Although I’m FAR from an “interior designer,” my life-long love of all things farmhouse has definitely had a huge influence in my personal decorating style.
Even as a child, I was always drawn to primitive farmhouse pieces and loved going over to one of my grade school friend’s farmhouse just to see if her mom had changed or added any decorations since the last time I had been there (yes, I’m weird!)
In our first house (a 70’s ranch) I decorated inside and out in an eclectic mix of shabby and primitive — all with an over-arching “farmhouse vibe” (at least as good as I could on a VERY limited budget!)
Of course, ever since we moved into our real life centennial farmhouse 5 years ago, I have thoroughly enjoyed transforming it into MY version of the “perfect farmhouse” — classic and clean, kid-friendly and functional, patriotic and pretty, and with just enough of the original farmhouse charm to remind us that we live in a 125 year old house.
NOTE: You can take a virtual tour of our entire house here.
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I’m often asked about my “decorating style”… and the truth is, I’m not exactly sure what my style really is — or even if I have an actual “style”. I just know what I like when I see it.
That said, today, I’m sharing 2 of MY favorite ways to add a little farmhouse feel to my home…
Chicken Wire and Chippy Paint!
Chicken wire is one of my favorite frugal ways to add farmhouse charm to SO many different items — everything from pictures frames and old windows, to chairs, lamps, armoires, and even in the garden!
Our red kitchen hutch is my most favorite chicken wire piece, and I get compliments on it almost anytime someone visits our house for the first time.
This hutch was a Craigslist find almost 8 years ago. It was dirty, broken down, dark brown, with cracked yellowed plexiglass in the doors.
I think the original owners thought I was insane for paying $20 for this piece… but I had a vision! With a little cleaning, some of my favorite Awning Red paint, and a few feet of chicken wire, this hutch just screams “farmhouse!”
In general, I feel like anytime you add chicken wire to anything, it instantly gives it a fun country farmhouse feel.
The fact that it is ridiculously inexpensive is another plus for anyone wanting to add a little country charm. Just make sure you have a good wire cutter — it will make your life SO much easier!
Also, I’ve always just used a cheapy staple gun to attach the chicken wire — but for some projects, hot glue might even be an option! (here’s how I make my chicken wire frames)
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Here are a Few Fun Chicken Wire Projects:
(Links are below the photos.)
Red Chicken Wire Chair Planter
Holiday Card Display (or photos)
I already have several chicken wire frames holding photos and cards in my house — but I think the next project I want to try is the cucumber trellis — such a great idea!
The tissue dispenser intrigues me too. I’m not sure how they got the tissues in there, or if the tissues would rip when pulled against the chicken wire.
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Another one of my favorite ways to add country charm is with chippy paint!
We have LOTS of chippy paint in our house — in fact, I think every single room in our house has at least one piece of furniture with chipped or distressed paint. It’s definitely one of my favorite ways to give a boring or outdated piece of furniture a fresh new farmhouse look.
Our bedroom has some of my favorite chippy paint pieces!
I also love the red and white-washed changing table and white chippy night stand in the nursery. (Read my tips for quickly distressing furniture in this post)
Even if you don’t think you have what it takes to paint something, I’d love for you to give it a try anyway. Find a small piece of furniture (or even a small decorative item) and give it a coat of white or red paint — then sand a little off to get a worn and weathered look.
You might surprise yourself with how easy it is!
Here are a Few Fun Chippy Paint Projects
(Links are below the photos.)
Farmhouse Table (plus a great tutorial on how to get that chippy paint look)
Green Chippy End Table (LOVE!)
Chippy Farmhouse Cabinet (if only I were brave enough to do blue!)
Chippy piano (this is one of the projects on my list right now!)
Chipping potting bench (I’m looking for something JUST like this for the front porch)
After seeing the before and after transformations for the pieces above, I just want to grab my paintbrush and get to work (that’s one hobby I can’t wait to get back to after my kids are in school!)
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Of course, there are lots of other ways to give your space a little farmhouse flair, but chicken wire and chippy paint are two of my favorite!
Ann says
Last year I used old window screens for my cucumbers to climb. This year I am trying sunflowers as I read they are a terrific companion planting with cukes and the cukes can climb their stems.
Andrea says
this is awesome — I just planted some sunflowers by our cucumber over the weekend. We’ll see how it works! Thanks 🙂
Georgy says
I love your ideas. Can I use it in my farm house and share on facebook?
Pauline sprik says
I lived in this farm house for many,many years. My husband since he was 1 years old.1938! When we wear married we moved into this house. lots of wonderful memories! Love the way you have fixed and decorated this house. We moved from there in 1978 to a hobby farm near Jamestown
Pauline sprik
Andrea says
Love this Pauline! You’re very close to us as we live in Hudsonville 🙂
I’ve always wanted a “hobby farm” but right now, I think animals would be too much work for us. Maybe once the kids are older we’ll get some chickens 🙂
Linda @ q is for quandie says
Thanks for including my blue chippy rooster cupboard in your blog post! You can be brave enough to do blue, I say go for it!
