The Rise of the Modern Farmhouse

In the last few years, the modern farmhouse style has gone from virtually nonexistent to easily recognizable. Recent reporting from Realtor.com looks at how it got here.

Born in the home-flipping culture that rose during the 2008 recession the modern farmhouse, with it’s white shiplap, apron-front sinks, and industrial and antique touches, has stuck in the national design vocabulary. It has been fueled by DIY shows like the Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines, as well as by social media like Instagram and Pinterest.

What is surprising is that such a readily recognizable look is just a few years old. The New York Times first used the phrase “modern farmhouse” in an October 2016 article describing the work of the Jersey Ice Cream Co., an interior-design firm that gained attention in the early 2010s for home makeovers that layer in reclaimed wood, antique finds, and farmhouse sinks. Google tracks the use of the phrase “modern farmhouse” as nearly nonexistent from 2004 (when the search engine began tracking phrases) to 2015, with a sharp climb beginning in 2016 and continuing upward and upward with each passing month.

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