Native to North America, the American chestnut tree was not only favored for its nut harvest and easily worked, rot-resistant wood, but also for its coarse texture and beautiful golden and honey brown hues. It is the latter that has made the tree popular in design. A now-extinct tree hardwood, the America chestnut fell victim to chestnut blight (a fungal disease), making the material more treasured than ever. When Jamie Pfeffer, of Pfeffer Torode Architecture, purchased a piece of land in Summertown, TN, he made sure to value the farm’s cabin for its American chestnut construction. “The key starting point for the project was the existing log cabin with American chestnut logs,” Jamie says. “The question was how to use the 1880s log framing while keeping it as something special and sacred. We kept all of the logs and layout intact, and we accented the existing historic construction by bringing in life and volume.”
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originally published on styleblueprint.com
