Ephrata’s Garman Builders met a colleague who was building “modern farmhouses” at a Napa Valley conference of builders.
“We came back and said, ‘We need to build a modern farmhouse,’” says Garman Builders' president Michael Garman.
And so, Garman Builders created “Abigail,” the Fulton Award winning entry in the 2014 Parade of Homes. The home’s traditional architecture fits central Pennsylvania like cream filling fits a whoopie pie, but it also extends all of the contemporary finishes and flourishes that modern homeowners expect. The first floor soars with ten-foot ceilings and eight-foot doors. Elegant trim slims the lines of farmhouse-style thick walls. A color palette in light neutrals, including gray, imparts freshness and comfort.
All of the architects, builders, home designers, and interior decorators who played a part in creating and staging the home adhered to the “modern farmhouse” idea, blending traditional and contemporary elements in every room. That approach created continuity and cohesion throughout the house.
The mix of modern and traditional formed a “casual elegance” that resonates in the Susquehanna region, says Bonnie Martin, interior designer for Garman Builders (www.garmanbuilders.com). “It’s got that traditional farmhouse feel, and yet the modern aspect makes it new and fun and exciting,” she says.
Join our tour of this modern farmhouse and see all the elements that make it a central Pennsylvania ideal.
Kitchen
Great-grandma used to say, “No matter where I serve my guests, it seems they like my kitchen best.” Great-grandma would appreciate the airy space, traditional lighting, and expansive countertops in this kitchen, while today’s homeowner will love the contemporary finishes and amenities. Panels are sleek with clean lines, and legs anchor the cabinets to give them the look of furniture.
The hickory island, hutch, and range hood are done in a tone Martin calls “washed driftwood, to keep it feeling modern and light,” while the wide-planked floor feels traditional. The X motif seen in the range hood and the hutch’s wine storage adds a modern touch and repeats throughout the house.
Sunroom
In the sunroom adjoining the kitchen and family room, “lots of glass gives you lots of light,” says Garman. Traditional farmhouses often lack natural sunlight, so the designers of this home employed an abundance of large windows in a classic, clean Arts and Crafts look with their four-over-one panes. The windows and the room’s elevation over the sloping yard seem to put the sunroom directly in the treetops to the rear. “It feels like a treehouse,” says Martin.
The cowhide print chairs reflect a midcentury modern esthetic for “the way people live today,” says Timothy Weishaar, interior designer and director of design, Interiors Furniture & Design (www.interiors-furniture.com), Harrisburg and Lancaster. “’People are pulling in things that may have been their parents’ or their grandparents’,” says Weishaar, who decorated for Parade of Homes. “They may like some modern pieces. They may like some pieces that look like country antiques, but it’s all about the mix, not necessarily the match. It should look pulled together with very little effort.”
Family Room
The focus of the family room, the stone fireplace, is done in the same light gray, tan, and brown, reflecting the home’s fresh neutral palette. The massive mantel provides what Martin calls “an overscaled feel” that recalls the solidity of bygone farmhouses. The flanking, built-in bookcases aren’t just open shelving, as they would have been in the past, but are updated with dividers.
The family room opens to the sunroom, breakfast area, and kitchen, so “anyone in the kitchen can communicate with someone else,” Martin says. The family room rug chosen by Weishaar is actually a quilt of antique, worn-out rugs, stitched together and overdyed for a monochromatic look. “It just speaks to the whole concept of recycling and repurposing things for the way people live,” he says.
Dining Room
Though some new homes skip the formal dining room, this four-thousand-square-foot house was built with entertaining in mind. “Our buyer will choose to entertain a little more formally,” says Garman. “They don’t want to just hang out around the island.” Weishaar agrees that dining rooms “are coming back, and they’re getting bigger. People are cooking at home more and more.” The dining room, large kitchen island, and breakfast-area pub table provide “a lot of different options to entertain,” he says.
The dining room projects the casual elegance theme by continuing the wide-plank flooring and tri-color stonework seen elsewhere in the home. Sleek, wide white paneling creates continuity with the kitchen cabinets, and a chandelier provides classic, no-fuss lighting.
The Barn Doors
In the dining room, the spotlight is on the sliding barn doors. Like the pocket doors once common in many homes, the barn doors here help the homeowner vary the use of each space by closing off or opening up rooms with ease. These barn doors are seen in two other spots: between the master bath and bedroom, and in the home’s “hub” at the intersection of kitchen, laundry room, powder room, and drop zone (what we used to call the mudroom). “Your guests can access the powder room, but you can close the door to all the mess and chaos in the drop zone,” says Martin.
Here, too, team members contributed the kind of detail that elevates this house above the ordinary. Trimmers working on the home’s construction added a floor groove that steadies the barn door and prevents the swinging that can bedevil homeowners in other houses with this popular feature.
Master Bath
A wide, barn-doored entryway from the bedroom opens to a bathtub under a high window and an elevated ceiling with a large lantern. The freestanding tub is classic, like a clawfoot, but made up-to-date with its pedestal stand. Round mirrors provide a modern look, while wood-trim details add rusticity. A mantel and old-style faucet complete the tub’s classic look.
Flanking the tub are his-and-hers vanities made to look like old, freestanding furniture pieces–except that the drawers, marble counters with long grain, and faucets were all chosen for their contemporary smoothness. Traditional beadboard was dispensed with and replaced with the board and batten first seen in the dining room. “That’s probably the biggest difference between the old and modern farmhouse,” says Garman. “We have a lot of the same elements, but we just tried to make them sleeker.”
The modern, walk-in shower forgoes multiple jets and faucets in favor of a clean, contemporary look. The shower, tub, and sink fixtures are in traditional black and bronze, but their designs are crisp and fashionable.
The Décor
While decorating for the Parade of Homes, Weishaar says he sought “a collective look where all of the pieces look as if they’ve been accumulated over time.” When done successfully–and it’s not always easy, he notes–“it looks like you’ve been collecting antiques for many years.” Wood finishes aren’t polished to a high gleam but are satin or waxy, and possibly distressed. Coverings and fabrics are inspired by today’s casual-yet-smart fashions in clothing and accessories, including natural organics in linen, cotton, and leather. “All of the fabrics are very forgiving and very comfortable,” Weishaar says.
