- 6/20/2025
Today, AD is welcomed by Rhett and Jessie McLaughlin to tour their woodland cabin in North Carolina. After 15 years living in Los Angeles, where Jessie runs her design firm, Jessie Lane Interiors, and Rhett co-leads Mythical Entertainment, the couple wanted a place to bring family together back home. The result? A storybook log cabin in the woods, lovingly renovated and designed by Jessie herself to feel like you’re stepping into a fairytale or daydream. “When people walk in the door, I don’t want them to know when they are or where they are…I really want it to feel like a storybook.”
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00AD, welcome to our North Carolina cabin in the woods.
00:04You know, you really should talk to my wife, Jessie,
00:05about this, though.
00:08I swear she was here just a moment ago.
00:11Here I am, come on in, y'all.
00:13We're so happy to have you.
00:14She's so little, sometimes I just, she goes missing.
00:30So we're based in Los Angeles, California,
00:34where we make Good Mythical Morning
00:36and everything else at Mythical Entertainment.
00:38But both of us have all of our family here in North Carolina.
00:43We've been married a long time, coming up on 24 years.
00:46Is that how long it's been?
00:47It feels like 24 months.
00:4924 days.
00:51It feels like we're still on a honeymoon.
00:53So we wanted to get a place, you know,
00:55put down a root or two or some logs.
00:58It's a log cabin.
00:58Big logs, they're very big logs.
01:00I'm an interior designer.
01:01So when I saw this, I immediately had a big vision for it.
01:06When you walk into this house,
01:07it feels like a storybook or a fairy tale.
01:09And I wanted people to not know when they are or where they are.
01:14You wanted people to feel disoriented.
01:16Yeah, exactly, exactly.
01:19One of my favorite things in the house is this clock.
01:22It was my grandma's.
01:24It sat in the entryway of her home.
01:26And every time I opened her door,
01:28I saw this clock and she passed away.
01:31She would have been a hundred this year,
01:33but it's really special to me.
01:35And there are touches of my grandma all throughout the house.
01:38I've got her rugs and items that I saw in her house daily.
01:43And so it's really special to me to feel her here.
01:46It's always 8.09 in this house.
01:49No matter when.
01:50We have not gotten the clock.
01:51What time is it?
01:518.09.
01:52It's 8.09, PM, AM, I don't know.
01:55You're disoriented right now.
01:56Maybe 8.09 is a special time.
01:58These pieces are from a local antique shop that I love, Whitehall Antiques.
02:04And these are actually made from old frames,
02:07pieces of frames that didn't get used.
02:09Each one is unique and then they find little trinkets to put on each frame.
02:14And so people have huge collections.
02:16I'm just starting mine, but they're called Museum Bees and they make me really happy.
02:20I hope to have this whole wall filled someday.
02:23And who put them on the wall in that pattern?
02:25Is he here?
02:26Is it me?
02:27Is it me?
02:28Yes.
02:29I did.
02:30And we made it through that afternoon.
02:33It was a little rough.
02:34What?
02:35It was a little...
02:36No, it was wonderful.
02:37There were some words back and forth.
02:38It was a bonding experience.
02:39But we made it.
02:40This is the kitchen, which is probably the room that was transformed the most from what
02:58it looked like.
02:59When Jesse first described this to me, I was like, I don't understand what you're talking
03:03about.
03:04You're going to have to show it to me.
03:06And I didn't understand until I saw it.
03:08But I showed it to you a lot because I remember I would show you each new iteration of the
03:13drawing and you would say, we're still working on this.
03:16Yeah.
03:17You're still not done.
03:18When I was looking at all of this incredible Art Nouveau carving, we wanted to figure out
03:23a way to kind of make that happen here.
03:25Put some accent pieces, give it some oomph with molding.
03:29This area frames the stove so beautifully and feels a little bit like a window looking out
03:35into nature.
03:37The first thing that I found that kind of sent me on my way with this kitchen was this incredible
03:43Brazilian quartzite.
03:44When I saw this stone, I thought about all the trees in North Carolina.
03:49It's known as being a super green state.
03:52Jesse looked at so many pieces of stone to make this decision.
03:58I honestly don't know what she's looking for when she goes and looks at the stone.
