City Farmhouse Style: Designs for a Modern Country Life

385 Pages·2017·67.12 MB·English

by  Kim Leggett

CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY
RACHEL HARDAGE BARRETT
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
FARMHOUSE INSPIRATION
THE WAY WE WERE
FARMHOUSE PAINTS
FARMHOUSE WALLPAPERS
FARMHOUSE TEXTILES
CHAPTER 2
THE UPTOWN CITY FARMHOUSE
THE MODERN FARMHOUSE
TUCKED-AWAY CHARM
PURE COUNTRY
MADE FROM SCRATCH
ROOTED IN THE PAST
THE FRENCH FARMHOUSE
CHAPTER 3
THE SUBURBAN CITY FARMHOUSE
FRESH START
SWEET HARMONY
THE DESIGNER’S FARMHOUSE
SALVAGED STYLE
CHAPTER 4
THE CREATIVE CITY FARMHOUSE
THE WRITER’S LOFT
SOPHISTICATED STUDY
TOP-OF-THE-TOWN GARDEN
CHAPTER 5
PICKIN’ PLACES
RESOURCES FOR CREATING CITY FARMHOUSE STYLE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

There’s a simplicity to farmhouse staples that helps them play well with other
design elements and aesthetics, whether your tastes veer toward the modern,
traditional, or somewhere in between.
FOREWORD
Chalk it up to the ubiquitous farm-to-table trend, but it seems that anything
branded with the word “farmhouse” is suddenly having a moment—from simple
white farmhouse kitchens to amber-hued farmhouse ales. Farmers, of course,
were doing “farm-to-table” far before it became the hyphenate du jour on
highfalutin city menus, and those same farming folk knew the merits of, say, a
wide-bowl apron sink or easy-access open shelving well before those items
became staples of designer portfolios and home décor catalogs.
The real beauty of farmhouse style—unlike other more fleeting design trends
—is that it’s rooted in roll-up-your-sleeves practicality. Farmhouses have been
around for hundreds of years, after all, and they were designed to work hard—to
accommodate multigenerational families, feed a crowd, and, yes, handle a little
dirt.
As the editor in chief of Country Living, a brand with design-loving readers
all over the country, I’ve seen firsthand how the demand for all things farmhouse
has grown exponentially over the past few years—and well beyond the county
lines of honest-to-goodness farm towns. Farmhouse style seems to resonate
everywhere, from the neon lights of Times Square to one-stoplight town squares,
and for good reason: A farmhouse table or an apron sink work just as well in an
urban loft or suburban Tudor as they do in a country farmhouse.
I also suspect farmhouse style has such widespread appeal because it’s
inherently inviting. It’s warm, welcoming, and, thanks to its adaptability, all-
inclusive. At Country Living, we run across hundreds of objectively beautiful
spaces every month, but our most important criteria when vetting homes is this:
Does it make you want to fidget, or does it make you want to linger? If it’s the
former, it falls into the “no” pile. A farmhouse-inspired home, if done right,
certainly doesn’t make you want to fidget. Nothing about farmhouse style is too
precious, too sleek, too hard-lined, or too cold.
It’s no surprise, then, that Kim Leggett, the brilliant design mind behind the
lifestyle brand, blog, and boutique City Farmhouse (and author of this very
book), has helped plant and grow the seeds of the farmhouse-style movement.
Yes, she has an incredible eye for good design, but perhaps more important, she
embodies the warm, open, friendly aesthetic of the farmhouse look. Our paths
first crossed at a Country Living fair event several years ago, where, after I likely
spent too much money in her perfectly curated booth, we started talking and
realized that we both hail from the same small farming town nestled in the
northwest corner of Tennessee. Maybe it’s because the muddy water of the
Mississippi is thicker than blood, but Kim immediately felt like family. But
here’s the thing: I suspect she has that “you’re one of my people” effect on
pretty much everyone, and therein lies her personal sit-and-stay-awhile charm.
That sense of personal connection is another check mark in favor of
farmhouse style, isn’t it? At the risk of sounding a little “crotchety old man,”
I’ve found that modern-day social media connections simply can’t compete with
a sprawling front porch that fosters impromptu (in-person!) conversations with
your neighbors or a long farmhouse table designed for sit-down Sunday suppers.
Even other hallmarks of farmhouse style—family heirlooms, cleverly upcycled
accents—are intended to connect us with the past. Creaky hardwood floors
remind us of those who walked before us, as do the resourcefully repurposed
items that decorate our planked walls and open shelves. (Now, if only someone
could come up with a clever way to repurpose a Mason jar …)
An aesthetic movement that not only values but also celebrates all things old,
chipped, and weathered is pretty much destined to have longevity. Twenty years
from now, you may question that chevron wallpaper or those ikat draperies, but
you won’t regret a cast-iron claw-foot tub or an heirloom-worthy iron bedframe.
Farmhouse style is time-tested. It has staying power. You can bet the farm on it.
—RACHEL HARDAGE BARRETT, editor in chief, Country Living
Farmhouse style is the design equivalent of “sit and stay awhile.”