This Handmade Castle Cabin Brings Fairytale Vibes to the Pacific Northwest

You'll want to take a closer look at this Castle Cabin with its fairytale vibes located in the Pacific Northwest.

Self-taught builder Jacob Witzling has spent much of the last decade building secret fairytale wood cabins in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. The builder worked primarily with reclaimed building materials and whatever was found onsite, gaining a reputation for creating beautifully unconventional structures with unique shapes, moss-covered roofs, and handcrafted details. Since buying a parcel of land on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, Witzling and his partner Sara Underwood have taken these creations even further, building an entire compound of magical cabins. Shop Tiny Homes

Witzling’s very first cabin, erected on a friend’s property, cost just $800 to build.

Witzling has an experimental approach to building and no fear of taking risks, coming up with ever more ornate designs. One 80-square-foot cabin made of salvaged lumber features an undulating cedar shake roof. Elsewhere, a tiny camper built into the back of a pickup truck boasts complex angles, skylights, and a lofted bed inside. A 200-square-foot diamond-shaped cabin building on the couple’s land has a pointed roof that stretches toward the sky, making it one of the coolest things you’ll ever see in the woods. But nothing tops the Castle Cabin, a series of connected two-story structures measuring a total of 900 square feet.

The crown jewel of Cabinland took 18 months to build, with Witzling, Underwood, and some friends and family members doing most of the work themselves.

Triangular dormers, one of Witzling’s signature elements, poke out of each mossy roof, while the walls are covered in cedar shingles. Short walkways connect each volume to the next, and a private courtyard is tucked away in the center. As you might imagine, the complex geometries of the rooflines create some seriously gorgeous interior ceilings.

Before building the Castle Cabin, Witzling, and Underwood occupied a series of other cabin buildings on the property, sleeping in one and using another as a freestanding closet and dressing room.

Now, the Castle functions as their private home. Details include doors made of red alder, a railing made from salvaged red cedar that was once the subfloor of a collapsed shanty on the property, and all the stunning wood grain you could ever ask for on every interior surface. You'll want to take a look at their videos on YouTube to get a first-hand view of the process.

The Castle Cabin is the couple's forever home and has been a sanctuary to them.

It took the couple 18 months to construct from start to finish and so many people helped along the way. The couple says they have already started working on more projects in the rainforest as well as Cabinland 2.0 in the desert of the Southwest and they look forward to sharing. In their videos, they take you on a tour of the property and the projects they have been working on. The Diamond cabin, the outdoor shower, the hippie hot tub and so much more.