Farmhouses have a special place in the American psyche. They remind us of our traditional values and make us nostalgic for a simpler time, when people lived a little closer to nature and with more of a sense of community. A farmhouse's solid, honest construction is comforting. It's a place where you can keep your family safe, bake apple pies from scratch, and sit by the fire on a winter's evening.
People will do surprising things to cling to their farmhouses and the way of life they symbolize. Take John Mohr, whose wife, Nancy, is the author of a recently published coffee-table book The Farmhouse (Running Press, 2002). He loved living in their Pennsylvania farmhouse so much that when he got a job in New York City he commuted six hours a day for six years before he finally retired.
"Farmhouses pay you back for the love you give them," says Nancy Mohr.
Mike Rhoten, a commercial landscaper, built a big, beautiful home for his family in Fallston, but he sold it in less than five years and bought a farmhouse that he describes as "a total disaster."
"My wife is unusual in that she puts up with my quirks," he says.
Once part of a dairy farm, the wooden house sits on 34 acres near Street, Md. Rhoten, 54, had to gut the structure before it could be renovated but kept the basic farmhouse look.
"I knew what the potential was," he says. "It has a lot of history. There are a half-dozen maple trees over 100 years old around it. And there's a big, beautiful porch -- three porches, in fact."
The Rhotens, who had started off their married life in the city and never stayed in one house for as long as five years before, have been happy in their farmhouse for 10 years now.
You don't have to go far into the Maryland country- side to find them: the handsome clapboard homes built on the rolling land. Author Nancy Mohr's first farmhouse, in fact, was in Green Spring Valley in the late '50s and early '60s, when her husband, an advertising copywriter, took a job with Van Sant-Dugdale in Baltimore. Their love affair with that first white, green-shuttered Maryland home eventually led to their building their own farmhouse in Unionville, Pa. When they couldn't find a house that suited them exactly, they hired Amish carpenters to construct one out of materials from an old barn. A farmhouse can be a state of mind as well as a historical structure.
Each February Country Living publishes its House of the Year. The February 2003 issue will feature an updated 19th-century farmhouse. That's no coincidence, says Nancy Soriano, editor-in-chief of the magazine.
"There was a growing sense that people wanted to return to simpler materials and things that have a history," she says, a trend that accelerated with last year's terrorist attacks. "9 / 11 catapulted the country into re-evaluating how we wanted to be with our families, what is comfortable, and what is traditional.
'There's a very strong emotional pull with farmhouses," she says. "We lead complex lives. Farmhouses have a nice flow of space, they are usually beautifully sited and most farmhouses have porches. Their vernacular architecture has tremendous appeal."
Then, too, Americans are comfort-seekers; and farmhouses' cozy rooms, large kitchens, fireplaces and rocking chairs can be very comfortable, particularly with a little modernizing.
"I love old houses," says Anne Walker, 38, whose Jarrettsville home was built in the early 1800s. "I like the small spaces. Everything is so big these days."
The best renovations maintain that fine balance between making the farmhouse an enjoyable place to live and leaving the patina, preserving the history for the next generation.
While most of us have an idealized idea of the American farmhouse in our heads, they come in many different architectural styles -- unlike, say, bungalows -- depending on the period and region of the country. The earliest ones might be log houses or saltbox designs (with a long sloping back roof), while by the end of the 19th century they could be Late Victorian structures with gingerbread and wraparound porches. Most, though, have a simplicity of line that gives them a sturdy elegance.
SOPHISTICATED, TOO
In the '90s, Martha Stewart changed our idea of farmhouses by investing them with cachet. Her first major domestic project was the renovation of the 200-year-old house in Westport, Conn., now known as Turkey Hill Farm, the ultimate fixer-upper. It became the upscale dream home of millions of women all over the world. Here Martha lived in domestic bliss, making jellies, picking her roses and feeding the chickens.
"Country has been popular for decades, but a more period style," says Leah Rosch, author of American Farmhouses: Country Style and Design (Simon & Schuster, 2002). "The New England or Amish cutesy quality used to be pervasive. In the past five or so years it's given way to something more sophisticated. It's comfortable and casual, an antidote to high-tech elements."
At this year's wholesale furniture market in High Point, N.C., one of the most successful "lifestyle" introductions was the Martha Stewart Collection for Bernhardt. The clean lines of farmhouse style inspired many of the designs, although in updated materials and detailing. There's a hutch, for instance, with two built-in bread boards, a long farm table and a variation on the Windsor chair.
"They are hearkening back to classic roots," says Alexandra Bates, senior vice president for design and product development for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. "We took the traditional, kept the aged patina, but gave them a modern twist."
Furniture from the collection should be in stores this spring.
'A VACATION TO BE HERE'
For most people, though, Martha Stewart's Turkey Hill remains a fantasy farmhouse, appealing in a voyeuristic, lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous sort of way; but not something you'd actually be able to afford to come home to. Real farmhouses, on the other hand, are.
Ronnie Buerger, 60, owns one in Owings Mills that started as a log cabin and over the next 100 years had seven additions. She lives there alone now, although her five children come and go.
The house is large, with six bedrooms; its 16-acre plot includes two ponds.
"It's a lovely farm," she says. "Fairly secluded. It's a vacation to be here."
While technically her property is a farm, the developer didn't want anyone breeding barnyard animals on the land, so cows, sheep, goats, chickens and the like are prohibited. She is allowed to raise horses, which she tried and didn't enjoy, and ducks (because she has two ponds).
"I tried ducks but the foxes kept eating them," she says. "I gave it up because I realized I was just raising them to feed the foxes."
Finally a friend suggested she try llamas. She checked the prohibited list, and -- not surprisingly -- llamas weren't on it, so she started with two and now has 12 of them.
As far as Buerger is concerned, it's as idyllic a life as the one Martha lives at Turkey Hill Farm. But there can be problems, ones typical of all old houses.
"When something breaks, it's major," she says. "And with all the additions, there are so many different systems to go." But, she adds, "I'm happy here."
CREATING THE LOOK
Regardless of where you live, you can incorporate elements of farmhouse style in your home. Its simplicity and sense of history help it blend seamlessly with many different design elements.
"So much of farmhouse style is in the details," says author Leah Rosch. "It's about paying homage to the past. It's about mixing periods, and displaying pieces rather than using them for their original purpose. Quilts become wall art. Old, chipped earthenware jugs are elevated to flower vases. Tin washbasins are turned into planters."
Distressed finishes, rustic pieces, anything worn or handcrafted, simple earthenware can all contribute. Wide-plank flooring, hooked rugs and folk art can also help create the look.
"Farmhouse style is truly a mind-set," says Soriano of Country Living. "It's not about where you live."
Elements of the style
So you want the look, but not the house in the country. Here are some elements of farmhouse style:
* quilts
* distressed finishes
* simple lines
* weather vanes
* folk art
* galvanized iron containers
* braided rugs
* wide-plank floors
* exposed beams
* fireplaces
* long plank tables
* blue-and-white export china
* wooden and cast iron implements
* earthenware
* black-and-white checkerboard floors
* floorcloths
* country oak furniture
* hutches
* rush seats in chairs
* straight edges and lots of wood
* punched-tin cabinets
* candle sconces and lanterns
* gingham and stripes
* reed and wicker baskets