Budget Breakdown: For $213K, a Creative Couple Remodel a Cozy California Cabin—Without Drywall
Color and vintage furnishings make this 1977 gem "feel like a hug."
Color and vintage furnishings make this 1977 gem "feel like a hug."
When it came to overhauling a small cabin in Twin Peaks, California, Emily Kopp knew exactly where she wanted to start: "We’re doing a banquette," Emily remembers saying to her partner, David Brooks, on their first visit.
The creative couple—she’s an interior designer with Studio Shamshiri, and he’s a director specializing in stop-motion animation—are both Los Angeles transplants that started looking for a cabin respite outside of the city in 2022. "We dated a lot of houses. We were not into them," jokes Emily. Then they met this 1977 gem, which had more to work with, even with less than 1,000 square feet across its two floors.
$7,941.84 | $15,435.50 | $15,785 |
$2,441.36 | $7,223.55 Electrical | $4,911.12 |
$5,550 | $18,085.35 | $5,712.56 |
$2,934.38 | $4,215 | $19,349.63 |
$6,371.97 | $12,914.98 | $5,000 |
$708.65 | $1,202.50 | $1,100 Shower Glass |
$6,605 | $69,577 | |
| Grand Total:$213,065 | ||
Before: Front Exterior
Emily Kopp and David Brooks bought this mountain cabin in Twin Peaks, California, to take advantage of its proximity to Lake Arrowhead, while only being a 1.5-hour drive from their home base in Los Angeles.
Photo by Emily Kopp
After: Front Exterior
The couple’s remodel included replacing all the windows and doors, which was a substantial portion of the budget.
Photo by Rick LaRocca
On their first visit, the couple liked the cabin’s unique approach across a foot bridge that wraps the trunk of a mature tree and the squat gambrel roof. "I love an A-frame, but A-frames feel more like a cathedral in a way," says David. "This house feels like a cozy little hug."
Inside, exposed wood ceilings give much more height than the exterior conveys, while the rest of the finishes were standard ’70s fare, including laminate kitchen counters, vinyl-paneled walls, beige wall-to-wall carpet, and crumbling drywall. The couple’s redo includes color, vintage furniture, and not a speck of drywall, all without overwhelming the features that they wanted to keep, like a fireplace corner in the living room and wood beams.
"I personally wanted something bright and colorful, as we’ve been swimming in a sea of beige interiors for way too long," says Emily. "We loved that it had a manageable floor plan and it seemed like a renovation that we could tackle without having panic attacks."
Before: Kitchen
The cabin is 960 square feet across two floors, so the plan was to keep the kitchen and bathrooms in place to save on budget.
Photo by Emily Kopp
See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: For $213K, a Creative Couple Remodel a Cozy California Cabin—Without Drywall
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