Revisiting the Modern Farmhouse

I first posted this in September of last year and due to some heavy work loads and an upcoming vacation I thought it might be a good time to re-post!  Are you tired of the Modern Farmhouse look?  I’m a little bit tired of certain aspects of it, but I do love the simplicity of the style and the emphasis on simple furnishings.  I don’t like the rigid-ness of the style.  I like different types of art, more color and more of the unexpected than I think that style allows.  That said, I like this project a lot – it was a tough and emotional project for my clients (as you’ll read below) and it’s a favorite of mine.  I hope you have a great week and I’ll be back next week with new content!

This kitchen was recently featured in Colorado Homes & Lifestyles “10 Ooh-La-La Kitchens” Sept/Oct issue – out now!  Here are a few more lovely photo’s and more back story on the project.

My clients returned from vacation last summer to their home in Golden, Colorado and found that a crucial valve on the upstairs toilet had failed and water had been gushing out of the pipe for three days.  Drywall, floors, furniture – almost everything was destroyed and mold had already set in.  I was called in by the devastated homeowner and we redesigned the kitchen, dining room, and living room and re-finished the other areas in the home that had been ruined.   When I first saw the home, it was in complete disarray.  The flood restoration team was there trying to get the humidity out of the home.  My immediate goal was to assist the clients in getting their lives back to normal with an interior that they would love as much (and hopefully more) than what they had before the flood.

The client initially told me that she loved seeing rustic wood.  I immediately began to think about places to integrate this without it becoming too contrived or just too much for the home.  The wall where the open shelves are is quite white – we felt that it needed something raw and warm to liven it up.  I used the handmade iron brackets there for the same reason – sometimes an all white kitchen can be too precious.  It needs some “oomph”.

The clients are a young couple with 2 active boys.  This is not a large kitchen and the wife wanted a kitchen that was more open than before – she wanted to be able to see into the dining room from the kitchen and also have an eat-in counter for her two boys.  The previous kitchen was completely enclosed by walls.  Soffits surrounded the perimeter and also made it feel smaller.  We were able to take out the walls at each end of the kitchen and take out the soffits.

The cabinets are custom, Colorado-made painted poplar cabinets by Erich Kaiser and his talented team from Oak Tree Woodworks out of Sterling, Colorado.  I did detailed kitchen elevations for the client determining what went where – we then worked closely with the cabinet maker on all of the other details as the project went along.  We selected a soft white from Pratt & Lambert for the cabinets to go with the other whites we had in the room – the trim, the ceiling and the wall paint – this was a long, long process involving lots of white paint!

 Due to the flooding, we designed all of the spaces at the same time.  We opened up the dining room more into the living room and added large, handmade, rustic beams also Colorado-made by Oak Tree Woodworks.  This house has beautiful views of North and South Table Mountains in Golden and we added 2- 48″ french doors to the wall in the living room to take advantage of that.  Adding these doors had a tremendous affect on the way they use this room.  The homeowners also added a wrap around deck off of this room.  We added planking to the walls here to add more texture to the room and link it in look to the rest of the home.

 I loved the challenge of making everything custom yet keeping the aesthetic simple.  This is a home that was unexpectedly and suddenly ruined – it was such a pleasure to help bring out the home’s inner, modern farmhouse that was lying in wait all along.