We spent the last week in the pastoral landscape of Upstate New York to see my husband's family for Thanksgiving. One of our favorite things to do in the Finger Lakes region is, simply, drive around. There's nothing better than a gorgeous, historic barn next to a lolling weeping willow with a pond, a silo, and grass that reaches in all directions.
As a born-and-bred city girl, this bucolic image renders feelings of a simpler life, filled with beautiful antiques and barefoot children in cotton dresses (or shirts, as it may be).
As I mentioned before, my husband and I dream of building a barn home. And after our trip, I'm finding it impossible to do anything except for sketch the layout, sift through images online, and picture our adorable homestead.
So, I thought I'd share my recently-found inspiration here to give you a better idea of what we want to do. There's just too much eye candy out there.
Greenwich Barn from Heritage Barns
I love the barn above for its windowed room. While the one above is used as a sitting room, we plan to have a room like this off our kitchen to be used as a greenhouse.
Grovernors Corners Barn from Heritage Barns
My favorite look is what you see above: white walls with barnwood accents, made modern by polished concrete floors. This flooring option is ideal: we can put radiant heat under it, it's easy to clean, and is also more affordable than, say, wood floors for a new house.
Hops Barn from Heritage Barns
The window is just drool-worthy. But wait until you see the surprise inside:
A windmill ceiling fan. Genius! I love the re-use of this farm element.
I can't say that I necessarily want kids bunks like this--inspired by train sleeping cars--but I want our house to have inventive, creative functional spaces. A climbing wall for the kids, perhaps? Or toy-storing window seat benches? Or...?
A Colonial Barn renovation
This is a must have in our house. So far we want it in our living room, in my office and in my husband's painting studio. Which room's going to win?
Kipp Barn by Heritage Barns
A stone attachment (smaller than the one above) to a wooden barn would round out the textures we're looking for. Plus, it adds a bit of English country cottage to what will be an otherwise fairly modern structure.
Would you live in a renovated barn structure?
