A rustic, lumpy cement pot holds a branch of eucalyptus leaves and sits on a rustic wooden chest. Also on the chest is a brass tray with two books, a bronze bell resting on the books, and a wrought iron candleholder with five lit votives. A linen-covered sofa sits behind covered with several textural pillows, one that looks like a section from a Turkish or Southwestern brown and cream rug, the other a woven rust and white texture.
What's Your Style?

Modern Farmhouse Interior Design

by Laura Grey No Comments

Contemporary, rustic, yet bright and clean—modern farmhouse style is one of today’s most popular decorating options. It combines reclaimed woods, neutral colors, natural materials, and rich textures to create open, homey, serene spaces. While it has some similarities to country, cottage, or earlier versions of farmhouse style, it largely replaces color and pattern with texture and light. Modern farmhouse interior design focuses on using white or pale neutral colors mixed with wooden architectural elements and furnishings. It incorporates elements from industrial, craftsman, and midcentury modern (MCM) design, too. This style focuses heavily on materials instead of applied decoration. It often begins in open-plan spaces with angular, contemporary features. Then it layers in heavily textural wooden, metal, ceramic, or textile elements. Let’s explore what makes modern farmhouse style so popular, and how to make this style feel personal, warm, and inviting.

The Modern Farmhouse Decade

An L-shaped dining and living area is painted white and has pale wood floors and pale beige textured area rugs under the living area at front and the dining area behind. Two black metal oversized chandeliers, one round and one more rectangular, hang over the space. A round pale wood coffee table topped with a textural white planter and vibrant green plant are flanked with woven caramel leather chairs at front. Behind is a white shiplap-covered pair of walls around a dark wood dining table with six black wood side chairs and two white upholstered armchairs.
Clever placement of furnishings, lots of texture, neutral and natural colors, and a combination of light airiness and grounded dark elements makes even a small space with multiple areas feel cohesive and welcoming | Collov Home Design for Unsplash

The modern farmhouse trend was well established by 2015 and has been strong ever since. Design trendspotters say its most popular elements—like barn doors, shiplap walls, and neutral colors—are waning in popularity from their height, but you’ll still find them everywhere.

Modern farmhouse spaces tend to be quietly tasteful, pared down, and usually informal. They mix old and new elements to create a gathered-over-time feel and character. Farmhouse kitchens—the stars of modern farmhouse homes—combine bright white cabinetry and counters and clean modern lines with rustic elements. These can include wooden farm tables and old-fashioned apron sinks that provide plenty of room for family dinner cleanup.

Glass-fronted cabinets in white or light woods are popular, as are open wooden shelves that leave dishes and glasses on permanent display. (Not that while they’re attractive and affordable to install, open kitchen shelves gather dust and grease quickly, and any clutter is on full display.) Copper pendant lights bring a bit of industrial bling. Large kitchen islands surrounded by counter stools serve as eat-in kitchen tables. Countertops are often honed marble that looks worn and softened by time. Sometimes they’re practical white quartz, or weathered wooden butcher block. Modern farmhouse homes with a more industrial edge might choose poured concrete or stainless steel counters.

Not Your Mother’s Farmhouse

A white minimalist kitchen warmed by wood and orange touches. The back wall with a small over-sink window is covered in white porcelain hex tiles. The white marble waterfall-edged island has pale grey veining. Three low MCM-style wood barstools sit below the counter in front of figured wood cabinet doors. A large orange painting hangs at left behind a tall tropical plant. An enameled Dutch oven on the counter is in the same shade of grey-green as the plant. Sparkling glassware is in glass-front white cabinets on the back wall. Some glasses inside have copper highlights. The bottoms of the cabinets are painted orange. Large white globe pendant lights hang over the island.
Modern farmhouse meets minimalist midcentury in this bright, sleek kitchen. The white hex tiles on the wall give a nod to authentic farmhouse chickenwire, and the waterfall-edged pale marble island is elegant but practical. The low MCM-style wood barstools and figured wood under-counter cabinets bring earthy warmth, and the bright orange art, leather cabinet pulls, glassware with copper highlights, and touches of orange under the cabinets bring a vibrant modernist sensibility, as do the large white globe pendant lights | Roam in Color for Unsplash

The traditional farmhouse style so popular in the 1990s featured busy traditional prints and patterns, especially florals, stripes, and ginghams. Bright or pastel colors and lots of cheery decor items were the standards during the “shabby chic” years. This style highlighted cheerful family-oriented collections and didn’t object to a bit of clutter.

