Textured with a mesquite wood front door, heavy stone base, rough-sawn timber siding with two-inch chinking, metal standing seam roof and angled two-car garage with low-slung rooflines, Bear Tooth Lodge boasts authentic rustic charms.

“This plan revolves around an efficient main floor that’s not very big, but lives really large,” noted architect Wayne Visbeen, AIA, IIDA, of Grand Rapids-based Visbeen Associates Inc.

Here, a grand kitchen featuring diamond-shaped cabinetry reveals copper strapping around the hood and a gracious island opens to a centered great room with high vaulted ceiling and natural log columns; the ceiling then slopes over an adjoining rear living space with inviting stone fireplace and four windows topped by six transoms that offer an expansive, open view of woods or water.

“A 286-square-foot loft above the kitchen overlooks the great room,” Visbeen said. “It can be accessed by a hidden rolling ladder, which lends it fun tree house character and makes it an especially great play room or place to read. ”

To the right of the vaulted great room floats a 12-foot by 18-foot dining room, surrounded on three sides by ample glass to create outdoor room ambience. Homeowners can opt for either an indoor/outdoor fireplace on this gathering space’s right wall, or choose an exterior unit that adds inviting appeal to the plan’s wrap-around deck and two covered and/or screened porches.

The other side of the great room opens through log columns into the home’s ample foyer and a spacious mudroom. This space — equipped with washer and dryer, lockers, recharging station, boot bench, closets and half bath — integrates a stairway to the walk-out lower level. Homeowners can also retreat beyond the foyer into a private master suite that opens to the deck and view.

“The lower level offers an additional three bedrooms, game room and home theatre,” Visbeen noted. “It’s a perfect walk-out for a cabin built onto a wooded sloped site, with equally great indoor and outdoor living spaces. ”

To learn more, visit www.visbeen.biz or call (616) 285-9901 and ask for Michigan BLUE cottages.

MICHIGAN BLUE LAKESTYLE COTTAGE FLOOR PLAN IS A COPYRIGHT OF VISBEEN ASSOCIATES INC. AND IS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH MICHIGAN BLUE, MICHIGAN’S LAKESTYLE MAGAZINE.