A tranquil Wyoming log cabin with an unexpected French sophistication
Log cabins are inherently romantic buildings, conjuring up the drama of the American frontier and the ghosts of innumerable pioneers carving out a life in the wild landscape. But a romantic building is not necessarily a practical one, as Lisa Flood well knows. Four years ago, her Wyoming cabin almost didn’t make it through the winter. The 1950s log structure, designed for the brief Teton summer, had suffered severe water damage. “It’s not great for winter,” explains Lisa, “which is nine months out of the year here. I was down to seven walls and half a roof.” Another cabin on her land, a 1980s addition, was found to have snow leaking into its foundations. “The wrecking ball was on its way,” she recalls, ready to tear the building down.
Luckily, her husband hadn’t arranged the right paperwork for the demolition, and was out of town at the time. The cabin was granted a stay of execution, and gradually, Lisa lost her nerve, before coming round to the idea of a full renovation. And thank goodness she did: when the snowdrifts mass against the base of the cabin’s log walls, set against a view up the Teton Pass that would stun even Rooster Cogburn, Lisa’s house is one of the most poetic and characterful east of the Rockies.
Originally from San Francisco, Lisa moved to Wyoming after college in 1989. Over the course of a career working in journalism, she has developed a profound love of the Western lifestyle, the cowboys and cowgirls, the fresh air and the magnificent landscape. She moved into her current house near the “teeny tiny Western town” of Wilson (population: 1,482) in 1992 while working for the Jackson Hole News. When she finally decided to embark on its renovation, she found her interior designer, Emily Janak, online. “I found Emily on Instagram, and biked over to her own cabin, which she was remodelling at the time., I saw her working up on the roof, pregnant, and thought: ‘I have to hire this girl.’”
The pair bonded over their shared enthusiasm for the traditional log cabin, and both were committed to retaining the intimate feel of the old structure, while making the interiors work better for Lisa and her family. Despite the previous bad prognosis for the 1980s cabin, Emily says she “felt passionate that if the bones are decent enough, we should keep them.” They tore out the middle of the “chopped up and cold” 1950s cabin, to make the space lighter and more open, and built an extension to connect it to the 1980s structure, turning the disparate buildings into a single cohesive house with three distinct parts. “Everything is connected, but we still have private spaces,” Lisa explains.
Despite their love of traditional Western style, neither Lisa and Emily wanted the cabin to feel like a pastiche, and consciously avoided some of the cutesier cowboy-style clichés. “I didn’t want antler chandeliers like everyone else in a cabin,” explains Lisa. Both she and Emily are equally comfortable in the very different world of French interior design; Lisa’s mother and aunt were both interior designers; her mother had worked with Sister Parish and her aunt owned cats called Brunschwig and Fils. The Western elements of the cabin, then, would be leavened with the lightness and elegance of France. The most striking instance of this is the use of Atelier Vime’s graceful rattan pendant chandeliers instead of those ubiquitous antlers Though it was a feat getting them from Provence, as Lisa admits, “The rattan is fabulous because it echoes the hay that was in the field [behind the cabin in summer].”
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Throughout the cabin, fabrics and wallpapers, mostly found in Paris, bring colour and pattern to the wooden backdrop of the cabin. The duo spent four days in Paris together, just before Covid hit, browsing Déco Off and other design haunts and flea markets, and collecting fabrics for the house, including an exquisite Antoinette Poisson design for the bedroom curtains. They also saw the Pierre Frey archives while they were in France, and decided to bring back the ‘Espalier’ pattern for the cabin’s extension. Emily convinced Lisa to reupholster some of her valuable collection of antique Western furniture; two armchairs by the renowned Wyoming-based designer Thomas Molesworth are now covered in what Emily calls a “crazy Schumacher fabric”. “Those chairs were gutsy,” agrees Lisa. A lifelong desire on her part to own a pink sofa was also fulfilled when the pair agreed to cover her mid-century Dunbar sofa. These touches lighten, but do not detract from, the overall feel of the house, which still revolves around the aesthetics and the practicalities of Wyoming life.