In contrast, modern farmhouse style is sleek and pared down. In reaction to the maximalism that came before, this style makes simplicity and organizational elements into design features. Today’s home-dwellers yearn for tidy mudrooms with cubbies, built-in shelving, and firewood storage in the living room. Their white kitchens with glass-front cabinets or open shelves prominently show off the cohesive, simple, neutral dinnerware and decor.

Modern farmhouse interior design can look cold if every element looks too bright, fresh, and contemporary. Mixing in vintage or antique pieces gives a home a beautifully lived-in look. Wooden pieces that don’t feel fragile and aren’t too fussy to touch work well.

A Little Color Goes a Long Way

A detail from a modern farmhouse style cafe with industrial touches features a honed white marble counter topped by large glass jars filled with lemons and long branches of pussywillows and yellow forsythia blossoms. Fresh beige pastries and cake match the colors of the wood planter overhead, the wood trim of the large window at left, and the floating wood shelves that hang off the white subway tiled wall over the stainless steel barista's counter at right. A large blackboard with white writing hangs at right from black rods, and stainless steel appliances and hanging white porcelain cloche-shaped pendant lights give an industrial modern feeling.
This light, bright cafe mixes modern farmhouse and industrial elements, as so many popular cafes and dine-in bakeries now do. White subway tile, cloche-shaped pendant lamps, and honed marble counters look clean, crisp, and modern, and reflect light. The yellow forsythias and lemons add warmth and welcome pops of color. Stainless steel counters and appliances and black metal bars and the blackboard bring in the industrial elements | Sabrina Mazzeo for Unsplash

The contemporary emphasis on replacing color with texture and focusing on materials is prominent in modern farmhouse interior design. Many modern farmhouse rooms are almost exclusively white, grey, and black. They may use almost no other accent colors, except for shades of brown in wood or leather, or hints of red in brick or terracotta ceramics.

Any use of color really sings in such a neutral space, so even soft colors added to a room in modest amounts add energy and personality. Because the style emphasizes natural hues and textures, large houseplants add welcome pops of color. They also add curves and diagonals, making spaces feel livelier. Freshly cut flowers, fruit, or living plants bring not only color and curves but also softness and life. These natural elements make a room feel friendlier and more fun.

When colors are used in modern farmhouse interior design, they tend to be accent pieces using soft colors from nature, such as beige, tan, pale-to-medium true blues, or muted greens. However, adding some dark elements really warms up a room. Touches of forest green or chocolate brown add drama and depth.

Don’t fear the dark side

Don’t be afraid to go dark with this style. While white, tan, and brown are expected, darker nooks with tan, taupe, charcoal grey, or brown walls and brown or black furniture can look wonderful. Warm sofas or chairs in brown tweed, caramel leather, or even lowkey green performance velvet (if the rest of the room is neutral) fit right in. These feel cozier and more relaxed than a cream-colored chair you’re afraid to stain with a coffee or a new pair of dark-wash jeans.

The trick is to choose colors that aren’t too saturated—softer green instead of emerald or olive, mellow coral instead of bold bittersweet orange, and subtler browns that don’t have too much yellow, orange or red. Colors with a touch of grey or brown in them work best with the modern farmhouse aesthetic. If you like red, consider using only touches of darker tones like maroon or brick red as accent colors, such as in ceramics, pillows (think Turkish, Southwestern, or Persian rug patterns and colors), or art works, instead of on entire walls. Too much hot color can fight with this style’s more subdued, relaxed vibe.

