We are currently working on a fun farmhouse project and wanted to share a peek behind the scenes!

This is an ACTUAL antique New England farmhouse, as in 1840, not some 1970’s suburban builder colonial littered with superfluous barn doors and retrofitted with shiplap because HGTV said it was in.

It has an attached barn -be still my heart - (which DOES, appropriately, have barn doors), and which the Mr. has largely claimed as his man cave.

The house is built like a rock…Literally…With thick solid wood walls, some fabulous original hardware, several fireplaces and some nice millwork details in the core of the house, and some kitchen remodeling done by the previous owners. The great room connects the kitchen to the barn and is flooded with light from windows on 3 walls. And there are details like these fabulous original solid wood ten foot bifold doors on opposite sides that the owners left in place when they retrofitted the openings with more up to date and weathertight sliding doors.

It had been a seasonal residence for the owners, but they have decided to make it their full time home and wanted to level it up.

I’m working on the great room, primarily, with a smattering of advice on colors, finishes and details for some of the other spaces as well. They already had some furnishings from previous homes and a sectional they had purchased for this house, so those were the starting points for the design and layout.

I’ve known these clients for almost my entire design career and this is the 7th or 8th house I’ve worked on with them in some capacity. They have a fun, colorful style and are always open to new ideas - which makes for terrific outcomes.

Farmhouse Great Room, BEFORE furniture layout

As with every project, we start with space planning. The great room is broken up with windows and doors on all 4 walls, an existing built-in bookcase, and some bump-out supports where two rooms were joined. They use the great room for dining, reading, and a substantial media setup. Streamlining the media equipment into a built-in was an important piece of the puzzle.

Farmhouse Great Room; AFTER furniture layout

Turning the sectional allowed us to more effectively divide the long narrow room into separate, but still related, zones and allowed moving the sideboard and console table to keep from having furniture lined up around the edges of the room

Concept Sketch for a built-in to house media equipment and disguise a bump out

Red is a favorite color of the homeowners and several of the pieces they wished to reuse were varying shades of red from fire-engine red to raspberry, to brick. Finding a mix of textiles that tied the reds together along with the secondary blue-greens and some of the warmer tones of the rug that was staying, would be the key to bringing the space together.