How to Design a Farmhouse Barndominium Interior for Your Home
by Stephanie Jiang
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Breaking Down a Barndominium
A marriage between a barn and a condominium, a barndominium is a renovated or newly built barn, or a warehouse with a living space. They’re usually set on acres of open land.
Historically, barns were used by agricultural folk to both live and store their produce in. Think of it as the original work-from-home concept. Today, these versatile structures can be used as large, open-plan living areas with enough space to work in. They can even be used as business spaces to house galleries, restaurants, gyms, and more.
The term barndominium is more of an umbrella term to describe a modern farmhouse-inspired home with barn elements. While they were typically steel frame or metal buildings, the term now also includes wooden structures.
Interior design elements of farmhouse barndominiums include open floor plans and other signature barn features, like using resilient wood, high and vaulted ceilings, barn doors, and wraparound porches.
Let’s dive deeper into the farmhouse barndominium interior style to find out if a modern farmhouse is the perfect match for you.
Who Is the Barndo Perfect For?
Also known as a “pole barn house”, the barndominium is ideal for individuals, couples, or families who are looking to escape the chaos of city life and live closer to nature. Maybe you’re looking for a barndo as your living quarters, home office, or weekend home — or someone else’s as a short-term vacation rental. In any case, it’s a great investment.
Pros of a Barn Home
Are you dreaming of buying land to build your own farmhouse barndominium? Maybe you already own property and need inspiration. No matter what stage you’re at, remember barn homes are an asset to own and fun to live in! Here are some pros of a barn home to consider.
Brings you closer to nature: In the frenzied pace of city living, cars and loud street noises become the soundtrack of your life. If you’re looking to slow down, then moving to the countryside to a barn-style living space may be just what you need. A cozy farmhouse barndominium interior is a great place to relax and rejuvenate in.
Gives you space to play around: One of the bigger constraints of city life are homes with limited square footage. Barn homes set on acres of land give you more vertical and horizontal room to play around with. You can even create a master suite with a walk-in-closet, which is often an unfulfilled dream for city homeowners!
Offers variety and durability: A farmhouse style home is fully customizable. Since they’re generally open-plan, you can design them just the way you want — to live in, work out of, create a workshop, and add storage, garage space, or a gym.
A signature of a farmhouse barndominium interior is high ceilings and an uninterrupted flow of light and air thanks to open spaces. You can use an open floor plan or build walls to create a sheltered living room and kitchen island.
Easier on the pocket and quicker to construct: Designing a barndominium home is more cost-effective. If you use a metal or steel barndominium house plan, these take less time to build and are low maintenance. These materials help your home withstand bad weather for years, keeping your family safe.
Building a home can be pretty daunting. Luckily, companies like DEN Outdoors can do the groundwork for you. We help you as you start researching, streamline each stage of the building process, and offer budget-friendly packages to help design your custom home.
We provide architectural blueprints for the house, detailed structural plans, a project brief, and even a cost breakdown spreadsheet. Choose a Starter package if you’re still researching and evaluating your options. Once you’re ready to build, you can apply the amount spent on a Starter package toward the Complete package.
What to Keep in Mind While Designing Your Farmhouse Barndominium Interior
Ready to start designing your farmhouse barndominium interior? The first step is to list out the exterior and interior elements you want. Here’s your chance to have the white picket fence you dreamed of — or that gigantic baking oven you never had any room for in your city loft.
Fixtures and amenities for your new home: Prior to designing, take into account the flooring, ceilings, walls, and household hardware — the plumbing, electricity, appliances, fixed countertops, and larger amenities you need square footage for. Companies like DEN Outdoors can help you figure this out.
Exterior elements to focus on pre-building: While the steel frame is the biggest part of the exterior, you also need to decide what kind of concrete foundation, metal siding, landscaping, balconies, and fencing you want in your home.
Signature decor elements to help you plan your interior design: Some features are typical to farmhouse-style homes. Most have durable metal roofs over soaring vaulted/beamed high ceilings, large french windows, a roomy front porch, storage lofts, family rooms flowing into the kitchen space, and wraparound decks. While a traditional home has walls to carve out rooms, open layouts in barndos allow you to create a more fluid, airy space. A more rustic aesthetic also means lots of wooden furniture and flooring.
9 Tips to Design Farmhouse Barndominium Interiors:
Traditional barn-style interiors are rustic, warm, and envelop you in a cloud of calm. You can almost imagine them smelling of apple pie and freshly brewed coffee. While we may not be able to help you bake said pie, we’re sharing a few signature features of these homes so you can create your own, cozy farmhouse-style interiors.
