Wednesday, June 30, 2021

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.

12 comments:

  1. Oh yes!!!! I'm all about trying to repurpose as much as you can to keep some warmth and history to something. I love this!!! Looking pass the furnishings, this is soooooo me. I love it. What's not to love about the huge sliding stable door for the bathroom?! A place here in New Hope, a restaurant, used
    smaller barn doors that slide for their restroom doors. And love the huge wood plank floors.

    This incidentally was only about 9 minutes up the road from where Daddy Warbucks' house was in NH!!!! It's a beautiful area.

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  2. LOL. Yes. I love. This house? I love. The furnishings? Again... too futzy for my taste. I like cleaner lines with consistent warmth. This is too much like a walk through an antique store for me. But that house? Stunning. And fun. I even like the kitchen. Kizzes.

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  3. I think Franklin, Penelope, and I could move in and be quite happy. I especially like the tin panels and would be happy to sit in that rocking chair and appreciate everything around me. I once walked past the open door of an old church that had been converted into a home and longed to walk in. The barn reminds me of that home.

    Love,
    Janie

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  4. Love it.
    I think the idea of living in a repurposed barn is brilliant. So much character! I love that barber char, BTW.

    XOXO

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  5. That's nice and livable.

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  6. @Maddie
    I'd lose some of the furniture, too, but the space is amazing!!

    @upton
    It DOES look like an antique store!! I'd like some cleaner lines in the furnishings, too!

    @Janie
    Churches and barns that become private homes are some of my favorite spaces!

    @Six
    While nearly all the furniture would go, for me, I, too, would keep the barber chair. It's a perfect lounge-about-cock-a-tale chair!

    @Dave
    Not too big, not too small.

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  7. Really interesting and fun.
    Glad they used so much of
    local and old materials.
    xoxo :-)

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  8. Hmm, not for me. It might be the decor, the barber chair is the most comfortable looking thing there, and no above the waist storage in the kitchen, some of us don't bend over like we once could.

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  9. Anonymous11:33 AM

    Who's going to dust all those gegaws? That's what I want to know.

    I love a good barn house. The layout can be perfect for a multi-generational home.

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  10. I could live in this too! Except the New Hampshire part. I bit too cold in the winter.

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