INDUSTRIAL MODERN FARMHOUSE

This custom California farmhouse shows off modern elements while prioritizing functional family living.

This custom California farmhouse shows off modern elements while prioritizing functional family living.

How do you marry the interior and exterior design of your home? When architect James V. Coane of James V. Coane & Associates came on board to design a family home in the quiet Southern California community of La Cañada Flintridge, he knew that one of the biggest challenges would be to find a happy medium between the modern, sleek design his clients wanted and the classic, traditional look of the surrounding homes.

While this is a new home, James wanted to give the illusion that it could be “an old house that was repainted white.” Once the predicament of the exterior was sorted out, the interior allowed for more freedom in playing with contemporary and updated features. “We have a modern interior with a semitraditional shell,” he says.

This modern farmhouse couldn’t stand out too much in the neighborhood, predominantly populated by older, classiclooking homes. James’ solution? “Why don’t we build a symmetrical, classic Georgian house, but let’s whitewash it all and give it black steel windows and a ribbed steel roof?” he says.

(top) “We wanted all the rooms to be open to each other, but not totally open, and to have a little differentiation,” James says. So when it came to marking the family room as a more formal space, he decided to sink the room so the ceilings would be higher. Striking wood ceiling beams and a poured concrete fireplace make it modern but still relaxed and grounded. (right) The covered back patio serves as a seamless transition from the main house to the backyard. White walls and wood furniture with blue/gray upholstery echo the same look that’s in the family room.