- Opt for traditional wooden barn-style doors.
- Restore or build signature vaulted ceilings to capture the spirit of a barn home.
- Carve out a large kitchen island that opens into a family room, typical of farm houses.
- Since a barn home is spacious, use a few pieces of larger furniture instead of cluttering the space with lots of tiny pieces.
- Instead of building walls and breaking the open flow, use colors to unite spaces. Think: an all-white kitchen, a dining room in soft pastels, or a family room entirely in shades of yellow and brown.
- Design spaces to be multi-purpose. For example, add a Murphy bed to a study and then it can double as a guest room.
- Take advantage of the high ceilings and build a loft to house private spaces like the primary bedroom. It can be used for storage, which is always a welcome feature.
- Allow the exteriors to inspire the barndominium inside: Focus on adding lots of large windows and well-designed porches so you can make the most of barndominium life.
- Incorporate Dutch/table doors wherever possible.
Interior Styles to Help Design Your Dream Home
Homes are an extension of our personalities. The spaces we create and the things we surround ourselves with say a lot about who we are. When designing your farmhouse barndominium interior, you’ll want to decorate in a way that best reflects your personality. Luckily, there are many interior styles you can play around with.
Modern: This style follows a neutral color palette and the interiors are minimal, uncluttered, fuss-free, and use layered, textured natural materials. For an added touch, structural elements are left exposed.
Contemporary: When it comes to this style, Pinterest boards are your friends, as “contemporary” is the currently trending aesthetic. Just like Instagram’s algorithm, the contemporary design school is dynamic — i.e., constantly changing. It takes reference from other styles, like modern, rustic, and bohemian. Both contemporary and modern homes have a minimalist look in common, with clean lines and the use of natural materials.
Rustic: This is what best defines the farmhouse barndominium interior. The focus is on natural, earthy, and organic. The rustic style is all about reclaimed wood, natural colors, and materials in their raw form. These interiors are warm and cozy with the usage of warm and earthy tones, textured surfaces, handmade elements, exposed beams, and eggshell white walls.
Bohemian: This style follows a more free-spirited, artistic, melting-pot of cultures aesthetic. Colors can be lively and eclectic, there are playful decor elements, mismatched linen, accents, ambient lights, lounge furniture, and an overall casual vibe.
Stunning Barndominium Homes to Inspire You
We’ve done a lot of telling, but now it’s time to show you what we mean. Check out these farmhouse barndominium interior examples that you can make your own.
Modern Barnhouse Loft
Designed by DEN Outdoors, this beautiful Scandinavian-style Modern Loft Barnhouse is perfect for couples or nuclear families. At 880 sq. ft., it sleeps four to six people, and has sleek lines and clean interiors.
Massive picture windows, sliding glass doors, and a wraparound deck make it easier for you to embrace nature.
Barnhouse Family Home
If you have a larger family or love entertaining, this nearly 1,600-square-foot Barnhouse Family home, also designed by DEN Outdoors, will excite you!
A beautiful, sleek Scandinavian-style design, the home has clean lines and a gorgeous covered porch that runs the entire length of two bedrooms. Sleeping six to eight people, if you like the modern minimalist aesthetic then this one’s for you.
Classic Barn Home
A rustic farmhouse from 1910 gets a lift, inspired by traditional farmhouse aesthetics, as seen in ELLE Decor. All-white walls, vaulted ceilings, and a kitchen that opens into a family room meet rustic elements like reclaimed wood bookcases and vintage decor accents.
For those who want to combine traditional barn elements with modern amenities, this one will inspire you.
Essential House
A 1,000-square-foot modern cabin with two full bedrooms that sleeps four to six people, the Essential House, designed by DEN Outdoors, is a perfect cabin for those looking to escape into the great outdoors.
With floor-to-ceiling windows and a covered porch, it urges you to surround yourself with greens, while the sleek, minimalist interiors are functional, yet calming. Perfect for nature buffs!
Getting Started On Your Dream Barndominium Home
We know that dreaming of the perfect home is easy, but building it can be another story — which is why we’ve highlighted all you need to know about barndominiums. With this knowledge of barnhouse pros, interior elements, exterior features, you can find the right plan and design for you.
Ready for the real thing? DEN's design packages contain everything you need to get started on your barndo journey.