Lake House in Casco: A Rustic Showcase of Eastern White Pine

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Built by M.R. Brewer using lumber from Hancock and featured on Houzz, this showcase of Eastern White Pine is a total dream home. Designed with a rustic mountain style that fits right into the forested setting, the craftsman-style home features Eastern White Pine exterior siding, as well as Eastern White Pine interior paneling, trim and wall coverings. The architects painted the siding graphite gray for a rocky tone that echoes the stone hardscaping outside, with a deep fir green trim accented by hints of a complementary golden brown.

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Entitled ‘Lake House in Casco,’ the home is a treasure trove of custom millwork showing off the capabilities of Eastern White Pine. Nearly every interior surface, short of the countertops and chimney, is made of wood, with the pine’s characteristic knots adding a dynamic sense of texture to the overall composition of the home.

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Hancock Lumber and M.R. Brewer are both based in Portland, Maine. Check out a full gallery of this extraordinary residence at the builder’s website.

White Pine Architecture: Beautiful Barns by Keystone

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The versatility of white pine lends itself to all sorts of architectural applications, from crisp modern beach houses and complex ceiling designs in gymnasiums to its more traditional uses in rural New England-style farmhouses and barns. Here are some examples of the latter via Keystone Barns, a Pennsylvania company specializing in custom barns with beautifully finished interiors.

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Many of these barns are built using Eastern White Pine, including gorgeous tongue-and-groove boards that give each structure a warmth and comforting sense of simplicity. Some are left unfinished for a more rustic look, while others are just as lovingly crafted as full-scale houses.

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And if you love the look of barns so much you’d like to claim a livable version as your own abode, Keystone also builds homes with barn-inspired aesthetics. Options include car garages, lofts, apartments and lean-tos as well as barns and sheds designed specifically for livestock purposes. See more at KeystoneBarns.com.

Cabin Chic: Eastern White Pine Furniture by Black Forest Decor

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The soft to medium density and fine, straight grain of Eastern White Pine makes it an ideal material for furniture making. This sustainable softwood takes stain beautifully and allows woodworkers to achieve incredible ornamental details. Black Forest Decor makes a range of furniture items including coat racks, chairs, bar stools, cupboards and more out of Eastern White Pine.

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Full of rustic charm, these pieces would fit right in at a cabin, farmhouse or casual country home – or bring a little bit of that feel into more contemporary spaces. The antique stain brings out all of the knots and character in the pine. Many of these furniture and decor items are printed with wilderness scenes.

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Eastern White Pines produce the most valuable softwood lumber in the Eastern United States, and furniture-grade pine is largely smooth with just enough knots to give it that outdoorsy character. The size, ease of use and wide availability of Eastern White Pine has made it a historic furniture material in the U.S. since the first colonists arrived in New England.

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See more at Black Forest Decor.

Dartmouth’s Rustic Lodge made of 20 Local Eastern White Pines

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Twenty Eastern White Pines logged locally in Vermont were used to create a 12-bunk crew cabin at Dartmouth Outing Club’s Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. Built in 2010 by Dartmouth’s Class of ’84 alumni as well as current students, the new lodge is located 50 miles from the college campus in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The nearby Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, built in the 1930s, is a getaway for students and faculty, and rents rooms to the public.

The new crew cabin houses student workers from Dartmouth, who come to Mount Moosilauke during the summer to cook, clean, and help with the upkeep of the lodge, which averages 5,000 guests per year. A group of five Class of 1984 architects led the project, reworking the original concept of the cabin into a “model of sustainable design.” In addition to the use of local Eastern White Pine, the builders used natural lighting, ventilation from high windows, on-demand water heating and FSC-certified siding.

Fitting in with the rustic nature of the lodge and the mountain setting, the crew cabin is lined with light-stained pine. Robin Meyers, a 2010 graduate, says of the cabin, “It’s luxurious. The previous loft was above the lodge’s kitchen and it was pretty dark and cramped. Here, it’s spacious and there are a lot of windows. It still even has that smell of freshly cut wood.”

About 80 volunteers led by David Hooke Class of ’84, a professional carpenter, took an intensive timber-framing workshop and spent 10 work weekends or about 1,500 hours on the project.