The Slickest Old Barn You Ever Did See

From Margaret on February 10th, 2011 in Green Remodeling

What happens when modernists move into a very old structure? Nothing short of amazing design. When a hedge-fund manager, his wife and three-year-old twin daughters wanted to reimagine the interiors of their 19th-century barn, the results of such an unusual feat bring a unique and elegant unification.

The couple looked to designer Russell Groves, who had worked with them before on past projects. And he wasn’t unfamiliar with the couple’s unconventional look at design. The barn, for instance, had been moved from Canada to Connecticut. And when we say barn, we mean an actual former barn.

Working with the rustic bones of the place, Groves infused a sense of warmth and tactility in the modern pieces he included. The main living room offers a stool with Dedar fabric. Robert Allen sofa fabric. A Cheret 1897 Jardin de Paris poster.

Texture is the order of the day. The kitchen, for instance, offers raw beams and heavy wood flooring with zinc and marble countertops—all varied materials that get better with time, just as the barn itself already has.

The barn is open and relaxed—just as a barn should be—and offers plenty of natural light throughout, such as in the sun room.

In the master bedroom, a wall of windows offers light and a vast view, with rocking chairs beside the windows. Which goes along with Groves’s plan to “make the house comfortable for the family and also take the design up in the quality several notches.”

Groves suggests deliberateness through details like the smooth dining room table and chairs—wood to relate to the context, smooth to downplay the place’s inherent texture. And such key pieces like the customized chandelier speak to the spirit of individuality that spawned this project in the first place.

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