{"id":3153,"date":"2025-07-08T20:56:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/2025\/07\/08\/weirdness-and-charm-in-an-upstate-new-york-farmhouse\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T20:56:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:56:04","slug":"weirdness-and-charm-in-an-upstate-new-york-farmhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/de\/weirdness-and-charm-in-an-upstate-new-york-farmhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Verr\u00fccktheit und Charme\u2019 in einem Bauernhaus in Upstate New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

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How to combine a humble 19th-century farmhouse and an edgy contemporary art collection? Husband-and-wife architects Maria Berman and Brad Horn of Berman Horn Studio, members of the Remodelista Architect & Designer Directory, approached the job in stages. Step 1: Shore up the house. Step 2: Situate the outsized art. Step 3: Devote three years to assembling an odd lot of furnishings\u2014rose-colored modernist sofas, embroidered pillows, Americana quilts\u2014that telegraph an \u201canti-trophy house,\u201d comfy vibe.<\/p>\n

The results? A quirky, completely personal home.<\/p>\n

Photography by Rush Jagoe, courtesy of Berman Horn Studio.<\/p>\n


Above: \u201cAt the beginning, this was a sweet and modest but rather unexciting little 19th-century Federal-style house in Columbia County,\u201d says Berman. \u201cIt\u2019s approximately 2,500 square feet and had been well-maintained.\u201d <\/p>\n

The designers painted the exterior in Benjamin Moore\u2019s muted, dusty Classic Gray, with a roof of Eastern white pine shakes in place of asphalt shingles.\u201dIts modesty is offset,\u201d says Berman, \u201cby a vibrant yellow door, Fine Paints of Europe\u2018s Van Gogh Yellow, and a romantic and exuberant garden.\u201d Explore the house\u2019s outdoor design today on Gardenista.<\/p>\n


Above: Curiouser and curiouser. The house belongs to a Manhattan couple who use it as their half-time residence. Their ask? An inviting and unpretentious setting for them to live amid their art (which they have asked us to leave unattributed). <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing we did was to clarify all of the interiors by painting out most of the woodwork and unifying the color scheme into a single color throughout: Benjamin Moore\u2019s Cloud Cover,\u201d explains Berman. Shown above, a contemporary sculpture displayed on an antique painted drop-leaf table. The yellow sconce is Charlotte Perriand\u2019s Applique \u00e0 Volet Pivotant.<\/p>\n

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Above: The eclectic living room. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients didn\u2019t have a sense of wanting to make the place look finished or polished,\u201d Berman tells us. \u201cThey were after a general embrace of weirdness and charm.\u201d In the living room, that embrace encompasses a custom tuxedo sofa in a Bergamo plum silk-velvet (with a madcap array of needlepoint pillows), an artist-made traffic drum hanging light, and a vintage magician\u2019s chest.<\/p>\n


Above: A sculptural slice of burled wood that the clients owned was raised on Lucite legs to create a coffee table in the rear living room. <\/p>\n


Above: In front of the hearth, a Charlotte Perriand daybed is upholstered in Melbury Ebony, a black-and-white check from Romo (initially, it was in Melbury Cilantro, a green-and-white check, but \u201cin the end, the room needed a more punchy graphic, so we redid the cushion,\u201d says Berman). It\u2019s topped with a long pillow embroidered with a silhouette of a body. Where did they find all of these things? \u201cWe shopped everywhere: Chicago, Mexico City, Europe, Los Angeles, 1st Dibs, Etsy, eBay, Brimfield, junk stores, resale shops, salvage places\u2014and we\u2019re still looking.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Berman happened upon the 14-foot-long Vladimir Kagan\u2013style sofa at a Westchester estate sale. \u201cIt was in the basement on the last day priced at about $100.\u201d As for her choice of Romo\u2019s Linara Flamingo, a bright cotton-linen: \u201cThe room is quite dark, so we needed saturated, fearless colors. Neutrals in this setting turn to mud.\u201d<\/p>\n


Above: Mixed company. For the dining room, with its stone hearth and classic sash windows, Berman and Horn designed a Parsons Table finished in Bacterio, a since-discontinued Memphis laminate by Ettore Sottsass. They found the wire-and-glass-flower chandelier of unknown origin on 1st Dibs. The potted palm is an art piece as is the standing broken window. <\/p>\n

Above : \u201cWe were really inspired by several historic homes of dear friends designed in the sixties and seventies, and perfect to this day in the way they create spaces full of antiques and Americana to completely contemporary effect,\u201d says Berman. \u201cWe also looked at the great book
\nBilly Baldwin Decorates<\/em>. The dining room opens to a little reading area with a shelf of cookbooks and an antique rope farm bed. <\/p>\n

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Above: The otherwise original pantry is now adorned with Nakai, a Pierre Frey wallpaper patterned with what Berman describes as \u201cmurderous flowers.\u201d
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Above: Farmhouse mod: In front of the master bedroom fireplace, a Milo Baughman circular love seat (in its original Jack Lenor Larsen velvet) is paired with a Raymond Loewy molded plastic dresser from the seventies. (A Raymond Loewy DF 2000 Dresser is currently marked down from $5,500 to $2,100 on Chairish.)
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Above: Berman and Horn assembled an antique Swedish writing table, Christian Bell lamp, Prouv\u00e9 Standard Chair, and Fornasetti wastebasket in the upstairs office. In the study, the floor is painted Arsenic from Farrow & Ball, one of our Happiness-Inducing Paint Colors. The rug is a Ukrainian flat weave from Berman and Horn\u2019s favorite NYC carpet source, Symourgh International.
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Above: Contemporary art in an Americana setting.Throughout the house, the architects preserved the original wide-plank pine floors\u2014\u201dwe worked hard on the stain to get to a color without any of the dreaded orange or honey tones\u201d\u2014and painted the walls Cloud Cover from Benjamin Moore\u2019s Off-White Color collection.<\/p>\n

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Above: The bedroom off the back stairs has a blue-and-white Les Indiennes Esme\/Brigitte Quilt layered with an antique American quilt. The floor is painted Farrow & Ball\u2019s Cinder Rose, one of the colors singled out in Expert Advice: The 10 Best Pink Paints.
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Above: A kids\u2019 room has a trio of vintage quilts found at Brimfield and a pie safe for extra bedding. Here, the floor is painted Farrow & Ball Blue Ground. <\/p>\n


Above: A room with a closeup view. \u201cA bat also lived in that window during construction,\u201d says Berman.
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Above: An outdoor dining area; see more of the gardens and the exterior over on Gardenista. <\/p>\n

Here are two more adeptly remodeled farmhouses:<\/p>\n