Would you consider fiberglass? I know Marvin makes windows that are fiberglass interior and exterior, with black as a color option.

It is a modern farmhouse style.

What is a modern farmhouse style?

We based it off of this plan and changed things around a bit. The bottom is our final draft.

Integrity by Marvin in the All Ultrex would be the way I would look. Kolbe also has a fiberglass window on the market that I believe is Black/Black.

susandefede- Would you mind sharing some pictures? Are you happy with the look of the 400 series?

Lots of info on the Andersen 100s in the window forums. Including mine, suellen, pinebarron, etc. None of them inexpensive homes.

The fibrex material has a more organic look and feel than vinyl. Check it out.

South Camano Andersen Window Job · More Info

In five years, all these white houses with black windows are going to look as dated as the ones with HUGE Palladian windows did a few years after they were hot.

Windows are VERY expensive to replace. They are also very expensive to paint. For heavens sake, stick to basics on them so they don't date themselves before you've paid your mortgage for a year.

We did Andersen 400 dark bronze inside and out too. They arrived and look great!

We've got the Anderson 100 with cocoa bean on the outside and white on the inside. I don't think they look cheap at all. They open and shut smoothly. We are happy with them.

FYI regarding Anderson 400,

Buyer Beware: Black Andersen 400 Series Casement Windows

We have Milgard fiberglass, black inside and out.

Why would a wood interior be high maintenance?

I did exterior clad in almost black with wood interiors where we are painting the sash black. My house was originally specd in 1965 to have steel windows. So I am confident in this choice despite its current trendiness.

I don't really agree that architecture gets dated so much as it is a product of its time. Some 1990s houses are good, some bad, and some bad ones will probably grow on us. Same with these white houses with black windowe. For good or bad they are an expression in 2010s contemporary architecture and eventually they will be appreciated as a "type" whether one likes them or not.

Palimpsest, so perfectly explained. Thats exactly how I feel, but I could never have worded it as well as you.

I've had Anderson 400's (terratone on the outside, pine on the inside). I'm not sure what sort of maintenance problem your are envisioning. Ten years in and I've not had to do antying other than wash the windows (and I don't even do that too often).

CP, this is not to scold you in particular, but then "What is a modern or neo-craftsman?"

but ultimately the plan is so modern overall that it wouldn't fool anybody who knows anything about architecture as to its' age or origins...and why should it?

Since you're referring to my house, I don't have a modern or neo-craftsman house. I have a house that is inspired by craftsman design. And craftsman style was a style. (BTW: I consider those houses built with one or two craftsman like details to be neo-craftsman.)

In fact when I first met with the builder, my comment to him was that I wanted a house where someone walking by it might first think, "Oh look, they updated a craftsman style house" and then when they took a second look, they would realize that of course it's not an older home, but a new one built to emulate some of the best features of a craftsman.

There are very good examples of neo-craftsman like yours,

Thank you. I appreciate that.

and there are very poor catalogue plans and "modern farmhouses" are in the same category. Some of them are very handsome houses and some of them are nothing more than McMansions with white and black clothes on. But unless we come up with a brand new name for each I don't think it's quite fair to dismiss a name for its lack of specificity or accuracy in a wholesale fashion, when the same thing could be said about many modern house "styles."

The big difference is that you can point out specific craftsman details that were followed to make craftsman and bungalow style homes of the period.

You can't do the same with a farmhouse because a farmhouse in Nebraska looked quite different than a farmhouse in Florida or a farmhouse in Pennsylvania or even a farmhouse in California.

I agree that some of these houses that are labeled modern farmhouse are very attractive and some aren't. However they really have no relationship to farmhouses with the exception of the white board and batten. Even the black windows were not indicative of farmhouses.

As mentioned, I find many of these houses quite attractive, but maybe we need to give them a name that suits them and calls them out for what they are; their own distinct architectural style.

Sure, I got that. There is not really such a thing as a "farmhouse" style that encompassed the United States, universally. And that's what rubs everybody the wrong way, apparently.

I could argue architectural theory for hours at a time.

The difference is that "craftsman" was a style that was developed and promoted specifically by proponents of the Craftsman Movement, and they had a magazine and plans and said "This is how you are supposed to build it, this is what they look like".

So, you built a house that was inspired by Craftsman design. (And you did, successfully). So draw me a picture of the Craftsman house. Of course this doesn't exist, because just like everything else, regionalism and venacularism took over and a Craftsman house where I grew up was not identical to the Craftsman houses in the neighborhood where I lived in Chicago, are not identical to the Craftsman houses of California. They share common characteristics, but they also were built or modified to respond to their environment. To cite another example of terminological imprecision, I live in a Brutalist house. So what does my house look like, exactly? The term brutalist isn't wrong, but it doesn't tell you exactly what the house looks like either, does it?

