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An Extended Family Guest House in an Old Barn

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A gigantic 2,000 square foot barn was reclaimed and re-purposed as a guest house for the client’s large extended family of children and grandchildren in Santa Ynez, California.

Leaving the timber structure intact, California architectural firm Carver+Schicketanz clad the exterior with huge translucent panels.

Suggesting the exterior of a traditional Japanese house, these translucent panels slide to open both floors of the renovated barn.

The combination is endearing: the rustic and rough-hewn timber of the original barn, and the winsome charm of the translucent panels.

A generous family kitchen nestles in the top floor of the barn-turned guest house.

Entry to its top story kitchen is supplied from outside.

Objects of sentimental value, a charming assortment of old shipping crates are neatly accommodated in a new storage chest.

A quirky table has the heft of the barn timbers, supported on recycling industry legs.

A sturdy antique metal bucket is repurposed as washbasin, set into a concrete bench.

On the ground floor, a stables stall is repurposed as a guest bedroom, with a genteel sliding door that evokes the original stables.

To contrast with the aged timbers of the original barn, its wooden insert is set in a metal frame painted a compatico rusty red.

The powerful structure of the original barn was built in the early twentieth century.

Although sealed up tight against the weather on the outside; on the inside, a little of the feeling of 100 years ago lives on.

The quaint early twentieth century seating and daffy flower arrangement evoke something of the period.