Architecture Wednesday: New Hampshire Barn

And we’re back at a barn. I just love a barn turned into a home, but I loathe those barn homes that lose all their history and beams and character. Luckily, this barn, in Stratham, New Hampshire, maintains its barn-ness.

And this one, like many others, is attached to the main house on the property, though the barn came first; it was built in 1709, while the main house—I guess it was attached to the barn—came along in 1805. The homeowners were looking to downsize, but wanted to stay on the property, so they rent the main house to family members and created a new home for themselves in a part of the barn into their living quarters. The new renovation maintained the door that originally connected the barn to the house but also created a new main entry, located inside the barn and marked by French doors, for the homeowners.

But they didn’t build a new modern home in the barn; most of the interior is constructed from re-purposed materials from the structure. All the wood floors are made from reclaimed wood, Victorian tin panels were salvaged from a nearby building site and the slate used on the kitchen floor was mined in Pennsylvania to match the slate used in the farmhouse. But this is the 21st century and modern technology such as wireless lighting control and radiant flooring and wireless internet was built into the barn.

Initially the wife sold the idea to her husband by convincing him all they really needed to do was “add a wall” though it turned out to be a bit more complicated.

Still, it resembles a barn, with the history of old collectibles, wooden beams and floors, and pieces of the barn that were repurposed into the home, like the office doors that were original to the barn.

I could live in it.

One Kind Design