Skip to main content

Two Cabins Combine to Make One Amazing Mountain Home in Colorado

Renée del Gaudio Architecture

If you’re into mountain sports, there are few better places to build your vacation home than the Colorado Rockies. But towns like Vail, Breckenridge, and Aspen are tourist traps at the best times of the year. From the uber-wealthy crowding the streets for festivals in the summer to tourists and Instagrammers clogging the slopes in the winter, it can feel impossible to get the privacy you desire for a vacation home. For a truly relaxing getaway, the best spots are the quiet small towns like Fairplay. And that’s just where Big Cabin, Little Cabin is located.

Renée del Gaudio Architecture

Set on a 10,000-foot cliff above the town, Big Cabin, Little Cabin is a dream getaway for mountain lovers. It has panoramic views of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and the South Platte River. The location allows for easy access to every amazing outdoor activity Colorado has to offer while still providing the quiet solitude you need to unwind at the end of the day. But this isn’t anything like the grand mountain lodges Colorado is known for. Big Cabin, Little Cabin harks back to the early pioneer days of simple utilitarian structures.

Recommended Videos

The creation of Boulder-based architect Renée del Gaudio, Big Cabin, Little Cabin is a study in tradition, family, and nature. There was a desire to create a home that honored traditional cabins, allowed the family to make lasting memories, and also preserve as much of the natural landscape of the build site as possible. Through clever solutions and rustic materials, del Gaudio was able to do just that.

Big Cabin, Little Cabin’s is comprised of two separate structures, a large cabin for the main rooms and a small cabin for the children’s bedrooms. Set on isolated pier foundations, the cabins are raised up off of the ground, preserving the land while also allowing for spring runoff to flow freely underneath. A large open grate steel deck connects the two structures. The clever use of this material as decking helps prevent snow from piling up in the winter while at the same time allowing visitors to stomp the snow off their boots before going inside.

Renée del Gaudio Architecture

Outside, the simplistic architecture of the cabins is beautifully enhanced by the cedar siding, stained dark to match a forest to the north. Inside, the simple style continues with plywood walls and exposed wooden ceiling beams. Big Cabin is the main building, housing the open plan family room and the master suite. There is also a gym and a sauna. The open family room includes a Scandinavian style kitchen, rustic industrial dining table, and a sitting area that features with wood burning fireplace and stylish mid-century modern loungers. The master suite includes the bedroom and spa-like bathroom, complete with a soaking tub set in front of windows looking out to the forest.

Big Cabin, Little Cabin isn’t just a stylish mountain getaway. It’s also highly energy efficient. In the family room, walls of sliding glass face south, soaking up the heat in the winter and letting in cooling breezes in the summer. The basic rectangular shape of the cabins was one of the keys in helping to keep the spaces low-energy. It allowed for del Gaudio to carefully place casement windows that create cross breezes when open. In the winter, along with solar heat, the cabins are kept warm using radiant heat flooring powered by a 96-percent efficiency boiler and the fireplace in the family room. The home is also 100-percent solar-powered.

By looking back to tradition and keeping it simple, del Gaudio showed that a home doesn’t have to be grandiose to be special.   

Kelsey Machado
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kelsey is a professional interior designer with over a decade of experience in the design field. With a passion for…
8 shows like You that are just as addictive and twisted
You may be over, but there are plenty of other murder dramas right around the corner
Penn Badgley looking ominous as Joe Goldberg

After five seasons of twists, murders, and weird obsessions, Joe Goldberg's story on Netflix's You has come to a close. The crime drama has been a staple on the streamer with its mix of great characters and binge-worthy mystery that makes it feel like the best parts of a true crime documentary you'd watch on Oxygen on a rainy Saturday afternoon while you're sick. While it might not have been the best show on Netflix, You was a great way to get sucked into a different world with interesting storylines for several hours each season.

If you're already missing the soapy, addictive drama of You, we have plenty of similar shows for you to watch next. They range from Emmy-worthy Golden Age dramas to junk-food style crime mysteries that follow parallel themes and arcs to the Netflix hit. These are the shows like You to watch next.

Read more
10 cigar myths the internet won’t let die
The cigar 'facts' shared in every lounge that are actually complete BS
two men enjoying cigars

The internet has been such an asset to the cigar world. It allows us to look up obscure brands, communicate with fellow fans across the globe, and access a greater amount of information than ever before. There's a downside, though: rumors catch on like wildfire, and once they're out there, they're nearly impossible to get rid of.Visit any cigar lounge or read online forums, and you'll find the same tired myths that have been making the rounds for decades. While a few are harmless pieces of folklore, others are robbing you of your hard-earned cash, ruining your smoking experience, or just flat-out lying to you about health hazards.Let's burn down those stubborn misconceptions once and for all.

Myth #1: Darker (Maduro) cigars are always more powerful

Read more
Cigar etiquette 101: Dos, don’ts, and modern manners
Please don't be that guy. Here are the cigar etiquette mistakes that scream 'amateur'
well-dressed guy smoking on a couch in the dark

Walking into a cigar lounge for the first time feels like crashing somebody's secret club. They've got this unspoken language, weird rituals, and enough unwritten rules to make your head spin! But here’s the thing—cigar etiquette is not some gatekeeping nonsense to try to make you look dumb. It's about respecting the process, the experience, and not being the person who ruins everyone else's vibe.Whether you're new to this or have been faking for years, this guide will sort you out because there's nothing more likely to ruin a good smoke than someone who clearly has no idea what they're doing.

The basics: Respecting the ritual

Read more