This post is an homage to rustic home design, an appreciation of our heritage, and of the beauty and practicality of the homes of our ancestors. Specifically, this post focuses on early American design and architecture – how we understand it and incorporate it into modern architectural design: farm houses, barn conversions, barn style homes, and rustic home design, mainly.

We at The DPS Design love design that has spanned generations, design which has tested time, whose utility remains intact, though maybe not as relevant is it once was.

The materials that were used to make homes mostly no longer exist. The beams that hold up this house were hewn from local trees, probably from this plot of land. The furniture was built out of forest trees, chestnut and oak, and maple – old hardwoods that were first or second growth forests.

As a barn, this was once a home for domestic animals of course, and homes were not traditionally built this way for the most part. Early northeastern architecture was more “colonial” – the functions of the home were different and so was the culture. Open layout homes were only seen in part in communities such as Amish or Shaker, and traditional farm houses had smaller rooms, which were easier to heat and keep cool, and housed many people. Today, our ideas about ‘home’ have changed dramatically from the ideas of our ancestors.

When we reuse materials such as wood that came from old buildings, to build barn conversion homes, modern farm houses, or rustic barn homes, we not only save trees, we breathe new life into our pasts and into the lives of those that came before us. We can design in a way that facilitates our modern living needs, while honoring traditions of cultures of the past.

The 1800s Converted Barn House, a.k.a. Barn Conversion. Design and Renderings, by The DPS Design. This is an old American style barn, located in Vermont, U.S.A., converted into a home, using all barnwood and reclaimed lumber from the barn and from local farms.

Today, barn conversions or rustic farm houses typically have modern interiors, but this home is different; it retains an old 1800s American style interior design feel. The rustic, converted barn house / barn conversion kitchen – fully equipped with a bar and two traditional iron stoves in addition to a dining room wood stove for heating the 2.5 floor house.

A cozy living room / fireplace area that is spacious and incorporates historic American/Victorian style furniture with rustic wood and stone. 

The ground floor of this wooden rustic farm house design has an open floor plan, with a traditional american staircase to the mezzanine floor above.

This converted barn / barn conversion house has an old school kitchen and dining area, which are designed based on early American kitchens, using antique furniture and repurposed barn lumber. The giant stove and oven also serve the purpose of heating the entire house in addition to the smaller wood stove.

The old oak wood beams have been restored and left in place, giving this large open floor the feeling of being inside the original barn.

The middle barn door, now a french door, is designated the ‘front door’ which leads to a grass yard and driveway, while other barn doors have been replaced by windows or kept as doors or immovable doors. 

The 2nd floor mezzanine of this large rustic barn house is comprised of a reading corner, a small library, a music room, and a bedroom with an open bathroom. Every room is clad in reclaimed oak or pine barnwood lumber.

The first floor bathroom is done with all wood-clad walls, and has a clawfoot tub and elevated tank toilet, along with an elegant washbasin cabinet in the style of the victorian sofa furniture adjacent in the living room.

The third floor mezzanine / loft area is a spacious office space with a large window which looks over the forest below, and has two wooden desks and a small pipe-shelf library, in addition to the library just below.

Winter in Vermont….

This is the ‘best of’ collection of our recent architectural, interior, and garden design renderings.  This first rendering is our newest design as of March, 2021, the Shipping Container House design, located in Portugal. Design and Rendering by DPS Design.

The Shipping Container House is flanked on the second floor by a wrap-around cedar deck terrace and blue stone patio which extends horizontally from the vertical retaining wall. Adorned with railroad tie box planters filled with flowers and bamboo. Design and Rendering by DPS Design.

The Lake House interior living room rendering, located in Switzerland, showing the morning sunlight coming in through the deck-facing windows.

The Japanese Forest Cabin / Home Design and rendering for a residence in California. House redesign and Rendering by DPS Design.

The New York City Penthouse Terrace design, designed by Just Terraces and DPS Design, rendered by DPS Design.

This is my new Shipping Container House Design for a residence in Portugal. The garden area, which is actually a terraced greenhouse, lies inside stone walls of this modern house made up of four shipping containers. Timber framing construction, with a wraparound deck and blue stone curved walls set into a mountain. Inside / underneath the greenhouse is a bar and jacuzzi, with a lounge area sitting adjacent toward the front of the house.

This shipping container house design has a modern living room which extends seamlessly into a bar and patio (and jacuzzi) area, which also serves as a greenhouse. Blue stone terraced walls line the back of the greenhouse room. The ceiling/roof is a timber framed pergola.

The living room / lounge area is open-air, separated by metal and glass doors from the bar and greenhouse area.  For cold weather times, barn doors are installed on a track underneath the deck, enclosing the area for heating.

Two parallel shipping containers – the bathroom and bedroom – face the front of the house, capped on both ends with metal and glass french doors. The living room lies beneath the upper two shipping containers which are stacked adjacent to each other on top.

Above is an extension of the greenhouse into the side yard. Cedar planters and a cedar / redwood deck, with timbers that extend above the house to provide shade and cooling for the summer season.

The lower half of the house connects to the upper half by a spiral staircase, which sits next to the bathroom inside the green house / bar area.

Solar panels line the top of the house-length pergola design, both fulfilling any electrical needs and also giving shade to the house for warm weather months. The pergola beams are steel i-beams cladded with cedar, giving ultimate stability while maintaining the rough-sawn wood theme of this shipping container house design.

The jacuzzi and bar!

Interior | Exterior Design and 3D Rendering. The outdoor becomes the indoor in the remodeled home design in California, using reclaimed wood floors with subfloor potted trees and plants. Glass walls make the room viewable from the kitchen and living room.

The interior modern living room extends seamlessly into the patio area, giving this home design a pleasantly mixed indoor / outdoor feel for the summer time.

Modern couches border the outdoor grass space and infinity pool. Blue stone clad pillars and white walls give this house a light airy feel.

Pool, grass areas, and concrete deck with chaise lounges and tree planters. Mod era bookshelves beneath a wood clad overhang and 1950’s abstract art.

The tree room. Just because we can.