and secure it to the floor and the ladder rail.

I would expect you would be finishing it rustically inside, so stain and a matte poly for finish to your tastes.

or using the hardware from a attic fold down stairs
rebuild the stairs, to be exposed ladder.non folding, rustic built.
pull down for loft entry. and push up and out the way for more room

for a kitchen layout plan, go to ho depot, in the cabinet department. give the assoc. your kitchen measurements, they will make a computer generated custom cabinet layout print. for you. with cabinet sizes and position measurements..
did i say you HAD to buy the cabinets from them?
no i did not

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Frodo,