Houzz Tour: Refined Casual Style for a Gracious Farmhouse

This Georgia couple enjoyed their lakeside country vacation house so much that they decided to live there. While the rustic 1960s prefab cabin was all they needed for relaxed weekend stays, it was not suitable for full-time living, so they remodeled and expanded the house, making it look like a simple, rambling farmhouse that had grown over time. The new house is more refined than the original cabin but still lends itself well to casual living and maintains that familiar beloved feeling.

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple of empty nesters who love to entertain
Location: Harris County, Georgia
Architects: Historical Concepts
Interior designer: Melanie Davis
Landscape designer: Bill Lincicome
Size: 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms

Photography by Blayne Beacham

The idea was to make the house look and feel like a genuine rambling farmhouse with additions built over decades.


The cabin held many great memories for three generations of the family. Their first idea was to preserve the original cabin as a guesthouse and build a new main house. But the owners and designers realized that the cabin's location atop the knoll was the most picturesque spot on the property.


AFTER: Creating more ways to enjoy the views of the 100-acre farm and lake was a priority. Each room now leads to a porch or is open to the pastoral views. This new front entry unites the original cabin (left) with the addition (right).

The metal roof of the old house was the right choice for the new farmhouse as well. "It's about as indigenous to this type of farm as the local fieldstone seen on the old stone walls around the property," says Historical Concepts principal Terry Pylant.


photo by Emily Followill


The shaded portion of the plan shows the footprint of the original house, which was kept intact. The placement of the new entry porch and hallways gives the interiors a comfortable flow.


"We wanted it to look like it had happened organically, and we wanted to deemphasize how big the house was by breaking down the massing," Pylant explains. "It's not a big plateau house; it's a rambling farmhouse."


The hallway links old and new — the original living room is on the right, and the new kitchen is on the left. Reclaimed antique pine floors bring some farmhouse simplicity to the elegant space.

Flooring: Vintage Lumber


The designers removed the wall between the original living room and dining room. "This opened up the space but maintained the cozy proportions of the original rooms," Pylant says.

Repurposed antique lighting throughout the house: Eloise Pickard





The team popped up the original cabin's roof to make it lighter, airier and more polished. The living room also has a new bay of windows with views to the lake.


The dining room has a new three-season-room option; a new porch stands where there was once a concrete patio. The couple, Sandy and Otis, are now well equipped to have many dinner guests.

"In true Southern style, Miss Sandy's fabulous foyer is also wide enough for additional seating, and she sets up one to two round tables there for large dinners," says interior designer Melanie Davis. "This allows 30-plus people to be in less than 10 feet from the main dining room table and 40 people seated in all of these areas if need be ... not to mention using the lake porch off the kitchen."





Like the original stone walls on the property, the renovation's four new chimneys were made with local fieldstone. More local fieldstone details around the dining patio tie the architecture to the landscape.


A balance of polished and rustic elements creates harmony in the farmhouse kitchen. Carrara marble countertops add sophistication, while the antique pine floors and beadboard ceilings are more primitive.

A 16-foot-long wall of transom-topped French doors opens to the new front porch.


This is the screened-in lake porch off the kitchen, which serves as a more casual living room for most of the year. A TV is hidden behind cabinet doors over the fireplace.

"A porch swing is a quintessential item on a porch — you gotta have them," Pylant says. The unique hardware on the swing is antique well pulleys that the owners already had. Another Southern porch must is Haint Blue ceilings.


The master bedroom also opens directly to the lake porch. This suite was placed to give the room privacy, views to the lake and access to the porch.


"He's an early riser and she loves privacy, so we designed the master suite with that in mind," Pylant says. This is a private sitting room off the master bedroom.


In the master bathroom shower, high windows let in the light without making the couple feel like exhibitionists.





This gallery leads from the master suite to a Dutch door (right), which leads out to the formal gardens.


One of the things the couple loved about visiting their country home was gardening. They had added azaleas, roses and a vegetable garden over the years, and were excited to be able to spend more time gardening here.

"The property includes a paddock, farm fields and gardens, and we needed order near the house," Pylant says. This site plan gives you a good idea of how the gardens and house fit together and connect to the rest of the property, which is about 100 acres.


An axis connects the house through the garden to Sandy's photography studio. She wanted to walk on a paved surface between the two, so this garden's style is more formal. The team graded the tricky slopes of the site to create terraces, which made this flat garden possible.





This is the view from just outside the studio across the gardens to the main house. This view also shows you just how successful the team was in making the house look like it had grown over the years.


Subtle terracing of grass stairs connects the more formal landscaped areas with the more pastoral ones.


The pool pavilion includes another fieldstone fireplace.


A rear porch is the most-used entrance for everyone, as it is just off the driveway and parking court.


Keeping the entry of guests in mind, the team designed one of the most beautiful mudrooms I've ever seen, in line with the refined yet casual style of the farmhouse. The mudroom is flanked by a laundry room and a gardening room.


The gardening room has wonderful views out to the formal gardens right over the copper sink.


The former master bedroom in the original house now serves as a charming guest bedroom.


Just off the guest room is an enclosed sleeping porch. The cozy and rustic room is a favorite spot for the couple's grandchildren.


Butt boards on the walls and beadboard ceiling give the sleeping porch a cabin feel.

"We all wanted the house to feel genuine to this place," Pylant says. The new house is comfortable and welcoming, and looks like it's been growing on the property for the past hundred years.

URL: Houzz Tour: Refined Casual Style for a Gracious Farmhouse http://www.decor-ideas.org/cases-view-id-21706.html