A New England barn with a refined approach to rustic design
On a hot summer's day in 1999, when Mike and Becky Goss moved into their farmhouse in Connecticut, it was still possible to catch the smell of onion grass on the wind. Though it was over 100 years since their new home had been an onion farm, the soil ran deep with allium seeds denoting the property's former use. In the early 20th century, when the farm was split up, agricultural land gave way to residential neighbourhoods. The couple sensitively restored the house and time passed.
Their two daughters moved to nearby New York City, married and started families of their own. Eventually, the farmhouse was well beyond capacity when everyone came back to visit, so, in 2019, when the house next door - which had, at one time, been their property's barn - came up for sale, Mike and Becky decided that reuniting the contiguous buildings might be the expansion solution they were seeking. It presented the perfect opportunity to create a fully functioning abode, very much a part of the property, yet separate and self contained.
Over the years, the barn had undergone various renovations and alterations that, as Mike explains, rendered it 'neither historically preserved nor comfortably modern'. So he and Becky made the decision to replace the original structure with a sympathetically designed, contemporary alternative. Old photos and maps of the property helped to determine the new barn's exact location and shape, mimicking its original position in relation to the farmhouse. The brief they gave Halper Architects was to start with three bedrooms. They also requested a large sitting and dining space, and a small kitchen.
'While the barn needed to work for our family in a multigenerational sense, I wanted it to be fun for Becky and me,' says Mike. 'We already had an old house, so we liked the idea of a barn with modern lines as a juxtaposition - a simple rectangle. We wanted to add onto the life we've had at the farmhouse for over 25 years, to build a place that references the area's roots and fill it with interesting things, our family and our friends.'
'We focused on a classic barn shape,' says their architect Jon Halper. 'And distilled it into the simplest interpretation of a New England barn without making it look too modern or out of place.' He notes that the guiding principle was editing down the architectural details to their key components and adds, Of course, its stark monochromatic appearance creates a contrast with the more ornate farmhouse next door.'
Today, as you walk across the gravel drive from the original farmhouse to the new building, there is an intentional gear shift. The farmhouse is made up of small, intimate rooms, but the new barn soars, with an interior height of nearly nine metres from the ground floor to the roof peak. Becky, who owns antiques, art and found objects store The Flat in Westport, Connecticut, credits growing up in old houses as a guiding influence when she was designing the barn's interiors. As both a shop owner and a shopper, she has honed her ability to mix the old with the new: 'We wanted the barn to have a feeling of history, but with its own unique style. Now, when we feel like a different vibe, we just walk over from the house to the barn.'
On the ground floor, a huge double-sided fireplace separates the dining and sitting areas, acting as a semi-divider between the two. The chandelier over the wooden table, ‘Broken Ice’ by artist Deborah Thomas, was the first thing Becky bought for the project and one of the few contemporary items in the house. She is a magpie when it comes to gathering ideas and pieces, and credits a fellow shopkeeper with the idea for the terrazzo travertine floor in the kitchen and bathroom, 'They'd used it in an old clapboard house and I remember thinking, wow. that is unusual, I'd like to do that too.'
It was Becky's trips for work to London and holidays there that exposed her to British fabrics and decoration. 'I got hooked,' she explains. 'And Jon made sure that, if we had a reference to something traditionally rustic - like horizontal cladding - it was also refined. In the end, having a shop was helpful, because I can try out a lot of things.'
They are enthusiastic hosts, and Mike has a bar at the end of the dining room, designed by the architect and aptly nicknamed 'The Onion'. This is set off by a 19th-century Italian oil painting and a 20th-century photograph of a man holding an onion, both bought at Robert Kime in London. Flatweave rugs define the two seating areas: one is the inviting spot created in front of the fireplace, with two vintage Otto Schulz sofas covered in shearling and a Roger Capron coffee table; the other is for gathering round the television, which is hidden in an antique Northern Italian painted cupboard. The kitchen is sized for preparing meals on a small scale and is tucked away behind a sliding wooden door in a corner of the dining area, which playfully suggests an outhouse, as does its sloping roof with rustic, reclaimed, hand-hewn hardwood beams.
Upstairs, a mezzanine is put to work - literally - as flexible office space for the family or a sitting area for guests, with an upholstered banquette, an old Swedish pine table and a vintage Edward Wormley chair for Dunbar, reupholstered in linen and shearling. At one end of this area is the main bedroom, painted a terracotta colour inspired by a trip to Italy. At the other end, a children's playroom and nursery is large enough for grandchildren's sleepovers and indoor games.
The couple are longtime collectors. Mike retired from a career in private equity and is now fully engaged in the art trade, including a stint at Sotheby's as chief financial officer. He and Becky enjoy the scale of the barn's walls, which are large enough to accommodate paintings that the farmhouse, with its low ceilings, cannot. Becky describes mixing a Milton Avery and a Rufino Tamayo with the large Italian landscape in the dining room as giving us an opportunity to introduce colour on the textured white stucco walls in the main room!
There is the art of the landscape outside, too, which is an important component of this project led by landscape designer Kathryn Herman. Mike and Becky had the idea of a connecting meadow between the farmhouse and barn as a nod to the land's agrarian roots, which Kathryn has used to link the two properties while maintaining their identities. Behind the barn, at the edge of Mike and Becky's now unified property, there is a one-room schoolhouse that served the children of the local farmers in the late 19th century. It has obviously never been touched. One wonders if its turn might be next.
Haler Architects: halper.com | The Flat: theflatwestport.com
Dean Hearne1/7Off the dining room, a planked white-oak door slides open to reveal cabinets in the same pale wood with Carrara marble worktops, contrasting with handmade black tiles in the kitchen.
Dean Hearne2/7Robert Kime's 'Gothic Helmet' lamps in antique silver illuminate shelves displaying vintage serveware.
Dean Hearne3/7At the opposite end to the fireplace, a mid-century sofa, reupholstered in Robert Kime's 'Hishi' cotton/linen in blue, and a vintage rattan and leather armchair from Lawton Mull are arranged round an antique Northern Italian painted cabinet from Robert Kime, which conceals a TV.
Dean Hearne4/7Walls in Farrow & Ball's 'Red Earth' showcase a vintage standard lamp from The Flat and an antique European chest and mirror from Lawton Mull in the main bedroom. Rose Uniacke cotton velvet curtains complement the Katharine Pole antique quilt and a Nasiri rug based on a vintage design.
Dean Hearne5/7Beside the door to the bathroom, a Danish Brutalist armchair sits below a 19th-century English portrait.
Dean Hearne6/7A custom banquette in a Rose Uniacke velvet and a reupholstered Ed Wormley for Dunbar chair partner a vintage Swedish table on the landing.
Dean Hearne7/7The children's bathroom features handmade tiles set off a vintage Rayon Roskar wall light and a vanity unit skirt in Robert Kime's ‘Swedish Ticking’.
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