Kristina says
What do you use for window coverings in your living room? I also have the thick farmhouse trim that I don’t want to cover up, but I dislike blinds because of how time consuming it is to clean them. My current solution is roman shades.
Love your style. 🙂
Andrea says
We have plain white fabric panels from IKEA in the living room — and in the bedroom, we have cordless cellular blackout shades. All our other windows are “naked” because I love looking at the trim and we’re set back off the road enough that no one can really see into our house 🙂
Kristina says
I had no idea there was such a thing as cordless shades! Our kids rooms have pull down roller shades bc the thought of cords (& the accidents they could cause) scares me. I’ll keep this in mind when the time comes to replace them!
Emily says
I love the farmhouse look so I was super excited when we moved into ours a few years ago. Ours was built in 1889 but the owners before us completely renovated it. I love how you decorate your home!! I had a friend once declare my style as “modern rustic with some farmhouse thrown in.” 😉 I picked up a framed chicken wire picture board at the flea market in Shipshewana last summer and love it. The flea market has some awesome finds for the farmhouse look.
Andrea says
wow, I don’t think I knew that your farmhouse was completely renovated already — fun! It’s been a long road for us, but we got a great deal on the house and were able to basically renovate it the way we wanted (but I won’t lie, the idea of moving into an already renovated house sounds pretty amazing!)
Katie says
I like the farmhouse look. It looks great in your house! We have a large (2400 sq ft) 1970’s ranch. We moved 2 years ago from a ranch that was 1000 sq ft and it felt so easy to decorate. I had quite a few primitives there. I have a hard time with this bigger house! I can’t really find a style for it yet! I know it just takes time.
Andrea says
yes, that’s exactly how I felt about landscaping — I was SO overwhelmed by our huge yard now after coming from a much smaller yard. it helped us to have a landscape designer come and layout the entire project (then we implemented it over the last 4 years).
I wonder if it would be worth it for you to hire an interior designer to just come out once and give you a “plan” for the whole house. Maybe a theme or colors or tips to pull everything together. It probably wouldn’t cost too much and then you’d have a starting point and come move forward at your own pace with one big plan in mind. Just a thought 🙂
Alisha@FamilyTravelOnAShoestring says
I love your house and the farm house style. I don’t have a lick of interior design sense but if I did I would definitely go with chicken wire and chippy paint.
Chris says
I love the look as well but I lean more towards cottage comfy. I have one question tho. What happened to the farmhouse table from your other house? I can’t believe you parted with it!
Andrea says
Don’t worry Chris! We still have the table — it’s in our heated outbuilding. We use it out there ALL the time!
Melinda says
Yes, I love the farmhouse décor. Your house looks so comfy. I use to decorate in strictly primitive but got tired of it. ha I am like you and can’t really put a name to my décor. I like a mixture; farmhouse, shabby chic and rustic. My house is actually a hodge podge, I love antiques. I have found an old iron bed, Hoosier, buffet. dressers, end tables etc. on Craigslist, flea markets or garage sales. I especially like old things like blue mason jars, old wash boards, windows etc. and also like the cute Hobby Lobby/Kirkland’s stuff. For example in my bedroom I have an old white iron bed with an antique dresser and end tables with a modern comforter and a bling-y jewelry case and mercury glass candlesticks along with an antique stand up picture frame .
My bathroom has an old blue 60’s tub that I had to work around. I put up tongue and groove boards and painted them white to get the old clapboard look and use old powder jars to hold cotton balls, etc. and also have some new shiny stuff too.
It seems to all work. At least I think so. 🙂 I love to see pictures of your house by the way. 🙂
Andrea says
Yeah, I love the primitive look — but I tire of all the dark colors since I love white so much! Sounds like your bathroom is really cute (my parents have a 60’s GOLD tub in their bathroom!)
Kim says
That’s probably why I love looking at pictures of your house so much. We have the same taste in decor. I affectionately call it “old crap,” but “farmhouse” has a much nicer sound to it. 🙂 I love, love, love anything farmhouse! My husband shakes his head at some of the things I bring home, but he graciuously lets me do our house the way I like. Thanks for the links to the projects. A couple of those were exactly what I was looking for.
Kim says
P.S. The beauty of the farmhouse look is that some other people don’t see the beauty and they give away absolute treasures for FREE. 🙂
Andrea says
yes! I’ve gotten so much stuff for free or really cheap and all I need to do is clean it up and repaint it for a totally new look!