- Modern farmhouse style proves popular with Stark County homebuilders.
- The style was popularized by HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines.
- Features are open floor plans, no wasted space and predominance of white, gray and black.
For Sally Goodnow and Michael Kell, the modern farmhouse he built in 2019 is not only a place to live, but a place that promotes a way of living.
The home — featuring an open floor plan, rustic wood, white walls and no wasted space — provides a different feeling than their previous dwellings. The kitchen, dining room and living area flow together. The back wall, adjacent to the dining area, is filled with windows that open to a view of the in-ground pool.
“It’s like living in a resort,” Kell said.
“I feel like I’m on vacation here all the time; it’s just such a pleasant house,” said Goodnow, who designed the three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home in the modern farmhouse style popularized by HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines.
Goodnow is a Realtor. Kell rehabilitates inner-city houses with his business, Property Investment Group Services. So both were familiar with home design before creating their own iteration of the trendy modern farmhouse.
The style is popping up throughout the Akron-Canton region in everything from new construction to vintage home remodels, and homebuilders in Northeast Ohio say demand remains strong for that design. The homes showcase styling cues seen in Gaines-influenced modern farmhouses, such as windows framed in black, gables and white board and batten vertical siding.
It’s become so popular the New York Times this past summer called the modern farmhouse “today’s McMansion.”
Where did the modern farmhouse style start?
Kyle Oberlin has a bird’s-eye view of the real estate market in the Stark County area in his roles as president of Stark Trumbull Area Realtors and president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Professional Realty, where he runs its Stark County team.
“I feel like the modern farmhouse is actually, in a sense, one of the few trends that has probably started in Middle America and then worked its way to the coasts,” Oberlin said. “Most of the time, it’s the opposite. Most of the time, stuff starts on the coast and then trickles into the Midwest.”
Oberlin believes the prevalence of farms and the Amish population in this region may have factored into the style’s popularity.
He said most buyers want modern farmhouses because they are trendy, with their grayscale hues representing a departure from previously favored earth tones.
“In all of the ’90’s, we were stuck in ‘oak city,’ where trim was oak and cabinets were oak and everything was oak,” he said. “Then as you move into the 2000s, you start seeing less carpet, more (luxury vinyl tile) flooring and then that’s kind of progressed from (luxury vinyl tile) flooring with the wood trim to painting the trim white or just putting white trim up. Generally, whites look better with grayscales. In the last 10 years, we’ve seen a shift to a lot of grayscale remodels and builds.”
Wood tones were then integrated into the look so it didn’t seem “too gray,” Oberlin said. “When you have blacks and whites and wood tones, the good styling method for those three things is generally a farm feel.”
Ben Grisez, president of Grisez Homes of Jackson Township, said homebuyers are seeking a little twist on the style, too.
“Two years ago, we did seven houses that were all white with black windows and board-and-batten,” Grisez said. “It’s still around, the white with the board-and-batten, but that’s slowly changing.”
Grisez said customers are starting to add gold-tone fixtures — a shiny pop of color against the monochrome.
Jarod Lawver, of Lawver Homes, based near Dover, said the demand for the modern farmhouse remains strong here.
“The Chip and Joanna Gaines movement made everybody want ‘modern farmhouse.’ However, I feel like it’s phasing out in a lot of the country,” Lawver said.
How much do modern farmhouse style homes cost?
Oberlin said many buyers are priced out of the market for modern farmhouses because most are newly built, or they are renovated properties that got whole-house makeovers.
“The average price point in Stark County is right around $225,000 to $240,000 but you don’t really see those modern farmhouses until you get to maybe … $350,000 … plus,” Oberlin said.
A trend to flip over
Realtor Kenny Mayle and his business partners bought a Lake Township ranch house, built in 1960, for $89,000 in December. The partnership, Your Forever Home LLC, spent $115,000 giving it a complete modern farmhouse makeover.
“We did end up getting three offers. One was over $300,000,” he said. They accepted a cash offer. A sale is pending.
To prepare the home for the market, they removed interior walls to convert a former bedroom into a living area open to…
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