Inside a Rustic Farmhouse

Exterior of rustic farmhouse with flowers and wood front door

Photography by Brian Bieder

This Georgia farmhouse gets an infusion of texture, pattern and cozy colors.

There are many different farmhouse styles, and each comes with its own unique vibe. When designer Grace Brackman for Maggie Griffin Design was asked to make a new Georgia farmhouse home feel cozy and quaint, she knew what farmhouse aesthetic she wanted for the home. “I really wanted to lean rustic farmhouse style,” she says. “I wanted to have a cottage feel even though it is a larger house.”

Dark wood beams chris cross across a white ceiling, drawing eyes upward, while matching waterfowl images and pottery-inspired lamps play up the symmetry of the both sides of a brick fireplace. — “We wanted to use a lot of materials that were kid-friendly for the owner’s grandchildren,” says Grace. So, she chose quality fabrics like plaid and performance velvet. “The different textures add depth and give a collected look,” she says. “We also wanted to play up the symmetry on both sides of the fireplace.” A local potter, Charlie West, created the matching lamps for a homespun look, while the waterfowl prints emphasize the ceiling height.

A New Look

The look Grace opted for was meant to invoke the original homes dotting Georgia’s countryside. “My favorite thing is to drive by old farmhouses in Georgia because they are so beautiful and simple,” she says. “They didn’t have as many things, and that’s why we are seeing more cottage style homes these days, because you didn’t have these palatial farmhouses then.”

Brick backsplash offers texture against an almost all white kitchen except for a wood floor and a brilliant blue island. — For the kitchen backsplash, Grace chose brick to mirror the same brick used in the family room and on the home’s exterior. “There really wasn’t another material besides wood in the kitchen, so we wanted to use brick to bring in the texture,” she says.

Rustic farmhouse style makes the most of both the modern farmhouse and cottage style. It blends old and new and has a strong appreciation for white walls. Grace decorated this home to have aged accents like a brick backsplash in the kitchen and antique pieces adorning every nook in the home.

A wood staircase runs along a wall of windows descending up to the second story. The room is otherwise all white and shiplap. — Dark wood stairs give a rustic farmhouse feel and offer a splash of aged accents to pair with the smoothness of the white shiplap walls.

Rustic Shades

Everything in the home comes in a beautiful array of comforting colors, like blues and greens. The kitchen island, for example, is a cross between navy and royal blue. Meanwhile, across the room, drapery fabric and pottery in the hutch offer similar pops of color. “Blues and greens are basically neutrals now and can go with anything,” says Grace.

An oil painting of a horse stable offers subtle references to Georgian countryside. The painting overlooks a dark wood farmhouse table and hanging blue curtains in the window. — A classic horse stable is depicted in the main artwork in the dining room. It was purchased in a gallery in Atlanta and was made by artist Kay Flierl. “She specializes in florals, barns and stables, and I thought her work would be a great ode to the structures that were on the land before the house was built.”

Blue and green pottery plates in various shades line the dark wood hutch that sits on the wall facing the farmhouse dining table — All the pottery plates on the hutch is handmade by Athens, Georgia artist, Rebecca Wood. The pots on the top of the hutch are antique. The mix of old and new presents a cottage or rustic farmhouse look.

Nature Images

But blue and green are also strong nature colors. In the guest bathroom, wallpaper depicting a maidenhair fern motif balances out the nature vibes seen elsewhere in in the guest bedroom. The images above the bed are all blue and green flowers.

The wallpaper of this guest bathroom is covered in tiny blueish green maindenhair ferns that grow in the area. — The bathroom off the main guest bedroom is covered in wallpaper featuring petite maidenhair ferns. “These grow in the area,” says Grace. The wallpaper gives an element of nature, a theme running throughout this rustic farmhouse.

Floral and plaid bedding making the guestroom feel welcoming to all guests. The colors are in muted tones of soft pinks and blues. — The softness of the plush floral headboard is juxtaposed against the wicker wood of the lamp. Meanwhile, the hanging flower images further add to the rustic farmhouse’s nature theme.

The cottage style bed itself comes with a statement-making floral headboard. The same colors appear in the living room of the rustic farmhouse, where throw pillows have sweet baby deer imagery. In the same room, hanging art showcases a variety of waterfowl floating in pools of blue.

Embracing History in a 1920s Bungalow

A white shiplap powder room gets unique finishes and high-quality features including a small apron style sink. — The powder room was a tight space as well. “But we jazzed it up with dazzling finishes and a chandelier,” she says. Lighting is from Visual Comfort, the mirror from Mirror Image.

Grace likes to experiment with texture and pattern. A peppering of plaid patterns appears in the bedrooms and living spaces. Texture play occurs across the home as well from wicker to brick to leather. “Some people don’t realize you can still have color and pattern and texture in a farmhouse,” Grace says. “Not everything needs to be in all black and white.”

The combined laundry room and mudroom leans darker with the darker green wallpaper. White cabinetry offsets the color while hanging plates made from wood and copper render pops of rich hues. — The mudroom also has a laundry room. The hanging plates here include antique copper pots and an antique wood tray to bringing in texture. “I think the wallpaper is the art itself, but the plates don’t take away from this that much,” says Grace. She didn’t want to overfill the space.

Antique-inspired plates hang of the bed frame, whose headboard is a rich plaid fabric made in the same colors as the bench at the foot of the bed. — The primary bedroom has plates on the wall. “I’m a big fan of rustic settings, and the plates are a good way to break up the artwork while still offering architectural interest with the woodland scenes on the plates,” says Grace. The paint color in this room is Coastal Fog by Bengamin Moore.

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