04:04It's a stone je ne sais quoi.
04:05I'm going to tell you right now, the only question that I have when I look at a piece
04:09of stone is, can you make love on that?
04:12And the answer is yes, you can.
04:14You can make love on this stone and you can make love on this stone.
04:18This is the living room, which is my favorite room because this is the room where you can
04:44say, I am definitely in a log cabin.
04:48You see basically the entire structure.
04:50I thought I was going to be a structural engineer at one point.
04:53I'm not, but I can still appreciate the structure.
04:56The other thing you said in this room was we had this wall hanging and I was just, as a very logical person, I thought,
05:02okay, we have a rectangular space.
05:04Let's put the wall hanging that is rectangular shaped inside of it to fit and fill the space in this logical way.
05:12And you were like, how about we do it 90 degrees from that?
05:14Yeah.
05:15And that's when I just learned that I should just get on the ladder and say, what should I do?
05:19Where should I put this?
05:21That's good, baby.
05:22It took 24 years.
05:24You made the best decision.
05:25Here we are.
05:27This is actually a pillow that I designed.
05:30It's called the Dittus pillow because that's what all the grandkids call my mom, Phyllis.
05:35She's designed some incredible spaces and she taught me what a good pillow is, that it's going to keep its shape.
05:42It's got some interest.
05:45We've got these tassels.
05:46And I love the fact that I have something to honor my mom because I wouldn't be doing any of this without her.
05:53I wanted an impressive centerpiece to this living room, these really high ceilings.
06:00I wanted a big ass fireplace.
06:02So we did that.
06:04I thought this was an opportunity to bring in a little light with this limestone.
06:08This mantle is a whole other story.
06:11I've been on a journey with this mantle.
06:13I ran across it at High Point Market.
06:15And originally this thing was just barely big enough to cover the opening.
06:21Well, I found a guy who found a guy.
06:23Okay.
06:24Who did some just incredible handiwork, Adam, to make this.
06:28He even sliced it in half because I was asking him to do magic and that's what he did.
06:35He did magic.
06:52Welcome to the primary bedroom.
06:53We've been dealing with a lot of pests since we bought this house.
06:56It's true.
06:57There's so many things.
06:58So many things.
06:59Carpenter bees, wasps of two varieties.
07:01We've had two bats in here.
07:04We're no longer living with creatures.
07:06Yeah.
07:07So we have definitely become one with nature and it is very difficult to keep them out
07:12of a log cabin.
07:13It's something that we've learned.
07:14There is one tenant that we have not kicked out.
07:17I discovered it a few days ago.
07:19Birds have made a nest right outside of the dining room and it's so fun to watch them.
07:24I keep cleaning up bird poop, but it's a losing battle.
07:26But birds are welcome.
07:27Birds are welcome.
07:28Yes.
07:29Birds are welcome here.
07:30When I was looking at different wallpapers and started picking them out and seeing how they
07:34all work together, I showed Rhett and your favorite one was this one.
07:39And that's how it ended up here in the primary suite.
07:42I love this wallpaper.
07:43It also makes you feel like you are in nature when you are battling yellow jackets.
07:47You feel like you never left the forest.
07:50When we were planning this bedroom out, it had a very tiny bathroom.
07:55So we took what was the laundry room right beside the bathroom, opened up the bathroom.
08:00It still didn't make for the largest bathroom ever.
08:04It's better than our bathroom in LA for sure.
08:07But I really wanted a tub and we could not fit a tub in there.
08:11And I had always had this dream anyway of having a tub in the bedroom.
08:15I think that that's very romantic.
08:18It feels like a storybook.
08:19This is a stunner that I found at High Point Market, one of the vintage dealers there.
08:27It was actually hiding behind a lot of other pieces of furniture.
08:30And I saw some little glimpses of it and I was like, what is that?
08:35And so they pulled the other furniture back and I'm just in awe of the artistry.
08:41This marquetry is something that you don't see in furniture nowadays.
08:47And this continues the nature theme.
08:50You have these sweet turtle doves right here.
08:53I'm assuming that's what they are.
08:54I don't know if they're really turtle doves.