One of Lisa’s favourite elements of the new layout is a new wall in the entrance hall that creates storage for the family’s extensive assortment of outdoor gear, from ski boots to fishing tackle. The entrance also houses Lisa’s collection of vintage cowboy books – an overflow from the library – and a painting of two cowgirls”. More Molesworth furniture came from Fighting Bear Antiques in Jackson (Lisa was writing a book on Molesworth when she first moved to Jackson in ‘92; she describes her dealer as “the world authority” on the designer). The house incorporates club chairs from an old ranch in Montana called Two Dot Ranch, and a step stool from Alan Simpson’s library in Cody (Simpson represented Wyoming in the senate from 1979 to 1997) with a bow-legged cowboy on it. Lisa still owns her grandfather’s white angora chaps (“he wore them to my rehearsal dinner and took them off and gave them to me”) and her father’s spurs, and the house features Navajo rugs that she has accumulated over the years.
All these Western pieces are typical of the house’s tasteful incorporation of cowboy motifs; they’re not overwhelming, but they give the house its distinct character. Perhaps they’re an example of what Thoreau called “the tonic of wildness”; either way, it’s these details that make Lisa’s house unique, intimate and perfectly in keeping with its Western surroundings.
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Lisa Flood1/11The wallpaper on the stairs is Pierre Frey, beautifully contrasting the Americana of Lisa’s cowboy hat collection and vintage silver bridle with elegant Parisian design. The hat stand is an early Old Hickory, Martinsville, Indiana piece from the Teton Antique Fair. The pig was found in Austin, Texas by Cecelia Heffernan of Flower Hardware, and offered to Lisa. “I absolutely adore it!” she says.
Lisa Flood2/11To add colour to the main living space and kitchen, Lisa and Emily reupholstered a Dunbar sofa in pink fabric. The swing was a housewarming gift from Emily to Lisa made by the Oak & Rope Company, a British woodworking firm that specializes in oak engravings. During the remodel, the cabin’s fireplace was lost, so Lisa and Emily moved the old stove into the living space, in front of windows with a view over Fish Creek Road and Glory Bowl, where Lisa and her family like to ski.
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Lisa Flood5/11The interior walls of the 1950s cabin were removed to make a lighter, more open space. The lamp on the left is a 1930s industrial lamp from Paris purchased from Lisa’s friend, Cecelia Heffernan of Flower Hardware in Jackson Hole (@flowerhardware). The table between the sofas is covered in a hand-embroidered, atlas silk Suzani from Uzbekistan, purchased from Slightly East in New York.
Lisa Flood6/11The curtains at this window – which is frequented by the local moose population – are “Pomona” by Lisa Fine. Reclaimed saddle stools provide formal dining seating in the evenings, while also offering a place to strap on ski boots in the mornings. Lisa inherited the Welsh dresser from her grandmother, and uses it to display vintage Yellowstone National Park plates she found in an antique fair in Teton Village in Jackson Hole. There are also a number of her favourite vintage Western books on the shelves, including novels by Zane Grey and cowboy and cowgirl memoirs, some of which were supplied by Foxtail Books (@foxtailbooks).
Lisa Flood7/11The chairs around the table are Chiavari ballroom chairs dressed with fabric from House & Parties. The rattan pendant chandelier above the table is from Atelier Vime. “I wanted something more unique, original, feminine,” says Lisa.
Lisa Flood8/11“It became clear to me that the new part of the cabin at the entrance needed to feel intimate and inviting, so we added a wall to divide the space,” says Emily. Behind the wall is a room housing Lisa’s collection of vintage cowboy books, and space to keep skis, snow boots and other outdoor gear.
Lisa Flood9/11The spurs were a gift from Lisa’s friend Mary Schmitt of Cayuse Western Americana. They were made by Ricarda McCleary Clause, a cowgirl and spur maker from Oregon recognized as one of the first contemporary cowgirl bit and spur makers. Mary and Lisa worked together on the U.S. National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and Lisa also bought the 1920s boots from her. The 1950s Western shirt was a gift from antique expert and dealer Terry Winchell at Fighting Bear.
Lisa Flood10/11The curtains in Lisa’s master bedroom are Antoinette Poisson “Jaipur” fabric, which Lisa and Emily bought together at Déco Off during their Paris expedition.
Lisa Flood11/11The chandelier was reclaimed from the old cabin; Lisa bought it in the Teton Village antique fair. It hangs over a Waterworks tub. Beside the bath is an antique stool which Emily recovered in Antoinette Poisson “Mézières” fabric sourced at Déco Off in Paris.
