American style
Farmhouse interior design
Farmhouse interior design is a plain, practical style built on rustic wood, warm neutral walls and hard-working surfaces. It takes its look from American agricultural houses, where rooms were made to be useful first and comfortable second.
What defines Farmhouse
- Colors
- Soft white, Warm taupe, Weathered oak, Barn black, Sage, Barn red
- Materials
- Reclaimed and rough-sawn wood; Painted shiplap and beadboard; Fireclay and enameled cast iron
- Key pieces
- A long plank table with benches or mismatched chairs; An apron-front sink under a window; Open shelves holding everyday dishes
- Best rooms
- Kitchen, Dining room, Living room, Bathroom, Entryway
- In Interify
- Farmhouse — Rustic wood, warm neutrals & cozy feel
Where Farmhouse comes from
The original farmhouses were built with what was available, by people who needed a kitchen that could feed a working household. That produced the features the style is now known for: wide plank floors, painted board walls, a deep apron-front sink, open shelves, a large table at the center of the room and furniture that could be scrubbed.
The modern version is a 2010s reinterpretation, pushed widely by home renovation television and by the open-plan kitchen. It keeps the shiplap, the barn door, the farmhouse sink and the big table, and pairs them with a quieter palette, black metal fittings and much more white than any working farmhouse ever had.
The mood is warm, informal and uncluttered. Pattern is rare, color is kept to warm neutrals with black as the outline, and texture comes from wood grain, painted boards, woven baskets and plain cotton. Compared with English country it has almost no ornament; compared with rustic style it is tidier and more painted.
The palette
The colors Farmhouse rooms are built on. Name one in a note and Interify works to it.
- Soft white#f4f1ea
- Warm taupe#cbbfae
- Weathered oak#a8865e
- Barn black#2f2e2b
- Sage#9aa88f
- Barn red#8f4038
Materials and key pieces
Materials
- Reclaimed and rough-sawn wood
- Painted shiplap and beadboard
- Fireclay and enameled cast iron
- Black powder-coated metal and wrought iron
- Butcher block and honed stone counters
- Plain cotton, ticking stripe and linen
- Woven baskets and galvanized metal
- Wide plank or painted floors
Key pieces
- A long plank table with benches or mismatched chairs
- An apron-front sink under a window
- Open shelves holding everyday dishes
- A sliding barn door or a plank door with a thumb latch
- Black metal pendant lights over an island
- A ladder-back or Windsor chair
- A painted wood hutch or sideboard
- Woven baskets used as visible storage
Do and avoid
Do
- Keep the walls warm white or soft neutral and the trim in the same family
- Use black metal sparingly as the outline: handles, lights, hinges
- Let one wood surface be rough or reclaimed, and keep the rest smooth
- Build the room around a large table or an island people can work at
- Choose open shelves only for things you use, so they stay honest
- Bring in softness with plain cotton and wool, not with pattern
Avoid
- Signs with words on them and other novelty decor
- Gray-beige everything, which drains the warmth out of the style
- Faux distressing on new furniture, which rarely reads as age
- Mixing three metals; pick black, or black with aged brass
- High-gloss cabinet fronts and handleless kitchens
- Barn doors where a hinged door would work better; they seal and sound badly
Rooms Farmhouse suits
The rooms this style has the most to say in. It works in any room you can photograph.
- Kitchen
- Dining room
- Living room
- Bathroom
- Entryway
Make it Farmhouse in your own room
Pick Farmhouse and it restyles the whole photo — furniture, floor, wall color, textiles and lighting — while the walls, windows, doors and the camera angle stay where they are. Mark anything you want changed on top of that and write what it should become.
Notes to try
- Walls
- “Painted white shiplap boards running horizontally, matte finish”
- Table
- “Long reclaimed oak plank table with a simple bench on one side”
- Sink
- “White fireclay apron-front sink with a black bridge faucet”
- Ceiling light
- “Two black metal dome pendants hanging over the island”
- Shelf
- “Open oak shelf with white stoneware plates and a woven basket”
Photograph the room
Straight on, in daylight, with the whole wall in frame. A phone photo is enough.
Pick Farmhouse
Choose Farmhouse from the style picker, or write your own instruction for the whole room instead.
Mark and write
Draw around each piece or surface you want changed and write what it should become, as in the notes above.
What it costs to try
- Styles
- 20 interior style presets, or describe your own
- Free to start
- 3 credits on signup, no card needed
- Cost of a version
- 1 credit. Packs start at $9 for 30 credits, down to $0.16 a credit
- Time per version
- Usually about a minute
Questions about Farmhouse
What is farmhouse interior design?
Farmhouse interior design is a plain, practical style taken from American agricultural houses: rustic and reclaimed wood, painted board walls, warm neutral paint, an apron-front sink, open shelves and a large central table. Surfaces are meant to be used and cleaned, pattern is rare, and black metal fittings give the room its outline.
What is the difference between farmhouse and modern farmhouse?
Farmhouse describes the original, working look: mixed woods, painted boards, utilitarian fittings and whatever furniture the household had. Modern farmhouse is the 2010s version, with a much whiter palette, matched black metal fittings, a cleaner open plan and fewer antiques. Most new rooms described as farmhouse are modern farmhouse.
What colors work in a farmhouse kitchen?
Warm whites and soft neutrals on the walls and cabinets, with wood tones from oak or walnut and black as the accent on handles, lights and window frames. Sage green, muted blue and barn red work on an island or a door as the single color in the room. Cool gray reads as current rather than rural, and it makes wood look orange.
Is farmhouse style going out of fashion?
Fashion is taste, and taste moves, so this is not something to state as a fact. What can be said is that the very white, very matched version of modern farmhouse has been widely built since the 2010s, and that the durable parts of the style, the plain wood, the big table and the practical surfaces, predate the trend by a century and are likely to outlast it.
How do I get a farmhouse look in a city apartment?
Choose the elements that are about material rather than architecture: a warm white wall, a solid wood table, black metal lights and handles, open shelves with everyday dishes and woven baskets for storage. Skip the barn door and the faux beams, which need the space and the ceiling height. Mark the walls and the table in a photo of your own room to see how far the materials alone get you.
Styles like this one
- Rustic styleThe rougher, less painted relative, with heavier wood and stone
- English Country styleThe same rural comfort with florals, antiques and far more pattern
- Coastal styleShares painted boards and white rooms, in a cooler palette
- Danish Hygge styleAnother warm, informal style built on wood and plain textiles
- All stylesEvery one of the 20 presets, grouped as the picker groups them.
See your room in Farmhouse
Upload a photo, pick Farmhouse and mark what should change. You start with 3 credits and no card.