Modern Farmhouse Style Spring 2021

Home is the ultimate comfort. It is where we feel most ourselves, where we can express our personal style, and where we can tune out the worries of the world and revel in the quiet. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that the value of home should never be underestimated. Creating spaces that cocoon and comfort is worth the eff ort. Even the smallest, most inexpensive decorating updates can have a major impact on our home life. Just ask Paige Hull, who knows a thing or two about decorating, having bought and fixed several rentals in Round Top, Texas. As the owner of The Vintage Round Top, she also knows her way around a flea market. Paige put those skills to the test refreshing the decor of one…

Historical Charmer This circa-1942 Colonial Revival home has obvious farmhouse flair with white horizontal siding and lantern sconces. The Delaware homeowners updated the exterior with wide traditional windows, stylish shutters, and new shingles on the roof. A light blue-gray paint updates the screen door, window trim, and flower boxes with a subtle wash of contemporary color. An architectural door frame and porch columns maintain the historical feel, and potted foliage adds natural texture. Wood furniture provides comfortable seating on the brick porch. 1 Window Shopping This Colonial-style window maximizes natural light and features a tilt-in bottom sash for easy cleaning. Jeld-Wen V-4500 Single-Hung 8-Lite Colonial Window, starting at $52 6; homedepot.com 2 Light the Way Inspired by New England coach lights, this aluminum sconce features an aged zinc finish and candle-sleeve bulbs. Hinkley Adair Outdoor…

“As soon as the next warm spring evening arrives, you’ll know where to find Leslie and Art Richer—on their dock. Their home is perched at the edge of Lake Thoreau, a reservoir in Reston, Virginia, west of Washington, D.C. Art and Leslie bought a dated relic of a house in the spring of 2016. “It was a typical 1978 quote-unquote modern house,” Art says. “It was really just a bunch of little rooms. Only in the living room and part of the kitchen could you even see the lake.” The couple asked architect Jim Rill to help them open up the spaces and, most importantly, maximize the connection to the water, which is only 25 steps away. The house’s innate blandness, Rill realized, offered potential. It reminded him of a loftlike…

Anyone who’s been to Round Top, Texas, knows it’s a special place. Situated halfway between urban hubs Austin and Houston, this tiny town of 90 residents hosts the twice-yearly six-day Round Top Antiques Fair. Known worldwide for its wealth of wares, the fair lures 50,000 people to Round Top every six months. A few lucky ones will stay in Paige and Smoot Hull’s No. 1450 rental cottage. A longtime Round Top shopper herself, Paige introduced found treasures—farming implements, antique finds, and on-the-cheap scores—into the cottage for a look she calls modern vintage. The sofa, for instance, is a castoff from Paige’s mom (dressed in a $50 Target slipcover), part of the ceiling is sheathed in salvaged wood the Hulls found at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and the living room chandelier…

A satisfying push-pull. That’s how interior designer Payton Addison and homeowner Frank Giacobetti describe the process of renovating his Laguna Beach, California, home. “Frank had some out-of-the-box ideas, which included a modern-farmhouse meets urban-industrial vibe with a hint of surf shack, and I’m more of a contemporary designer,” Addison says. “Each time I would push a bit toward modern, he’d pull me back. In the end, we found a nice middle ground between our tastes.” Frank, who loves to surf, wanted the interiors to be ageless. “When you walk into a contemporary house 10 years after it was designed, it looks dated; you step into a farmhouse after 50 years and it feels timeless,” he says. “I like open, clean, and white, but I also wanted coziness.” To achieve this, Addison…

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