Lake Arrowhead Cabin Build Journey

Lake Arrowhead Cabin Build Journey Building an energy efficient, pet & family friendly vacation home at Lake Arrowhead CA.

05/16/2026

Painting kitchen cabinets was not for the faint of heart. Achieving a smooth, mirror-like finish with just a brush and roller was not easy, but I think we pulled it off pretty well. 🤩

We also built a custom walnut bookshelf and filled the knots with black resin before finishing it with Rubio Monocoat Pure. The walnut added so much warmth, richness, and character to the kitchen, and it’s quickly becoming one of our favorite details.

Now we’re just waiting on the countertops, which should be ready in about three weeks.

Slowly but surely, our kitchen is finally coming together. ✨

05/14/2026

We watched so many YouTube videos to learn how to make faux beams out of foam, but couldn’t find any that had the finished look we were going for. We wanted something that looked realistic and matched the walnut tones of our fireplace. In the end, we decided to follow a method from ChatGPT—even though we still had to figure out a lot of the details ourselves. 😅

The process itself actually isn’t that difficult. The most important part is choosing the right base coat color. I even brought a piece of walnut to Sherwin-Williams so i could find a right paint to match it. The key is the undertone.

If you’re trying to create faux beams that look like white oak, you’ll want to start with a much lighter base coat—something like tan or beige.

I didn’t show the installation process because we have fire sprinklers right next to the beams. Normally, faux beams are secured from the sides, but in our case we had to fasten them from the bottom instead.

Our ceiling design is unusual, so regular faux beams wouldn’t work for this space. Realistically, beams this size would have cost us over $6–7K, so I’m really happy with how these turned out.

I hope this video helps! Feel free to ask if you have any questions 😊

The faux beams are finally done. Next up: the kitchen.While David is building the kitchen island and handling all the pl...
05/11/2026

The faux beams are finally done.

Next up: the kitchen.

While David is building the kitchen island and handling all the plumbing and electrical, I’ve been busy painting the rest of the cabinets. The countertop company is coming next week to take measurements, and things are finally starting to come together.

Last year, I went on a Lake Arrowhead home tour and saw some absolutely stunning properties. One of them had a black leathered countertop, and it was the first time I had ever seen that finish in person. Ever since then, it’s been on my wish list.

Luckily, Lowe’s recently had it on sale for 40% off for a limited time, and somehow I managed to catch the deal at the perfect moment.

05/05/2026

Small wow factor on a small budget

The faux beams are finally up!! 🙌…well, almost 😅 One beam ended up 11” too short. Not sure how we managed that, but a re...
05/05/2026

The faux beams are finally up!! 🙌
…well, almost 😅 One beam ended up 11” too short. Not sure how we managed that, but a replacement is already in the works.

Honestly, the install went smoother than expected. Because of the fire sprinklers, we couldn’t add blocking on the sides like usual—so we had to secure everything from the bottom instead. Not ideal, but it worked.

We also spray-painted all the screws and washers to match the beams so everything blends in. 👌

Like a million other things in this build, these “simple” faux beams turned out to be more complicated than expected—but we made it work, and we love how they turned out.

Decision fatigue is real—but the master bath is finally coming together.The LED mirror really elevates the space. I love...
04/18/2026

Decision fatigue is real—but the master bath is finally coming together.

The LED mirror really elevates the space. I love how the backlighting highlights the subtle texture of the lime wash walls. 😍

Still in progress, these faux beams are primed, painted and ready for glazing tmr.
04/10/2026

Still in progress, these faux beams are primed, painted and ready for glazing tmr.

Can’t wait to see how our faux beam will turn out.
04/03/2026

Can’t wait to see how our faux beam will turn out.

Well, one of the three is happy.
04/02/2026

Well, one of the three is happy.

No, definitely not addicted to her iPhone. Definitely not, especially when giving the dogs a bath in her new dog wash.
04/02/2026

No, definitely not addicted to her iPhone. Definitely not, especially when giving the dogs a bath in her new dog wash.

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Lake Arrowhead, CA
92352

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