To keep a room with darker colors balanced and harmonious, set off the darkness with creamy elements like lampshades, throws, ceramics, fixtures, or table runners. Hang pale paintings or large mirrors to add brightness. Or display photos, prints, or engravings with large white or cream mats and black frames on dark walls. Add a shimmery tray with off-white candles. Then mix in a few brass, glass, pewter, or silver elements around the room for sparkle.

Adding darker colors to a farmhouse kitchen

While modern farmhouse kitchens are usually white and bright, blue kitchen cabinetry and cabinets in all shades of grey have shown up in designer kitchens in recent years. Now that cooler colors, especially greys, are on the wane, green cabinetry is really having a moment. Kitchen and mudroom cabinetry in slightly greyed sage green tones featured in HGTV’s Dream Home 2022 and Dream Home 2023, both designed Brian Patrick Flynn. HGTV’s 2022 Smart Home kitchen celebrated warmer tones with an avocado green kitchen. The color, now more popular than at any time since the 1970s, was set off by white subway tile, a shiny marble counter, and dark wood island cabinetry. Designer Tiffany Brooks played up the golden undertones within the olive green by using brass fixtures, hardware, and pendant lamps with large milk-white globes. Golden tones really pop against mid-toned green cabinets, bringing in that luxe touch.

Can a Neutral, Angular Style Feel Cozy?

This style really celebrates rectangular shapes and grey, black, and white tones. Adding industrial touches like black metal sconces or window frames, or rough-hewn wooden tables with riveted metal frames, emphasizes the style’s harder edges even more.

That said, modern farmhouse spaces really can feel cozy, family-friendly, and sophisticated when done with care. The trick to making this style feel welcoming is to layer each room with the following:

  • Texture
  • Hints of sparkle and shine
  • Toasty, earthy, airy, or verdant shades that remind us of nature
  • A sense of personal history
  • Soft places to land and snuggle up to

How to cozy things up

A midcentury modern wooden table lamp with a low linen cylinder shade sits at left on top of a rustic wooden chest with dinged up wooden doors and drawer. Behind the chest is a large round mirror with a pale wooden frame hanging on the wall. A black and gold rectangular mirror rests atop the chest, partly covering the round one. In front of the mirrors are two rectangular woven seagrass boxes topped by two black and gold books. Next to them are a brown glass candle, lit, and a black matte ceramic vase holding dried thin branches ending in tiny, soft buds.
Jennifer Bradford softened the hard edges of this chest by adding round items—a vintage lamp, a black matte vase, a large round mirror—and layering touchable textures like linen, wood, and woven grasses. | Transition Mode LLC

Because color often takes a back seat to textures in this style, it’s important to pay close attention to the materials you use in your home, and to vary and layer them. Using asymmetry is also important, since a home full of rectangles can feel static, formal, or cold. Asymmetrical groupings of odd numbers of things attract the eye, giving it someplace to land. Creating pleasing groupings of furniture or decor elements—taking care to avoid clutter—makes a home feel welcoming and cared for.

Adding MCM furnishings—whether vintage pieces or reproductions—to a modern farmhouse home can add softness and warmth. MCM style emphasizes materials and textures, especially wood grains, but also incorporates organic curves in its bent, shaped, or carved wooden pieces. While adding industrial elements to a modern farmhouse home adds edginess, adding midcentury elements can add vintage charm and natural curves. It can also add subtle humor or whimsy, which can make a room feel more friendly and relaxed.

Mixing up materials, sizes, and types of furnishings is important. Keeping things matchy-matchy in such a neutral, linear home can feel uptight. It also feels unnatural, as if you gathered everything at once. A home that looks as if you collected the contents over time feels lovingly curated, gathered, and lived in. It looks and feels more personal.

Modern Farmhouse Materials

Homes in this style often use salvaged items and reclaimed materials for their furnishings, or in their art, which adds character. These might include repurposed doors, ceiling beams, old windows, old metal or wooden signs, glass door knobs, or vintage furniture.

