One Century Old Barn Becomes House With A Rural Touch

by Paul Ciocoiu · July 2, 2016

Turning a place once used to store grains into a house and then include it into a tourist network is not something you can see every day. One has to first of all believe in such a project and then sow vision. The idea of living in a converted barn holds a lot of romantic appeal for many people even though the problem from a small-house perspective is that most barns are pretty big. However this 100-year-old barn turned vacation rental in Upstate New York is a nice size at 650 ft2 (60.4 m2).

According to website Smallhousebliss.com, the barn was built in the 1920s and it features wide-plank wood floors and hand-hewn beams. The entire ground floor is an open-plan living space. The original barn doors were replaced by a pair of French doors giving a view of farm fields with the Catskill Mountains in the distance. Once these doors open, the ground floor basically becomes an expanded terrace.

One century old barn completely open to the surrounding nature

In a corner, the kitchen is little more than a random collection of shelves and benches, which maybe does fit the home’s casual rustic style, but cupboards with soffits above could be used to hide the exposed drainpipes from the bathroom above. There doesn’t seem to be a sink, but at least the exposed pipes would make it easy to install one.

Stairs in the back corner lead up to the bedroom and bathroom, which has a Japanese-style soaking tub wrapped in barn wood. It takes one a while to realize that the window beside the tub is actually an interior window facing into the bedroom area.

The rest of the upper floor is used for the bedroom, which looks very spacious. If the stairs had been located closer to the middle of the barn, it would probably have been possible to divide the space into two bedrooms. The bedroom is open and well lit from the outside, inviting to a cozy and serene atmosphere. The house can be rented through Airbnb.