Practical beauty

Being a Finnish girl, I have always appreciated simplicity, in both life and design. Scandinavian ingenuity and the creative uses of wood and logs to build furniture and other practical items is very evident at Manninen’s Cabins. In the Depression era, this was perhaps more out of frugality and necessity than art, but it’s amazing how many of these designs have stood the test of time.

Some examples: in the sauna, a slightly lopsided, tripodal, log coat rack holds towels and sauna accessories. Dozens of half-log benches can be seen both in and out of the cabins, some providing sturdy seating for the main dining tables.

Two of my most-loved Christmas presents this year emphasize the beauty of simple design and wood. The first, a tree cutout, is strung with mini white LED lights to create a bright, warm, freestanding silhouette.

The second was a bag of not so extraordinary finished pieces of wood, each about 1” square and a foot tall. What are these for, you ask? They are prop sticks to hold open all those beautiful windows in the cabins!

When you have old-style windows that push up and down, you need something to prop them open. Over the years, a variety of make-shift hunks of wood have been used and occasionally even a wooden spoon or cutting board. These beautiful pieces of wood will now serve that function, again offering a simple, practical solution.

I also love that this was scrap wood from my nephew’s wood shop, repurposed and upcycled now. That’s how my grandparents did it, too.