Bucks County Farmhouse

The Bucks County Farmhouse is both a family retreat and a home designed for everyday living. Built on a seven-acre site previously occupied by an older awkwardly positioned tract home, Bucks County Farmhouse is set back considerably from the road and approached via a driveway that meanders through meadow and trees. It is sited to take full advantage of existing features on the property which include a barn ruin that, reinforcing the retreat character of the property, has been converted into a sports court and connected to the pool terrace by a spiral stair built into the former barn silo.

Designing an interior for modern family living

The design for Bucks County Farmhouse was driven by the homeowners’ goal of wanting to create a haven for their young family that would accommodate the needs of two busy professional parents as well as that of their children from their early years into adulthood. This conscious commitment results in a home carefully tailored to the rhythms of daily family life. Open living, dining and kitchen spaces anchor the center of the home; there are comfortable spaces for gathering and quiet spaces for studying, and parents get a peaceful sanctuary away from the hubbub of hectic family life.

Despite the typical farmhouse exterior appearance, the home is modern in its interior layout. By orienting the stair to be parallel to the front façade rather than perpendicular as in a traditional center-hall configuration, the plan opens to create a visual continuity and spatial flow between rooms that is entirely contemporary.

Unlike its historical predecessors, Bucks County Farmhouse does not subscribe to the hierarchical “servant and served” model that separated formal and operational spaces to signal social status. The home employs regional architectural motifs but in a manner that feels informal, integrated and quietly elegant.

In the main living area, the juxtaposition of finished and rustic surfaces creates a pleasing textural contrast. The bright sitting room with smooth plaster ceiling and traditional painted millwork transitions into dining and kitchen areas through a broad stone arched opening. Fieldstone, timber, exposed rafters and beams in the kitchen and dining area create a sense of historic fabric and both contrast with and balance the more formal elements of the sitting room. Reinforcing the home’s livability, a wood-fired pizza oven sits tucked into the exposed stone wall, ready to handle any informal gathering.

Approach to the Exterior of Bucks County Farmhouse

The typical forms and materials of the exterior of Bucks County Farmhouse are beautifully complemented by the serene landscape surrounding the home. Recognizing the maintenance demands of a property of this scale, the homeowners admirably committed to establishing meadows in place of a conventional lawn. The meadows, trees and native landscaping installations create a habitat for birds and wildlife while maintaining a modest environmental footprint.

Siting the Home

The site presented an unusual condition: the optimal orientation required the front façade to face south. Often we like to arrive on the north side of a home and move through to the south so that rear gardens and terraces face the sun. At Bucks County Farmhouse, there is a nice presentation from the street and upon arrival. Then the garden and landscape experiences are spread out to the rear, providing a buffer so that the pool, pool house, terraces and sport court are not in the shadow of the house. The separation between the house and the recreational amenities creates a subtle sense of departure, reinforcing the experience of retreat within the property itself.

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