Here are some other popular materials commonly used in modern farmhouse homes:

Both traditional and modern farmhouse interior design styles use wood, pottery, metals, and baskets in their decor. However, modern farmhouse materials tend to be less polished—their materials and natural flaws are on display. Instead of being stained, painted, pressed, or carved, they may be closer to their original forms. One example of this is the material most associated with farmhouse style: the horizontal wooden wall slats or planks popularly known as shiplap.

Shiplap—The iconic farmhouse material

An covered indoor/outdoor cafe patio features whitewashed dining tables flanked by midcentury "wishbone" chairs, white shiplap-covered walls, rattan chairs and large plants toward the back, and a series of large rattan pendant lamps that hang over the tables.
Modern farmhouse, midcentury modern (MCM), Scandi, and Japandi styles work well together. The whitewashed slat tables complement white shiplap walls, and MCM wishbone chairs with rush seats echo the curves of the rattan pendant lights | George Pagan for Unsplash

On their TV show Fixer Upper (2013 – 18), Joanna and Chip Gaines made shiplap a household word. Now it’s everywhere. Since the mid-2010s, shiplap has been featured so often on websites, TV shows, and Instagram that many designers consider it overdone.

While attractively textural and a handy way to add a bit of interest to a large open wall in a hurry, it has its drawbacks. Long horizontal ridges tend to gather a lot of dust, which makes shiplap less than ideal for people with respiratory problems. It’s awkward to hang things like art or mirrors over the material. Shiplap can get in the way of barn doors, which are very popular in modern farmhouse settings. What’s more, shiplap’s uneven texture makes it more difficult to place a piece of furniture like a bookcase flat against a wall.

If you like a textured wooden wall, consider vertical beadboard. It’s flatter than shiplap, so it’s easier to place furniture against it. Beadboard’s grooves gather less dust than shiplap does. Beadboard can be left with a wooden finish, or painted. I love the look of glossy white beadboard in a bathroom, with the walls above the rail painted a soft blue. It looks traditional, yet fresh and crisp.

Rustic, well-worn surfaces

A single very rustic looking barn door of reused pale wood planks crossed diagonaly by another plant is suspended from black rail and rests on black metal wheels in a very industrial looking home. The floors are poured grey concrete; the walls appear to be concrete as well. There are two plans on the floor, but otherwise the only things in the room are three bare-bulb pendant lights, a black and grey artwork in an industrial style framed and hanging next to the barn door, a small table with some books, and more books and rocks on the floor in the room beyond the door. There is a multipaned industrial-looking window at the back of the room seen through the door.
Barn doors look both industrial and rustic, fitting the modern farmhouse vibe perfectly | Adobe Stock

Modern farmhouse interior design celebrates lived-in materials and weathered surfaces. Think of leather chairs and sofas; black metal tables, shelf brackets, light fixtures, and banisters; exposed brick; and stone walls. Dark elements create shadows and draw the eye in. Toasty terracotta or brick add coziness and color. Creased or faded leather shows history, and contrasts with sharp edges and modern materials. If it’s a caramel or chocolate shade, it warms the room.

Pale surfaces on elements like creamy, textured pottery are welcome. They look beautiful against a darker backdrop, attracting light and playing up contrasts. They’re also effective clustered against a neutral backdrop, tone-on-tone. Carved wooden bowls, boxes, or trays, or curvy wooden Danish modern or MCM furniture add sophistication and give a nod to nature’s beauty.

Although wood floors are standard, terra cotta tiles, grey textural slate, or pale wood-textured matte ceramic floor tiles also look stylish in a modern farmhouse home. Covering them with rugs adds color and texture, dampens sound in a room full of hard surfaces, and feels good beneath your toes. Sound control is important in open-concept homes where it’s  hard to escape other people’s noise while you work, or try to sleep.

