Super Fly Barn Conversions

Sorry that I’ve been MIA everyone. We had a mice invasion at our house and I’ve had to use a lot of time to hunt and clean. Mice are so not offbeat or cool unless they live in a happy field somewhere — I don’t want them in my house. I’m not a pet person.

Speaking of mice how about some neat barn conversions? I have been hunting these down so I can post them for my friend Marye from Baking Delights because I know she likes this sort of thing. However, even if you’re not Marye you’ll enjoy these.

Turns out that many of the best barn conversions are across the pond. Europe seems to have cornered the market on barn conversions and I actually found few that were gasp worthy in the U.S — some but not many. I don’t know too much about barn conversions but Hugh Pearman, a writer I enjoy has an interesting article on his site Gabion that notes, “Old barns are big, good-looking, places that were built from local materials and so look as if they have emerged naturally from the landscape. Modern agribusiness meant that thousands of them became surplus to requirements from the 1960s onwards. Which is why the barn conversion became a staple of rural living verging on cliché.” That explains some of it. The rest of the article, of course, goes into more detail.

Pearman also has one of the nicer barn conversions I’ve seen, built by Simon Conder, in said article.

Here’s a taste — there are many more photos plus a full description of this at Gabion so check it out.

If you just saw the following, you’d never believe that you were in a barn.

I wouldn’t want to have to clean all that glass but it is beautiful. This next barn conversion is for sale — if you happen to be UK based or are willing to move. I like this one a lot — especially I love the mix of bricks and wood. I’m not a huge brick fan but on barn conversions it looks great; very rustic.

Last up I have a U.S renovation.

This is a barn hayloft renovation more so than conversion — simple but I like it. The point was to create a pottery studio in one area of the home and to maintain a cabin in the woods feel. I’m surprised at how much I like the colors they used (not a red fan) and love how the door sits on the edge instead of smack on.

If you visit Barnrenovation you can see this barn’s entire renovation process in photos including before photos. They also have their plans posted.

If you enjoy writing related to architecture and design hit Gabion; Pearman has a huge treasure chest of archived articles that will delight you.

Coming up… I have a recant and some more info on an statement I made about Pittsburgh, more offbeat holiday gift guides, and a featured architect that I failed to post last week. Good times so stick around.