Today's timber frame homes are historical and contemporary, relevant and vigorous. Flexible in design and inherently beautiful, they give evidence to the fact that the centuries-old craft of timber framing has returned as a practical and environmentally sensitive building technique.


A modern timber frame is like a large piece of furniture, intended to be both visible and appreciated. While the exterior can be designed to fit public requirements or expectations, the interior is always a unique and personalized work of art. Interior spaces can be open, airy, and light-filled or cozy interior chambers made more comfortable by the warmth of the timbers.

Typically, these houses are built out of larger timbers, joined together with mortise and tenon joints and wooden pegs. By comparison, a modern "stick-built" house is a collection of nominal 2 x 4 pieces joined together with nails.

The interior of a timber frame house can (and usually does) have the timbers exposed. This creates a much different feeling than the inside of a stick built house; it feels stronger, cozier and more honest.

In the old days, trees would be felled in the forest, dragged out, then the timbers hewn and sawn to appropriate sizes. These days, timbers can be ordered directly from local accommodating sawmills.