PERSONALIZE YOUR MODERN FARMHOUSE WITH THE PERFECT LIGHTING
Ah, the Modern Farmhouse style. Think country meets contemporary--a perfect blend of tradition and history and something that's fresh and authentic. While it's been popular for a number of years, it's moved out of the trend zone to become a classic.
The style celebrates the use of forged and wrought metals; rustic and distressed wood; glass; and hand-crafted, recycled, reclaimed and vintage items. Lighting plays a big role as a focal point and as a supporting player, but lighting choices also help personalize this versatile style.
Create Exterior Ambiance
Start at the front door. If your farmhouse fantasy begins with your home's exterior, maybe you have a large porch. Keep it cozy, inviting and well-lit with striking lanterns like Porter or Walker that capture the modern farmhouse trend with simple, bold styling and hand-forged details. Add a nostalgic touch with the Atwell family or choose an industrial shape with the Foundry wall mount lantern.
Create a "room" on your porch – or, if you've got an outdoor kitchen area under a shelter – by bringing the indoors outside with this Beckett chandelier that combines vintage and industrial elements. If you're near the coast, incorporate that style with the Lakehouse, which features driftwood gray finish rings and cast aluminum in the six-lantern chandelier.
Remember, anytime you choose a lighting element for your home's exterior, the product's specifications should state that it's suitable for outdoor use.
Bring it Indoors
Inside, pendants, chandeliers, sconces--all have their place in the modern farmhouse, depending on their base materials. Look for forged iron, rich wood, and vintage-inspired glass.
For the kitchen/dining area, the Emilie offers up a cottage chic style that's modern in sensibility with its open-frame linear shape. If you've got an eat-in kitchen, the Cabot, simple yet sophisticated, with its robust dark bronze finish and large-scaled glass containers would be a great element over a rustic wood dining table.
And anything goes when it comes to over-the-island lighting. Look for a variety of metals and large, glass globes in myriad shapes to fit your personal style like the Academy school house glass pendant or cylinder pendant. Or the multi-drops in the Denton family of products with their vintage round-bulbs set in industrial finishes with rustic wood accents.
If you've got a high-ceilinged entry, create a focal point with a rustic chandelier like this one from the Dakota collection with cast-metal faux leather straps and seedy hurricane shades, or try the large single tiered Heywood. The half-circle chandelier is a study in texture with a combination of rope, metal and wood. Large globe-style vintage bulbs peer out from the overturned mesh "bowl." You can even cage it all in with an orb version.
Don't forget the bath. Vanity lights like the Sawyer and the Denton offer a fresh, rustic feel. Their wood elements make a great contrast to a bathroom's hard surfaces.
Atmospherics
When you're personalizing your space with lighting always keep in mind your end goal: Is it task lighting to work at the kitchen counter, for example, or ambient lighting to create a mood, or accent lighting to show off a great piece of art? Or all of them to create layers of good lighting?
Then consider this: uplighting, which throws light toward whatever's above, will make any room feel larger. It can also help soften any harsh shadows. Downlighting, with low-hung pendants, for example, can create an illusion of height.
Clusters of lights can make large rooms seem cozier. And if you don't want the look to be too rustic, incorporate lighting with more modern touches--more streamlined shapes, brighter metals, pops of color. In the end, it's up to you how you play it when making your modern farmhouse style your own.