Softness underfoot

Creamy rugs with grey or black X-shapes, lines, or triangles are common in modern farmhouse rooms. Sadly, pale rugs and carpets can look dingy quickly, even if you remove your shoes inside—especially if you have pets or children. Consider darker solids, textures, or repeating patterned carpets, which are practical. Rugs with reddish browns, warm golden tones, or dark chocolate browns; mid-toned to dark blues; or charcoal greys warm up spaces and hide soil. A contemporary Persian-style rug in a traditional pattern with a grey palette brings an traditional feeling without grabbing too much attention. Textured woolen rugs (like Berbers) or rugs made from plants (like sisal or jute) keep the neutral feel if you avoid color.

Industrial elements

Modern farmhouse living areas often take cues from lofts and old industrial spaces. Today we prize airy open-plan spaces and heavy rustic architectural features like ceiling beams and large sliding barn doors. Industrial elements can include stainless steel countertops, brushed nickel railings, or silver or black metal pendant lights. Exposed-bulb fixtures with visible lighting elements are popular. Rooms with these materials emphasize bold, spare, industrial variants of modern farmhouse interior design. They feel more gender-neutral than country, cottage, or old-style farmhouse interiors. You can furnish such a room to be neutral, hard-edged, and spare, or soften it with textures, lighting, and color. This makes this style versatile.

Natural materials like wooden countertops, unfinished wood shelving, rustic benches, or metal carts feel at home in a modern farmhouse space. They evoke the feeling of a working space, like a warehouse, a barn, or—yes—a farmhouse. A pressed-tin ceiling or backsplash tiles give a sense of age and authenticity to a room. Curved elements like upholstered furniture, plants, or other sinuous shapes add interest and friendliness to a room with a lot of hard, linear, or industrial elements.

Elevated Farmhouse Style

A living room with taupe walls, high white beams, and white trim. Black and white photos hang on the walls with white matts and black frames. A rustic chest sits in front of an unbleached linen sofa topped with textural woven pillows in rust and cream. On the chest is a rough cement pot holding a plant with green and purple leaves; a brass tray topped with books and a bronze bell; and a wrought iron candleholder with five lit votives. Across the room is an elegant but simple antique console table with two drawers in a medium brown finish. Above that are a black ceramic vase of dried brown branches, a pile of books topped with a tall thin candle, and a tall, think table lamp with a black shade. The effect is neutral but textural, and mixes rustic and elegant materials.
Jennifer Bradford shows how elegant relaxed and casual style can be. She mixes hard and soft textures, old and new furnishings, unusual personal pieces with classic elements, and multiple warm tones in an open and interesting space to create an inviting oasis | Transition Mode LLC

While “elegant” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when thinking of modern farmhouse interior design, this style certainly can be elegant when good quality materials, unusual elements, and pleasing proportions are well combined. A small bathroom with standard modern farmhouse subway tiles, shiplap, and black-bracketed open wooden shelves can look so chic with the addition of graphic modern tiles, black grout, chunky vessel sinks, and simple but unusual wooden mirrors. An airy living room with white French doors, a potted tree, pale furniture with subtle textures, a serene palette, and a pop of sky-blue velvet on the sofa feels relaxed, yet refined.

Someone who puts together modern farmhouse-style rooms in a fresh and inviting way is designer Jennifer Bradford. She’s the owner of Transition Mode LLC, a design studio that helps people make changes to their homes during times of transition. Jennifer has a marvelous eye for design, and a knack for layering textures and shapes so that a room feels refined, yet never stuffy. She knows that mixing both simple and sophisticated pieces within a soothing palette of neutrals needn’t be boring. Jennifer balances asymmetrical, casual groupings with the occasional more formal element or arrangement. She also combines worn and loved elements with newer pieces to get that collected-over-time feeling.

