Stone, Limewash, and Bare Branches: Skog Comes Into Focus
The leaves are down in western Maine. The hillside behind Skog has gone to gray trunks, hemlock green, and a rust-colored forest floor. With the canopy open, morning light comes straight through the kitchen window and lands on something new: the countertops.
Last time we checked in, Skog’s kitchen was walnut and not much else. Since then it has picked up its stone and its color, and most of what makes a kitchen feel like somewhere to linger over coffee. Here’s a closer look.
The kitchen gets its stone
The tops are Fantasy White granite, with long gray streaks running the length of each piece like wind-blown snow or birch bark. Against the walnut it reads cool and bright. That contrast is exactly what we wanted for Skog: mid-century warmth with a little edge.
The long run under the window is where we expect guests to end up. It’s a deep, uninterrupted stretch of counter facing the woods, with the ledge we uncovered in September framed in the glass. Skog gets the morning sun, so this is the spot for the first cup of the day.
The upper cabinets and the tall fridge tower are in at the end of the kitchen. The island has its sink now, a deep white single bowl set under the stone.
Stacked on the island are the drawer boxes for the walnut cabinetry, with real joinery at the corners, waiting to be assembled and hung. You only notice a detail like that when you pull a drawer open and it feels solid in your hand. That’s the point.
Limewash, everywhere
Every wall in Skog is now limewashed. (We wrote about why we love limewash in our October 10 post.) In Skog it’s a muted sage, and the texture is what you see first. There are soft clouds of lighter and darker tone, and brush marks that catch the raking morning light, then go flat and velvety by evening. No two walls look quite the same.
In the bedroom, the stacked windows on the tall wall pull the trees right into the room. With the walls this color, the green outside and the green inside start to blur together. That’s about as close to the name as we could get: skog is Norwegian for forest.
The bathroom
The bathroom floor is down: large-format terrazzo, with chips of cream, black, rust, and gray set in charcoal. It’s the most playful surface in the cabin, and it’s very Skog. The tub is set, and the vanity is in, wrapped in plastic until the dust settles. The same muted sage limewash carries into the bathroom.
The tub surround is still open to the studs. Shower tile is next.
What’s left before December
Skog is on track to finish in early-December, and that date isn’t flexible: guests are already booked for late December. Between now and then:
- Flooring over the concrete slab
- Kitchen tile and shower tile
- The ceiling (that’s the insulation netting overhead in these photos)
- Doors, trim, and final plumbing
- Soffit and roofing outside
- Building the deck
The first furniture has started arriving too, so the next time you see these rooms, they should look a lot more lived-in.
Meanwhile at Alpen
Over at Alpen, the lights have gone up. Outside, brass lanterns with alabaster panels now hang against the black siding. In daylight the stone shows its veining. After dark it glows warm and soft, the first thing you’ll see pulling in after a day on the mountain.
Around the corner, a tall fluted brass sconce sits over the new landscaping: river stone, a young arborvitae, and a boulder pulled from the site. In the bedroom, a pair of milk-glass sconces in aged brass hang on the limewashed wall, the kind of light you read by before bed.
Alpen is on target to finish at the end of November.
Stay in Skog
Skog sleeps up to four, with its own sauna, hot tub, fire pit, fireplace, and radiant floors. It’s open for pre-booking now, and code PREBOOK takes 20% off any stay booked before HAVN opens.
Find your havn,
Tyler & Chloe
