When your cabin is deep in the forest, in one of the rainiest communities in the country—the surf town of Ucluelet, B.C., sits on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island in a temperate rainforest—your outdoor spaces aren’t the sunbathing destinations you might have in a more open landscape, seen further east. “The truth is, there’s so much precipitation on the west coast of the island,” says owner and photographer Kamil Bialous. “And we’re not worried at all about solar heat gain. We’re deep in the forest—we’ll take all the heat we can get, even in the middle of summer.”
Kamil and his partner, Urszula Lipsztajn, had their 500-square-foot cabin in the woods built to be as space-efficient as possible on the inside—two bedrooms, a bathroom large enough that they wouldn’t be bumping into each other, and an open kitchen and living area. But the covered deck outside is very much a part of extending that living area, even on a rainy evening.
Four skylights in the cedar-lined roof overhead make the most of the deep forest’s muted sunlight, and in one corner, a woodstove keeps things toasty when the sun drops altogether. Sliding shutters behind the stove open on a warm and breezy summer night and contain the fire’s heat when cooler weather settles in.
And while cedar floorboards might be the traditional choice for a cottage deck, the couple opted for a thincoat of concrete poured over the floor joists instead. “Cedar is great and fairly accessible here, but it still needs replacing,” says Kamil. It also tends to get slick with algae this deep in the rainforest, he notes. “And with the woodstove, it made sense to go with a non-combustible floor.”
A two-seater sofa, a couple of chairs, and a coffee table outfit the space, and for surfing folks like this couple, who like to take advantage of the outdoors year-round, a small barbecue. “It’s maybe a little too much of a squeeze, space-wise, but it’s important,” says Kamil.
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