Ashley Lake House: A Family Retreat Along the Montana Lakefront
Ashley Lake House sits on the wooded edge of Ashley Lake in Flathead County, MT, United States, a contemporary cabin conceived by Workaday for an active family. Two gabled volumes joined by a glass hall balance privacy from the road with wide-open views to the water, turning the house into a calm hub for year-round gatherings. Inside, warm timber and crisp lines keep lake life relaxed yet clearly organized.
Visitors arrive along a quiet drive, where dark-clad gabled forms sit low against the tree line and frame a simple rectangle of lawn. Light glows from tall, narrow entry windows, hinting at the lake beyond without giving away the full view.
Ashley Lake House is a contemporary family cabin in Flathead County, MT, United States, planned by Workaday as two distinct volumes bridged by a transparent hallway. The house is a modern reading of regional cabin forms, using a clear sequence from road to water to choreograph daily life. Plan and circulation carry every move: arrival is tight and sheltered, while movement toward the lake steadily opens up.
Approach And Threshold
From the road side, the composition feels quiet and guarded, with vertical black cladding, a metal gabled roof, and slim windows puncturing the facade. These tall openings cast bands of light into the entry hall and adjacent rooms, giving controlled glimpses out while screening the heart of the house from view. The main door sits within a warm timber pocket, turning the threshold into a small outdoor room before the interior unfolds.
Glass Link To The Lake
Past the entry, a glass hallway stitches the twin gabled structures together and sets up a direct visual axis to the water. This transparent link acts as both connector and pause, letting movement between bedroom wing and living wing pass through light, trees, and changing weather. Floor-to-ceiling glazing keeps the corridor slender yet generous, so even a quick trip between rooms doubles as a moment with the landscape.
Lake-Facing Living Core
The lake side of the house opens wide, with large expanses of glass aligning the main kitchen, dining, and living areas toward the shoreline. A tall stone fireplace volume anchors this central room, its hearth serving both the interior seating and the covered patio just outside. Concrete floors, pale walls, and a warm wood ceiling keep the long gabled room coherent, while built-in cabinetry and a linear kitchen island run parallel to the view. Family life orbits this sequence, from morning coffee at the island to evenings gathered around the fire.
Rooms For Gathering And Retreat
The second gabled volume takes on a more utilitarian role, organizing guest room, bunk room, media room, and garage in a straightforward bar. Circulation here is efficient, with doors stacking along a simple corridor, yet each room carries its own character through color, millwork, and daylight. Built-in bunks line one wall in the bunk room, turning sleeping and play into a compact vertical arrangement that keeps the floor open. Elsewhere, bathrooms pair clean-lined wood cabinetry with tiled walls and slender windows positioned high for both privacy and natural light.
Terraces Down To The Water
Outside the lake-facing gable, a covered patio sits between the main living area and the primary suite, with the double-sided fireplace knit into its stone wall. This outdoor room reads as another node in the circulation, sheltered in timber yet open at both ends to breeze and view. From here, several smaller seating zones step down across stone paving toward the shore, giving the family different perches throughout the day.
By dusk, the black cladding recedes into the trees and the interior volumes read as bands of warm light along the water. Movement from road to fire to lake follows the same clear path, reinforcing the cabin’s simple diagram. The house stays grounded in its gabled outline while daily routines flow easily between rooms, terrace, and shoreline.
Photography courtesy of Workaday
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