The Rise of Texture

A long, low, rustic wooden bench sits below a sand-colored wall full of black and white photos with wide white mats and black frames. On the bench are a terracotta vase holding branches, a long, low rectangular pillow made of a hooked Turkish rug textile, and a rough wrought iron candleholder with five lit white votive candles. On the floor in front of the bench is a black and white area rug with a mottled zigzag pattern. On the rug is a woven reed basket that holds a creamy faux fur throw.
Look at how engaging this scene is with its pleasing variety of shapes, tones, and textures, and the play of light and dark. Mixing rustic furnishings with framed and matted black and white photos, engravings, or etchings elevates a space without making it feel fussy | Design by Jennifer Bradford | Transition Mode LLC

Because modern farmhouse style is light on color, it gets a lot of its appeal from its reliance on mixing textures and surfaces. These often include woven wicker baskets, wooden chairs with cane seats, macrame wall hangings, hammocks, and chunky knit throws or pillows.

Creamy off-white ceramics are everywhere in modern farmhouse interior design—on the dining table, kitchen counters, side tables, and dressers. Midcentury ceramics work great in such a space. So do modern pieces by artists like Jonathan Adler, who creates matte white ceramic vases, animals, and other sculptural items.

Open containers like wooden or wicker storage boxes or baskets are popular. They have a simple, honest feeling that makes things look clean and tidy, and they’re much nicer than bins or a cardboard box. They do require upkeep, though—open storage, like open cabinetry, looks messy if you don’t keep it organized.

Rough wooden elements appear in modern farmhouse architectural elements like beams, shiplap-covered walls, and benches and tables. Make sure any surfaces that come in contact with hands, legs, or clothes are sanded down to avoid snags or splinters.

Neutral Colors—Are They Practical?

An industrial-style room with an exposed steel ceiling beam and reclaimed pine planks on the floor and ceiling has exposed brick walls and large windows. 3 large teal glass pendant lights are in front of the window. Matching low, horizontal, cream-and-brown-striped upholstered sofa and loveseat are arranged in an L shape with three round, dark, small, cylindrical tables.
The pale sofas brighten a dark industrial space, but light fabric stains and wears quickly. Darker textured upholstery is more practical. Add brightness via more lamps, reflective glass-topped tables, pale art, and creamy tall curtains that add much-needed softness to the space | Anna Sullivan for Unsplash

Modern farmhouse style is considered family-friendly, since it combines well-worn materials with casual ambience. However, it also uses lots of white or pale upholstery, rugs, and cabinetry, though pale colors and solids show wear faster, especially in homes with children or pets.

During the 2000s, beige walls, tan travertine tiles, and cherry wood cabinetry were all the rage. Over the past decade, cool whites and greys took over as the most popular interior color family. All-white kitchens took over from wooden cabinetry, too. While they look crisp when newly painted, white cabinets are quickly stained, splashed, and chipped. Even with regular cleaning and paint touch-ups, white cabinetry shows wear much more quickly than wood cabinets do.

Pale grey sofas and cream-colored pillows and throws also stain quickly. If you have children or pets, or dine on your upholstered furniture, consider darker fabrics or tweeds. Variations in thread colors hide stains better. Performance velvets in colors like tan, brown, grey, dark blue, or teal are also good choices. They show less wear, and clean up quickly with a damp cloth.

Designers say bold color is making a comeback, but your home should feel right for you. If you prefer neutrals, you needn’t follow trends that don’t appeal to you. But for easier home maintenance, think about darker furnishings, or add a little color to your walls and floors. Monochromatic spaces show every ding, stain, or scratch. Variety in color and tone makes it easier to keep rooms looking clean and fresh.

Metal Mixology

Mixing metal finishes like chrome, nickel, brass, wrought iron, or copper keeps a modern farmhouse home looking casual and assembled over time. Choosing a consistent finish within a room is a good idea, though—if you’re using all silver-finished metal, for example, try to mix shiny chrome with other shiny pieces instead of mixing in brushed nickel pieces. You can mix matte black metal with pretty much any other metal. Bathrooms are an exception—here, keeping finishes throughout the bathroom as similar as possible looks best. For example, using all brass, all brushed nickel, or all chrome faucets, drain covers, and shower enclosures makes a bathroom look more cohesive.