08:56So this is the couch that I sit on when I do not want to make eye contact with her when
09:01she's lying in the bed, which I mean, every once in a while, that's something we're into.
09:05Sometimes we need to not make eye contact.
09:06We just want to talk to each other but not see each other.
09:09I thought this was a great way to incorporate some plaid.
09:12I'm always concerned about being too on the nose in a log cabin.
09:17So I didn't want a lot of plaid, but a little plaid and a funky colorway and mohair, I can
09:24do that.
09:25We wanted this to be the primary bedroom because of this balcony.
09:29It has its own balcony.
09:31Come on out here with us.
09:33Now you're out in the wildlife, right?
09:36If you come out here at night and you just stare into these woods, you'll see all these
09:41sets of glowing eyes.
09:43The first time I saw it, I was like, there's children, children of the woods looking at us.
09:48And it's just deer.
09:49The way that their eyes reflect back light from the house is crazy.
09:54And there'll be like 30 or 40 deer just out in these woods.
10:07This is the loft.
10:08And this is where I'm going to tell you.
10:10Cause she won't tell you about the genius that is Jessie Lane interiors.
10:15Okay.
10:16This is Leonardo da Jessie.
10:19She's an adventurer.
10:20Look, it's a sofa that can turn into a bed.
10:23And she made this and it's called the Shasha.
10:26It is.
10:27It's named after my sister.
10:28I made it because when my sister was coming to visit us in LA, I wanted her to have a bed
10:34that actually felt like a bed, but there wasn't anything in the market that was like that,
10:38that actually looked like a bed when it pulled out.
10:40And also looked like the kind of sofa that you thought was cool, you know?
10:44Absolutely.
10:45But she didn't stop with this because she also designed these pillows, the plus one pillow.
10:50Now this is, can I tell this story?
10:51Let me tell this story.
10:52You can tell the story, baby.
10:53So I work with Link, you know, I make Good Mythical Morning with Link and everything else
10:57that we do at Mythical and Link's wife, Christy, helped Jessie design these pillows.
11:04They're called the plus one pillow because a lot of times Jessie and Christy are our plus ones
11:09to different things that we do.
11:10One of the things I love about Jessie's approach to design is it's not just design, but it has
11:15become inventing as well and making this sofa, making these pillows.
11:21And she's been able to express herself creatively in ways that I know are very fulfilling to her.
11:27I love this artist.
11:29This is Michael Doyle.
11:30You'll see him throughout the house.
11:32Part of the reason I used his work all over is because it's so colorful.
11:36It's so playful.
11:38He incorporates lots of people, which so much of my design process is centered around people.
11:44If I were to ask you to close your eyes and imagine a couch with pillows on it, how many
11:50pillows would you imagine were on that couch?
11:52Yes.
11:53Not this many.
11:54But if it was a sofa that you found at an antique store that came over from Denmark in the 70s,
12:03then I would think it wouldn't matter.
12:05You could not have too many pillows.
12:07Pillows were really big in Denmark in the 70s.
12:09Well, actually, they were pretty small, but they were also very big.
12:13Oh.
12:14This came like this.
12:15In fact, there were a few more pillows that didn't make it because the zippers were coming
12:20off and I thought-
12:21Can you believe-
12:22You know what?
12:23That there were originally-
12:24This is enough pillow.
12:25More pillows?
12:26What were they thinking about in Denmark?
12:29Oh.
12:34This is a found vintage French plant stand.
12:40And when I saw it, it immediately made me feel something.
12:44I wasn't sure what, but it was like a punch in the gut.
12:48And so what I found out about this is they would take pieces, broken pieces of pottery,
12:56plates that they loved, little trinkets, and plaster them to the stand.
13:02And so it kind of becomes this item that is collecting your memories throughout the years.
13:08Brett gave me these plates for our 10th anniversary.
13:12And then on our 11th anniversary, she got angry with me.
13:17No.
13:18They got broken.
13:19One of them broke on the way to the cabin.
13:20Yes.
13:21Okay.
13:22So I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to make this piece our own.
13:38This is the guest room.
13:39We love the idea of our guests having a nicer bed than the bed that we have.
13:44So that's why this canopy bed is up here in the guest room.
13:47We have to tell our guests that before they stay with us because you literally can hear everything.