What you have done is to build a house that is an expression of Polite Architecture, which is the opposite of Vernacular Architecture. To some extent all romantic, or revivalist (or McMansionish for that matter), architecture is Polite Architecture. You built a romantic version of something in the same way that "Modern Farmhouse" is a romantic version of something. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Craftsman architecture at it's core is romantic, and then it was modified by local vernacular architecture.

I think the problem with the term "Farmhouse" is that a farmhouse as one thinks of it: built before WW I, utilitarian, in whatever regional style it may be, started out as a Vernacular Form, and now is being romanticized as a form of Polite Architecture. So if one is precise, there is no universal farmhouse to begin with, only a regional one and that's why people don't like term, "farmhouse" as an origin: it is too vague.

The proper term should probably be something like "The New American Vernacular" and this would come close to describing what most people mean at this time when they say "Modern Farmhouse". It's not so much a real farmhouse as it is the Polite Architecture romanticized notion of a particular way of life. People who want this style seem to be able to identify what it is. I am not sure that it is so important that what it is is divorced from reality.

It's an Architectural Neologism.

So I get criticizing the actual plan or form of a house as a particular example of whatever you want to call it, but I don't understand the snobbery about the word itself. It's often used as a multiple put-down: 1) "you don't know anything about architecture" and 2) "you are building a house in poor taste (just by using the phrase "modern farmhouse".

The first may be true. But you don't have to know anything about cars to drive one, and I think a lot of actual architects are poorly versed in architecural design or history as a discipline" . But the second is up for debate, because there are great and terrible examples of any architectural expression.

The funny thing is I didn't even realize the original comment was a put down. Lol! I legitimately thought she didn't know what style I was speaking off. I don't really care what you want to call the house style or if you even think it is a legitimate style. It's the house plan that we love for several different reasons and we think it will fit our family and lifestyle well. Why do people feel they need to be so judgemental and degrading? Ugh! I just wanted thoughts on windows not critized on my style choice because it doesn't match your taste or it's not a "pure" style choice in your opinion.

I don't think it's always a put down and I don't think CP necessarily meant it as such but there has been a lot of previous discussion about "Modern Farmhouse" as a sort of nonsensical terminology and to some extent part and parcel with that is some criticism of the user of the term.

What I see isn't criticism of the user of the term as much as a desire to educate, inform, and learn about architectural and design style. My usual disclaimer here -- I live in a not-so-modern house on a farm (a western Canadian bungalow), and we are building a new house on a farm, though the latter is not, by any sort of definition, a modern farmhouse.

Since every recent house in "modern farmhouse" style in this forum is different, I see the question "what is a modern farmhouse style?" as more than fair in response to a question about something as important and expensive as windows, especially when the original query isn't accompanied by any elevations or photographs.

Becky understood what I was getting at.

It was not meant as a put down at all but as explained, everyone's idea of what a "modern farmhouse" is different. Plus it is not a style unless you consider the board and batten along with black windows the style.

Of course this doesn't exist, because just like everything else, regionalism and venacularism took over and a Craftsman house where I grew up was not identical to the Craftsman houses in the neighborhood where I lived in Chicago, are not identical to the Craftsman houses of California. They share common characteristics, but they also were built or modified to respond to their environment.

Yet one can look at a house that is considered craftsman and appropriately call it craftsman because of certain characteristics that tie them together

So please tell me which of these are modern farmhouses?

I get what you are saying. I just never realized there was such a controversy over the style. I simply called it that because our architect did and the original plan it was morphed from was also called a modern farmhouse. I do believe different regions have their own version of this style. Some of the examples above are just modern in my eyes. But, like anything we all interpret things differently. So, if my home should not accurately be called a modern farmhouse how should I refer to it in the future? I do agree it is a mix of many styles but I don't know the proper terminology for it.

What ties them all together is they are all beautiful and are reminiscent of all the earlier farmhouses that sprinkled the land, with differences region by region.

White, metal roof, lots of awnings and porches, and they don't fit into other categories. It's not a colonial, a tudor, a cape, or a victorian...that makes it a lovely modern farmhouse if has these characteristics.

lorishopaholic, you do indeed have a modern farmhouse. Its just that this term has caused a civil war on this site. It has brought out the worst in all of us. There are numerous threads debating every possible detail as to why or how or if a home could be something that might not even exist, even though it does exist because I'm the sorry bum who built one.

So, if my home should not accurately be called a modern farmhouse how should I refer to it in the future? I do agree it is a mix of many styles but I don't know the proper terminology for it.

Honestly, I have no clue. Going back to my house, I call mine influenced by craftsman.