Gold finishes have made a big comeback over the past few years in faucets, cabinet pulls, shower stalls, and such. However, gold hardware like this tends to wax and wane in popularity. Bathrooms with gold fixtures were popular in the 1980s, then went seriously out of fashion by the 2000s. Standard chrome finishes tend to be the most timeless, and they’re available in many more styles. If you want more golden or coppery shimmer in your home, brass or copper platters and trays look stunning, are practical, and add a reflective bit of shine that really livens up a neutral room.

Lights, Camera, Action

A cluster of filament bulbs shaped like early Edison light bulbs lights up a dark space.
Bare-bulb fixtures that show old-style filament bulbs look stylish, but unshaded clear bulbs create harsher lighting. True wire filament bulbs are also not as energy efficient. Choosing fixtures that use soft-white LED bulbs saves energy and is easier on the eyes. | Qui Nguyen for Unsplash

Industrial or vintage-looking lighting is popular in modern farmhouse interior design. These might be black metal pendant lanterns with clear glass inserts, shades, or globes. Also popular are exposed bulbs in black wire cages, and Edison bulbs hanging from rods or wires. However, light fixtures with exposed bulbs produce harsher light and more glare than fixtures with fabric or paper shades, or white or frosted globes.

Exposed filament bulbs are stylish, there’s no doubt. For a large, open space like a café or a loft workspace, exposed-bulb lighting can be effective and workable if there’s plentiful natural light as well to balance their harshness. But for cozier living spaces like family rooms, bedrooms, and dining rooms, soft light makes a big difference. Avoiding harsh glare makes rooms (and eyes!) feel more comfortable, and people look better with good lighting. Diffuse overhead light keeps corners from getting too shadowy. It’s also handy to light a room with a single switch. But floor and table lamps with soft white LED bulbs bring greater warmth and make reading and conversation comfier. Putting overhead lighting on dimmers lets you to have cozy conversations at dinner, or turn the lights way up when you want to play a game of Twister.

Don’t be afraid to add a slightly grander but contemporary-looking chandelier. This works if the furnishings are simple but of high quality, materials and colors are cohesive, and the room has enough textures and contrasts to keep the eye moving. Add a touch of bling in simple and coordinating shapes, metals, or textures and you can get a wonderful effect.

Put a Label on It

A grey room with white trim, a white painted brick fireplace and mantel, dark wood floors, a white rug with black lines on it, a midcentury modern wood-framed chair with grey upholstery, a natural and white cotton and reed basket, silver vases, a duck decoy, and a sign on the mantel that says "In all things give thanks."
This room features modern farmhouse staples—a white, grey, and wood color scheme, textural baskets, macrame, painted bricks, a white rug with grey lines, and a wooden sign telling us what to do or how to feel | Camylla Battani for Unsplash

Another common theme in popular modern farmhouse style is the desire to label things. Sometimes this is practical—it goes with the tendency of modern farmhouse homes to be well organized. You see this in mudrooms where cubbies are labeled with each person’s name, for example. Designer Rae Dunn has created a whole empire by labeling dishware and other housewares with simple black capital letters that say what each item is for. There’s also a huge industry of decorative signs or stencils that express family credos, announce a room’s use, or exhort people to believe, succeed, live, laugh, and love.

Versions of labeled decor have been around for decades, but many modern farmhouse fans have embraced these signs so heartily that Saturday Night Live has run multiple sketches about people receiving sometimes dubious decorative signs as gifts.

If this trend feels good to you, have fun with it. However, I’m seeing lots of Rae Dunn’s wordy designs filling discount stores’ clearance sections lately, which points to the trend’s waning popularity. I’ve also heard househunters joke about real estate listings in which every room shown has a sign telling the family what to do or how to feel. It’s okay to let your room’s design speak for itself.

At top:

Mixing rough and smooth, light and dark, and old and new elements from around the world creates a much more welcoming space in which you want to linger a little longer | Design by Jennifer Bradford | Transition Mode LLC

Tags:
Previous Post

Is Your Home’s Air Dangerous?

February 27, 2023
Next Post

French Country Interior Design

February 27, 2023