13:52Like if somebody said something weird at dinner and you're like, can you believe she said that?
13:56You have to talk like, can you believe she said that at dinner?
13:59I do.
14:00Even if you're up here with the door closed.
14:01You can hear everything in this house.
14:02You might hear them through the cracks in the log.
14:04But just in case they do hear us talking crap about them, they know they have the nicer bed and they're gonna walk away happy.
14:11This is the ensuite guest bathroom.
14:13Yeah.
14:14And I struggle because I might like this bathroom better than our bathroom.
14:17We also gave our guests the better bathroom.
14:19But I did get the tub in our room.
14:22So this bathroom was so much fun to design.
14:26And the people at Rockin' Interiors did an incredible job cutting, fabricating this.
14:31Like this is not easy to do and not every fabricator can make these cuts.
14:36But we wanted it to be just this over the top, oversized vanity.
14:41And I think we accomplished that.
14:43You did that.
14:44You accomplished that.
14:45Now, one interesting feature that I have to talk about in this bathroom.
14:49So we've got a glass shower over here and Jessie wanted it to be symmetrical.
14:55So now we have a glassed-in toilet.
14:58And I will just say, just a little etiquette, is that it's okay if somebody sees you using it.
15:05In fact, if you could be over there over the over the wall, the pony wall.
15:09I'm in the shower.
15:11Yes, I will use the bathroom while Jessie's in the shower.
15:14I'm gonna be honest with you.
15:15We do it.
15:16Are you in the bathroom?
15:17Are you in the water closet?
15:18But I will say, I don't make eye contact.
15:20Are you in the water closet?
15:22I look at her body, but I don't make eye contact.
15:25Okay?
15:32This is the movie room.
15:33These couches, this one in the back is actually on a platform.
15:36So we kind of have a little bit of a stadium seating situation, but also it continues to be like very, very cozy with these big, long couches.
15:44Yeah, and we actually plan on watching a movie in here tonight.
15:48I will say though, it's not simple because when you were staying here without me, you called me and I had to walk you through the four-step process.
15:55You did.
15:56Because you got to get the screen down, you got to turn the projector on, then you got to turn the sound on, and then you got to turn the video source on.
16:03And that was like a 30-minute phone call to watch the 30-minute show.
16:06It was, but you like 30-minute phone calls with your loving wife, don't you?
16:08I do, I love talking to you.
16:09For an hour.
16:10Exactly.
16:11Yeah.
16:12Next time I'll make sure it takes that long.
16:15A lot of the pieces in this room came from a dear friend.
16:19She's become a dear friend through this process, an antiques dealer who is down the road.
16:24And I will say, Julie, Julie at Little Boho Valley, I'll say, Julie, I want chairs that act as kind of a foil to this more traditional table I have.
16:34And she said, let me see what I got.
16:36And she brought me these incredible mid-century cafe chairs that are like two-toned, green and gold, perfect for this room.
16:44So it felt like it was meant to be.
16:46Over the holidays, I got very sick and I spent a few days lying on this couch and I was so helpless.
16:53And I said, Jessie, I got to find a way to get your attention so you'll come and bring me soup.
16:58And the next thing I know, she brought in this big-ass bell.
17:04Soup! She brings me soup.
17:07I'm glad you're better.
17:21We have big plans eventually for the outside.
17:24But since we've only had the cabin a few years and we've been focusing on the inside, we have some kind of an intermediary thing to hold us over.
17:33We have dubbed this the fairy circle.
17:36This is a place where our family gathers.
17:38And also our family comes here probably more than we do.
17:41They end up using this place more than we actually do.
17:43And I have a dream of kind of building a trail that goes all the way through these woods.
17:48And there's a creek way back there and goes along the creek and then comes back up here.
17:53There's so many really cool artists around here that make cool sculptures and outdoor sculptures and that kind of thing.
17:58I would love to have those kind of along the path at some point so people kind of enjoy a stroll around the property.
18:05And I'm down with all of those ideas.
18:07Thanks so much for coming to the cabin, A.D.
18:18We had so much fun.
18:19Now you gotta go.
18:20Watch out for the deer.
18:21Bye.
18:22The deer. There's one crazy one.
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