What ties them all together is they are all beautiful and are reminiscent of all the earlier farmhouses that sprinkled the land, with differences region by region.

They are also reminiscent of lots of other styles of houses that dotted the land in different regions. For example, the fourth one reminds me of a saltbox style house.

White,

Nope. The last one is gray and the second one has no white on it at all.

metal roof

It appears the first one doesn't have a metal roof.

,lots of awnings

No awnings on the second and third ones

and porches,

No porches on the first, third and fourth one.

and they don't fit into other categories.

So are you saying because they don't fit into other categories, it must be a modern farmhouse?

It's not a colonial, a tudor, a cape, or a victorian...that makes it a lovely modern farmhouse if has these characteristics.

So again, what makes it a farmhouse style?

CP, I Just stated cleanly and simply what the situation is. If you go back and read my post and look through a different lens, perhaps not nitpicking every little fiber of some pictures that I didn't even look at. What really leaves me scratching my head is you know exactly what a modern farmhouse is, but you either don't want to accept it, or just hate it, or are jealous of it.

Please go back and read my previous post. It tells you exactly what you need to know and will bring you right up to speed in this modern realm.

BTW, very nice countertops.

I will agree that several of those houses have little in common. But in many ways the fifth is the outlier because it's too traditional. The second is an outlier because of the shadow box. But the first four have a lot in common, and put single light windows in #4 and it starts to look a lot more like the first three than it does the fifth.

Would a lot of people relate this grouping more easily than they would relate your grouping? Which one of the houses below is the real craftsman?

I also think that for large tracts of the American landscape, excluding the Southwest, perhaps, that most people would recognize the gabled or L shaped gabled house as "farmhouse", allowing for regional variation and vagaries of fashion as they penetrated different parts of the country.

These are all remuddled with reduced windows and porch changes but this is generic "house" of a certain period, across much of the rural heartland of the US

And I think it was this that Hugh Jacobsen was working off with his series of white gabled houses, arguably an early prototype for the good "Modern Farmhouse"

Actually Pal, you and I know that all your examples would be considered craftsman, the differences as you mentioned being where in the country they are as well as the relative wealth at the time of the purchaser.

And let's throw another monkey wrench in the mix since we also know that most of what we now consider craftsman homes were built either from kits (Sears, Aladdin, etc) or from plan books that were then modified based on local materials. Live in FL? Your house was probably built from Pecky Cypress. Lived in CA? Redwood.

Only the wealthy would hire a Greene and Greene to design their craftsman house.

But then again, the "real" one would be the Greene and Greene which is interesting because as you and I know, the interior in many ways is not what most of us think of when we think of "craftsman".

When I do think of modern farmhouse, I think more of Hugh Jacobsen than some of the more generic examples with board and batten and black windows.

Ah, would that the recent spate of modern farmhouse owes more to Hugh Jacobsen than to Joanna Gaines...

And actually the prototype is really the first one, Craftsman Farms, Gustave Stickley's house. But the most recognizable to the most people would probably be #6 or a version of #5.

The grid of nine houses is from around where I grew up, and these were called the factory houses because many of them were built by "the Company". But the farmhouses in the area looked like this too, but the shape was usually L shaped like the historical photo, which is actually from the Dakotas.

What exactly is a Modern Farmhouse? Well, here in the New Mexico southwest, one local tract builder calls this their "Rustic Industrial Farmhouse Blend". (I'm especially fond of the convenient garage-door access to the interior of the farm house, which would allow the farm owner to, for example, easily move a load of silage into the living room.)

I’ve never wanted to throw my opinion in the ring but I guess here goes. I guess some will say that we are building a modern farmhouse based on the items I chose for the exterior. We do have black windows and I will have it painted white and it will also have a huge vegetable garden and a couple horses and a cow or two for us as well on our 60 acres. So it will actually be a working farmhouse but our architect modeled it after the 1800s home that I grew up in that was added on again and again throughout the years. The farmhouse style evokes such feelings of joy of the work that used to go in to every little thing to keep the farm up and running. We have lived all around the country and currently in southwest Florida but inside this little girl from Michigan can’t escape the nostalgic feeling that I get when I think of staring out over the beautiful fields after a long, hard days work from my front porch just like I did on my pa’s lap so many years ago. He’s gone now but the promise that I might get to make those same memories with my grandkids someday is what I’m banking on.

I have learned so much from these forums since 2008 but it just seems so negative lately and there’s already so much hate in the world that I just don’t want to contribute, so how about we agree to let people call their homes whatever they want, right or wrong, and just wish everyone a home filled with love because if there’s no love at home there will certainly be less to share.

What a blessed group we all are.

leelanau9206, thank you for the much needed perspective! We have gone off the rails and need to focus more on the warmth and joy and love that is ultimately what we all seek when we build.