Between late-2010 and mid-2011, we completely redesigned the interior and exterior of our modern home in Austin, Texas. Part of a neighborhood of modern, green homes, our house already featured amazing light pouring in through 24 huge commercial-grade windows, a clever layout that maximized functionality and sense of space, and simple modern finishes like concrete, bamboo, steel, quartz.

Our goal was to bring the feel of the exterior of the home - which, with its pure lines and rustic details, was evocative of an old farmhouse - to the interior. With unadorned sheetrock and builder-grade paint, the house lacked the detail that could make it truly memorable. So we added a board-and-batten effect to most of the rooms using inexpensive lattice, plywood paneling in the office, paint to almost every wall, and dozens of little details. We used rustic furniture, industrial accents, paint, textiles, and accessories to capture a feel somewhere between Austin and upstate New York. We painted the staircase bright white and wrapped the steps in jute, painted the cabinetry and replaced the hardware, and planted hundreds of trees, perennials, cacti, and flowering vines in the yard.

We invite you to take a tour of the house. If you are interested in discussing a similar transformation to your own home, contact us for a consultation.

Video Tour:

Thanks to guest columnist Eileen Gill of The Gill Agency and Kevin Pruitt for this video.

Room-By-Room Photo Tour:

Take a tour of each room of the Modern Farmhouse, complete with stories and sources for many of the pieces of furniture and art.

To begin, you might want to take a quick look at the house before we renovated.

First Floor:

• Living Room
  
  
• Kitchen and Dining Room
  
  
• Powder Room
  
  
• Stairs and Hallway
  
  

Second Floor:

• Guest Bedroom
  
  
• Guest Bathroom
  
  
• Office
  
  
• Master Bedroom
  
  
• Master Bathroom
  
  

Outdoors:

• Front Yard
  
  
• Back Yard

Projects & Tips:

• Going Into Your Closet Should Be As Easy As Coming Out Of One · Everyone complains about a lack of closet space, mostly because we humans are like goldfish - we grow to the size of our container.
  
  
• Repurposing a Supply Cabinet · We turned a bent and rusty metal shelving unit into a great master bedroom feature.
  
  
• How Paint Turned a Forgotten Piano into a Showpiece · How the heck do you paint something like a piano?
  
  
• Adding Character to Sheetrock with Wood Paneling · One of the most striking changes we made during the Modern Farmhouse renovation was to the walls.
  
  
• Creating Stable Doors for Style and Function · We altered doors to allow in light, air, and the cat, and to keep the dog out.
  
  
• Creating a Lamp with a Tripod · We turned a beautiful antique tripod from Roger's production company into a unique lamp.
  
  
• Recovering a Piano Stool with a Bath Mat · We wanted to add substance and texture to this wire piano stool, so we recovered it using a chenille bath mat.
  
  
• Dressing Up Mirrors with Frames · Lauri wants to know how to bring interest to a boring bathroom mirror by adding a custom frame.
  
  
• Upgrading the Shower Caddy · Quinn doesn't like the hanging shower caddy used to store shampoo bottles. Roger has just the solution.
  
  
• Proper Ring Clip Spacing · Scott is using ring clips to hang a curtain panel, and needs to know the proper spacing.

Partners:

We partnered with a number of companies on this project. Here are some of the vendors and contractors with whom we worked. Note: Detailed source lists are included in each room tour.

• California Closets · We transformed our closets with functional and stylish organization hardware.
  
  
• CetraPro Painters · Roger's partner for years on Sell This House, CertaPro Austin painted all of the walls, ceilings, our stairway, our cabinetry, our piano, and even our the ceiling and floor of our carport.
  
  
• Floor Coverings International · Our open stairway was made safer for pets and people alike by wrapping each step in natural jute runners.
  
  
• 3 Day Blinds · We used white 2-inch wood blinds with fabric tape throughout the house.
  
  
• 5G Contracting · 5G performed the carpentry work, adding the board-and-batten treatment to the walls, creating the stable and barn doors, and building the front yard fence.
  
  
• Barn Light Electric · The rustic fixtures in our master and guest bathrooms were built by this provider of vintage-style lighting.

Read more about the partners for the Modern Farmhouse project.

If you are interested in discussing a similar transformation to your own home, contact us for a consultation.