How to Bring Modern Farmhouse Style to Your Porch
Give your porch or entryway a dose of rural charm with some of these top elements of farmhouse style
It’s easy to feel right at home in farmhouse style, no matter where you live. The combination of warm wood and homey antiques with fresh paint colors, simple lines and industrial lighting features hits it just right for creating a welcoming home.
To embrace farmhouse style on your porch or entryway, include elements of this popular style when choosing building materials, furniture, lighting, planters and other accent pieces. For inspiration, take a look at these 10 elements of farmhouse style from porches across the country.
To embrace farmhouse style on your porch or entryway, include elements of this popular style when choosing building materials, furniture, lighting, planters and other accent pieces. For inspiration, take a look at these 10 elements of farmhouse style from porches across the country.
1. Standing-seam metal roof. A durable material commonly used for the roofs of barns, sheds and rural outbuildings, metal has established itself in home design as a practical roofing material. It’s a great choice if you’re adding a porch and want to establish more of a farmhouse theme, as it works well in combination with existing wood or composite shingles you may have on your home’s roof already.
2. Classic wooden furniture. Whether you hunt down an antique or choose new chairs made in a classic style, look for simple, clean-lined furnishings made of wood, either unpainted or painted. Rocking chairs are a farmhouse porch staple, as are sturdy, Shaker-style chairs.
For a more modern farmhouse look, consider a pair of metal 1930s Tolix cafe chairs. Their industrial style works well paired with barn-style lighting fixtures.
See wood rocking chairs
For a more modern farmhouse look, consider a pair of metal 1930s Tolix cafe chairs. Their industrial style works well paired with barn-style lighting fixtures.
See wood rocking chairs
3. Crisp paint colors. Historically, farmhouses in the United States were almost always painted white for reasons that were practical rather than aesthetic. Lime-based whitewash paint was cheap and readily available in Colonial times, and the lime in the paint worked as a disinfectant and odor-disguiser — useful on many levels around a farm.
The tradition of clean white farmhouse exteriors has rolled over into modern designs and is still a common paint color of choice for a farmhouse look. That being said, off-whites and pale neutrals don’t look out of place, and painting the trim around windows and doors, as we see with this Austin, Texas, home, is an increasingly popular way to create a more modern farmhouse-style exterior.
The tradition of clean white farmhouse exteriors has rolled over into modern designs and is still a common paint color of choice for a farmhouse look. That being said, off-whites and pale neutrals don’t look out of place, and painting the trim around windows and doors, as we see with this Austin, Texas, home, is an increasingly popular way to create a more modern farmhouse-style exterior.
4. Barn-style lighting. Originally, farmhouses were designed and decorated with practicality in mind. Exterior light fixtures would be chosen for function rather than anything too fussy. Barn-style lights are a great way to bring the style home today. Simple, easy to find and often very affordable, barn-style lights are available as pendants and wall-mounted fixtures, and they instantly brighten up shadowy porches.
5. Repurposed farm materials. While wagon wheels and wheelbarrows used out of context can slip into kitsch territory, some upcycled farm elements can make for great farmhouse style accents. Galvanized stock tanks — originally used as water and feed troughs for livestock — can be used as foundation planters. Drilled with drainage holes and filled with potting soil, they make excellent large-scale planters that hit a farmhouse look at home. They are readily available from feed stores, rural hardware stores and online vendors.
Learn more about turning a stock tank into a planter
Learn more about turning a stock tank into a planter
6. Traditional wood siding. Originally, popular board-and-batten, tongue-and-groove and shiplap siding methods were designed with pure practicality in mind: to help keep out drafts in cold climates in homes with limited insulation. For board-and-batten siding, wood boards would be nailed to the frame of a house and small, narrow strips of wood (called “battens") would then be nailed on top of the boards to cover the gaps. Both tongue-and-groove and shiplap siding make use of either grooves or notches to have boards slot together to prevent gaps.
Using one or more of these siding techniques on the entire exterior of a home, or just on the area inside the porch, can bring historical context to a newer farmhouse-style home.
This Tennessee home built in a farmhouse style has a wraparound porch and board-and-batten siding made of durable fiber cement. The sleeping porch tucked up into the gable also has a tongue-and-groove ceiling.
This Tennessee home built in a farmhouse style has a wraparound porch and board-and-batten siding made of durable fiber cement. The sleeping porch tucked up into the gable also has a tongue-and-groove ceiling.
7. Farm table. If you have room for outdoor dining on your porch, hunt down a classic farm table at an antique store or flea market, or find one in a classic style from a modern furniture store. Ideally, it should be solid wood and sturdy enough to live outdoors without too much special treatment.
This new-build farmhouse on an organic farm in Austin looks like it’s been there forever, thanks to a classic design and antique touches used throughout. The porch acts as the main dining room, and the couple combined a farmhouse-style table with Shaker-style chairs. The utilitarian outdoor sink and antique oil lamp contribute to the hardworking farmhouse feel.
See more of this Austin farmhouse | See more farm tables
See more of this Austin farmhouse | See more farm tables
8. Barn-style door. Adding a sliding barn door is a popular way to make a farmhouse statement indoors, but the style and space it takes up doesn’t make as much sense as a front door. Adopt the look without the complicated sliding hardware with a wooden front door made in a farmhouse style: linear wood boards with a classic Z-frame.
Alternatively, if you have a larger front entryway, double stable-style doors can make a farmhouse statement. Or, consider the ever-charming Dutch door for your front door.
9. A wood pile or other practical elements. Seeing rustic, working elements on the porch, such as wood stacked for a stove or woven or wire baskets for collecting eggs, is all part of the charm of a farmhouse entry. While you may not have a stove that takes wood or chickens laying eggs, adding a basket by a porch chair or a wooden fruit crate to corral shoes by the front door can help establish a practical farmhouse style.
10. Porch swing. A staple element of farmhouse porches of the American South, porch swings make an inviting accent to any porch. There are plenty of porch swings on the market, but if you’re going for a farmhouse look, use the same guiding principles you’d use for choosing other farmhouse-style furniture: simple, classic pieces, often made of wood. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can convert a wooden bench into a porch swing with the right mounting hardware. Paint it to match other porch furniture.
Bonus. For added Southern farmhouse charm, tap into a local tradition by painting the porch ceiling haint blue. The practice is said to have originated with Afro-Caribbean legends and the belief that ghosts, or “haints,” would not travel over water and could be tricked into avoiding a home with a blue porch ceiling.
Bonus. For added Southern farmhouse charm, tap into a local tradition by painting the porch ceiling haint blue. The practice is said to have originated with Afro-Caribbean legends and the belief that ghosts, or “haints,” would not travel over water and could be tricked into avoiding a home with a blue porch ceiling.
Your turn: Do you live in a farmhouse or have farmhouse accents on your porch? Show us in the Comments below.
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