Barn Living with a Twist

Rustic elegance meets modern sophistication

The American barn is a symbol of simpler times, a nostalgic icon that reminds us of days gone by. Barns are our history. They tell our nation’s story. And so we embrace them, even as they vanish from the landscape.

*A favorite of the homeowners is the covered porch with its red Dutch door. “It’s nice,” Kristin says, “We can watch the sunset.”*

So captivated by their beauty, character and authenticity, people go to great lengths to convert these rustic old buildings into unusual new homes. Mike and Kristin Ludwig chose instead to build their own.

*The homeowners wanted their house to look like a barn that had been added on to. A metal roof and different siding create that effect.*

“We knew we wanted an original, barn-like house,” Kristin says. “After finding property in Dalton Gardens, our ideas went from paper to plans perfectly. We agreed on almost every element, and for us, that was nothing short of a miracle. It was meant to be.”

Mike and Kristin were raised in Ohio, a state whose history is steeped in agriculture. For them, barns are familiar, a sweet reminder of their roots.

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“We both remember traveling with family, passing barns along the way,” Kristin says. “He would travel in the back of the station wagon with his five brothers and sisters to his grandmother’s cottage, and I would be in the car with my parents, riding past cornfields with giant white barns on our way to see my grandparents. My grandpa Dale had a red barn with a dirt floor. There is nothing like the smell of an old barn.”

When they decided to build a house, settling on the barn style was easy. Designing it was the hard part. The Ludwigs turned to custom builder Michael Cramer to make their vision a reality: a home that has the look of an original barn yet was affordable to build and practical to live in for the busy family of four.

*A steel stair rail, a handcrafted concrete fireplace and a sliding glass wall that opens to the back patio give the barn a modern look.*

“When Kristin brought me this concept I looked at it and thought, this could be really cool or this could be really silly,” Cramer says, with a laugh.

No question. The home is cool. From the exterior, it looks like the quintessential barn converted into a home. The main part, that is the barn, houses the kitchen, master bedroom, entryway and loft. To one side is the living room and to the other is the garage. Cramer varied the roofing and siding materials to give the “added-on” look the Ludwigs were going for.

But when you walk in through the massive sliding barn doors, the home doesn’t look like a barn at all. The Ludwigs were careful not to overdo the theme, which they say would have been easy to do. They kept things subtle, mixing rustic and modern materials and finishes to give a warm industrial feel.