With beautiful reclaimed wood, Edison lights, and large apron sinks, the modern farmhouse style gives the impression of rustic country living without the real farm. But after gaining immense popularity in the past three years, designers are seeing a shift away from the black, white, and wood of American modern farmhouses to colorful kitchens and internationally-inspired details. Trends may come and go, says the New York Times, but the modern farmhouse isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, though it may not look the same next year.
We are living in the age of the Modern Farmhouse. This is why so many of our kitchens have apron sinks, Shaker cabinets and industrial lighting, whether the home is a prewar apartment in Manhattan or a split-level in Mamaroneck. A dining room wouldn’t be complete without a table made of reclaimed wood, perhaps from a barn. Not our barn, of course, because who in Westchester or Manhattan has a barn?
The design style, a modern twist on the classic American farmhouse, takes the clean lines of contemporary design and accents them with industrial finishes, all while giving a nod to what is considered homey or rustic. A variation on the shabby chic phenomenon of the 1990s, the look was prominently featured by Chip and Joanna Gaines on the HGTV show, “Fixer Upper,” which ended last year. The couple who rebranded Waco, Texas, as a design destination have temporarily left the airwaves while they prepare to launch their own cable network, but their signature brand of shiplap walls and cozy white sofas doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
Home décor stores sell decorative accessories that look like someone’s fantasy of what farmers might actually hang on their walls: picture frames fashioned out of faux old wood windows; wood word art — so much word art — that makes stark proclamations in chunky text like “Be a Voice, Not an Echo” or, more to the point for a kitchen wall, “Eat”; and distressed coffee tables that look like they’ve been planted around the family hearth for decades, not recently shipped from China.