Once a red "farmhouse" always a red farmhouse?
Hi! I am new to the group, and I am excited for the insight I will get here. I feel so lost in the world of home design/decorating!
I have a red clapboard house. I call it a farmhouse, but I am not sure that is the technical term for it. I have chickens and a big garden though, so it's "my" farmhouse, if that makes sense.
Anyway, it is red with white trim, and I suspect it was always that way. I don't dislike it, but it needs to be repainted, and I am wondering if I have any other possibilities besides red. The red seems to inhibit my other design options.
Here is a picture of the house. This is what it looked like when I bought it. It looks pretty much the same outside, but different garden, grass more beat up from kids, just generally not maintained by an elderly couple.
Another question I have is should I remove that large awning to the left? It makes that porch area (which is actually supposed to be the front entrance) into a cave, plus it makes the walkway over there more narrow. Not to mention, it's a moss collector.
Comments (12)
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Exterior elevation: going from European to cabin-farmhouse?
Comments (25)Olivesmom, you are fighting an uphill struggle. The small North Carolina house is appealing due to its simple, iconic "house" shapes and other simple, straightforward residential design motif. Due to this simplicity of shape, it can have a variety of exterior materials and finishes (including the great red windows with green trim on one side and the equally great green windows with red trim on the other side). In other words, the design of the house is quite simple, which allows some creative diversity in materials and finishes. On the other hand, the builder's houses that you have posted are very complex and competing shapes and forms, and they are very large, further complicating the idea of unity and harmony. When these complex and competing shapes are combined with a variety of materials and finishes (as they almost always seem to be on stock plans and builder's tracts), the final result is anything but simple, unified and harmonious. These large, complex and competing shapes almost always require a very simple and consistent use of chapes, materials and finishes if unity and harmony are desired. Far too often, however, builders and owners seem to want to have as many shapes, materials and finishes as possible with the result that the finished house often looks like an advertising display for residential product manufacturers. Thus, if you stick with the large builders house, you need to simplify and unify as much as possible. For exampe, one of the first things to do is eliminate the arched garage door openings. There are no other arched shapes in the design of the house, as far as I can see, and thus, the arches are a completely foreign and inconsistent element which add to the discordant look of the exterior. Adding "borrowed" projecting shed roofs over selected windows to the existing design is another aesthetic inconsistency. For them to add to the overall character of the house, all of the gabled dormer windows should be changed to similar shed dormers. These are just a couple of examples. Do you see the issue and what needs to be done? Good luck on your project....See MoreApron/Farmhouse Sink- worth it?
Comments (28)The idea of a double sink, I think, is that each side can be used for different tasks. Wash dishes in one, wash veggies in the other. Defrost meat in one, soak pots in the other. Etc. However, for me this is like saying two hands are better than one, because you can use one hand to rub your belly and the other to pat your head. It just isn't a common ''use case'', you see. In my so-called-life, a double sink always gets used as follows. Dirty dishes are piled in one side, and everything else gets done in the other. So, at the end of the day, it's like having a single sink plus a pile of dirty dishes. Now, dirty dishes are a fact of life, so maybe it's not the worst thing for them to have a snug, welcoming home. But I find that extending hospitality to detritus comes at a price, which is that the side of the sink that actually gets used is Just Too Small. Which is, too small to soak the half sheet pan that got black goober scorched all over it. Too small to wash two stockpots at once. Too small to bathe the new puppy. I would far prefer one Great Big Sink. You can always put a square plastic tub in it, should you ever really need a multi-chambered vessel. Better yet, a Great Big Sink and a Useful Little Sink somewhere else. Even better, my fantasy of a stainless steel darkroom sink, six feet long and two feet wide and only six inches deep, an endless counter that can be flooded with water and hosed down as needed. Add a deep end and a diving board, and Olympic Barbie has her swimming pool. On a perhaps more practical note, my friend has a sink I covet. It is a slab-built slate farmhouse sink extending all the way to the wall, with wall-mount faucet. Without taking up much counter width, it can swallow a half sheet pan with room to spare. Compared to a ''standard'' sink, she loses only the ledge of counter between sink and backsplash, which has to be the least useful part of a kitchen counter....See MoreFarmhouse Table Needs Help
Comments (11)Thanks for all the feedback, I'm rethinking this. I did use paint thinner to clean the table once I finished stripping it. It appears the original stain was applied to the top coat when it was finished. The wood grain is so tight that it makes me doubt that it is oak. Usually with oak when you sand it you can lift the grain a little. When I sand this is just gets slicker no matter what grit I used. I removed some of the finish on the bottom of one chair rail and I have some different stains. I will try one or two of these and see how it absorbs the stain. I agree the wood looked nice once it was stripped but it is much lighter than the rest of the table and the chairs. I'm really concerned that it will be blotchy if I try and stain it or that it won't be close enough in color. I'll give it a try on the bottom rail and see what happens....See Morefaucet & hardware for a sort of farmhouse, bold tile kitchen?
Comments (6)Thanks! I love those fully-Fez-tiled kitchen photos - they are the main reason that stainless steel shelving is still in the running. I agree that the industrial style faucet has more personality. I think that's the appeal, as long as it doesn't clash with the rest of what we're doing. I'm afraid of veering too modern and I'm unsure of myself, lol. The reason I don't want to use pulls that screw in from the front is that ikea cabinet doors and drawer fronts have veneered particleboard center panels, where some of our pulls will be placed. Screwing into hardwood might hold up ok even though they'd be getting tugged, but that would definitely not work for particleboard - the scews would fall right out. We need to have something screwed in from the back....See MoreRelated Professionals
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9 years ago- 9 years ago
Thank you so much for the advice! I really feel torn between staying with red and going with something a little toned down. So many people act like it's insane to change the color if I mention considering it.. but every year when Spring comes about, I start thinking about it again.
I love the idea of gray and white, as I hadn't even thought of it. The sage that you mention, Apple, is something I have been toying with in my mind... but I wonder if it might be too much green? Is there such a thing?
The outside has a TON of green landscaping.. would a green house kind of melt into it and disappear? Maybe that's a good thing?
Looking back at these photos makes me realize how much nicer everything looked (outside, I have improved the inside) when I first bought it. I have a lot of work to do!
I'm going to try playing with the colors in photoshop.
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