Cabin Fever | How One Vermont Couple Made a Career Out of Cozy Cabin Wanderlust

I turned off a dirt road in Deering, New Hampshire, onto a narrow, rutted driveway. Just when I started wondering if I was in the right place, I spotted a sign tacked to a tree: Keep going. Sure enough, the thick forest soon gave way to a clearing, and a sweet little deep-gray cabin on a pond came into view.

Waving, Chris and Pam Daniele stepped into the yard to greet me. They had been editing the photos they’d shot of the one-bedroom house and grounds the previous evening—“We take advantage of dusk,” Chris explains, “so everything will be glowy.” Later, they planned to paddle kayaks onto the pond and photograph the cabin from the water.

It’s all in a day’s work for the Vermont husband and wife behind the video and photography outfit Dirt and Glass as well as Cabinpedia, an online directory of—you guessed it—wanderlust-inducing cabins. The Danieles have carved out a unique niche in the travel industry: Property owners around New England and beyond hire them to stay and take glamour shots and drone footage of their backwoods A-frames and remote cottages, and then post them on social media to boost rentals. The duo also creates branded content and campaigns for Long Trail Brewing Co., Marmot, Vail Resorts, and more.

“There’s this nesting quality to being in a small space,” Pam says. “I think people just like the simplicity that a small space demands, because you really can’t overcrowd it. It feels like you’re getting wrapped in a blanket.” That cozy feeling no doubt resonates with their 377K-and-counting Instagram followers. Indeed, in the seven years since launching the Dirt and Glass account, Chris and Pam have truly become #cabinlife influencers—and it all started with an impromptu barter.

Chris grew up in Chicopee, Massachusetts, shooting nightscapes and nature scenes with his mom’s 35mm film camera, but went on to study teleproduction and become a recording engineer and a music producer. Photography “stayed more of a hobby throughout my life, until I met Pam,” he says. Pam, also from Western Massachusetts, was a pastry chef—and they bonded instantly over their love of hiking and the outdoors.

In 2015, the couple stayed at an off-the-grid artist’s shed in East Meredith, New York. Chris, who carried his camera everywhere, had an idea. He offered the owner the photos he took there in exchange for a return visit. The owner agreed, and the couple continued with this model: bartering photos for free nights at cabins around the Northeast. And though Chris launched the Dirt and Glass Instagram account in 2016, it was a stay in the Catskills the following January that really set the Danieles’ dream career in motion. Not only did Chris shoot photos of the property, called the Black A-Frame, but they also encouraged the owner to start an Instagram account to drive rentals. It worked, generating word of mouth—and helped convince Chris to officially move his music career to the back burner.

“Our contemporaries on Instagram were posting from really great cabins, but completely gatekeeping the locations,” says Pam, who left her pastry chef gig in 2019 to focus on photography full-time. “And we were like, We don’t want to do that. Airbnb had really taken off, so we saw this opportunity to share the places and help people book their cabins—and it just came together so organically.” 

Today, interested property owners submit a form on the Dirt and Glass website, and the Danieles select only those places that line up with their style and point of view to photograph. “It has to fit a vibe; it has to feel cozy to us,” Chris says. Though the getaways range in square footage and amenities offered, “we lean more toward rustic and private,” Pam adds. “That’s what people want, to go to the woods and reconnect with nature.” The secluded Deering, New Hampshire, guesthouse I visited, for one, was renovated by the owner, an interior designer who lives nearby, and is outfitted with wide plank floors, a screened-in porch, an outdoor shower, and even an on-site honor-system antiques shop.

Chris and Pam both take photos and videos, mixing architectural and lifestyle shots—often with one or both of them in frame. They start a shoot by scouting the cabin: straightening artwork, exploring angles to take advantage of as much natural light as possible, and working around any space constraints. “Luckily, we’re both pretty good at contortion,” Pam says, with a laugh. “At any given moment, one of us is doing a very deep back bend.”

Over the years, they’ve settled into a schedule. The first two weeks of every month are for work travel and photographing rental properties—they’re excited to add more Appalachian and Western cabins to their roster—and the remaining weeks are for editing, personal projects, and trekking to their own rustic cabin in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. “We go up there as much as possible,” Pam says.

Constructed in 2019 with the help of micro-shelter aficionado and former HGTV host Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, their own 200-square-foot abode is ensconced in pine trees, a hilly, quarter-mile hike off the road. It’s further proof that when it comes to Pam and Chris, there is no Instagram-versus-reality debate. What you see on social media is what you get—in this case, a deck, a sleeping loft, and a huge front window that flips open, letting nature and the breeze in.

The couple christened the cabin “Borrowed Time,” after a trail sign they bought at the Brimfield Antique Flea Market and hung over the door. And while they’ve built a career out of encouraging travelers to book cozy cabins for a night, the Danieles are keeping this one all to themselves.

Instagram: @dirtandglass

4 Notable Cozy Cabin Rentals

Here are four rental cabins that knocked the (wool) socks off Chris and Pam Daniele.

Cozy Rock Cabin | Freeport, ME

Modern amenities meet coastal Maine rusticity in this light-drenched 750-square-foot cabin named for the giant rock rising over its outdoor hot tub and firepit. Thoughtful touches include a lending library organized by color in the loft’s funky triangular shelves and a detailed guidebook with spot-on lobster roll recommendations. staycozycabin.com

Sunrise Cabin at Woolman Hill | Deerfield, MA

Featuring a wall crafted from oddly shaped refurbished windows, Sunrise is the most distinctive of the three cabins for rent at Woolman Hill, a 110-acre Quaker retreat center. Even though it’s minutes from downtown Greenfield, the cabin feels “so out there,” Pam says, owing, in part, to the outhouse and decidedly old-school feel—you call to reserve and pay by check or cash. woolmanhill.org

The Conscious Cabin | Conway, NH

Candles, plants, and twinkle lights add to the chill vibe of this renovated 1950s log cabin in the White Mountains, which boasts a stone fireplace and an outdoor shower and also hosts yoga retreats. Owner Cassouki Chouramanis “created the space to welcome in and invite peace into people’s lives,” Pam says. “It’s gorgeous.” theconsciouscabin.com

Stone City Treehouse | Hardwick, VT

A tree literally grows through the porch and roof of this solar-powered rental (slogan: “Be free in a tree”). The Danieles spent a mini-moon here after their 2018 wedding and were enchanted by the creekside location—and the sleeping loft. “It is so cozy and comfortable,” Chris says. “There’s a window where you can just lie there and look out at the woods.” stonecitytreehouse.com