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Once-Soggy Farmhouse Takes Shabby Chic to Nth Degree

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A rustic, and toppling old wooden farmhouse in upstate New York is renovated in a classic style by replacing one entire wall of the clapboard siding.

Its huge rustic beams are retained, now offset by stark white walls and the huge window, opening up one entire wall to the views and light.

The renovation is handled with wit and reserve.

No-nonsense polished concrete floors play off the sentimentality of an old-world kitchen island.

The rich patina of the old wooden farmhouse floors is countered by a new rusted steel fireplace that threads through both floors.

In the now luminous and spacious farmhouse kitchen this fireplace becomes a pizza oven and firewood stack, while the wooden beam seems to have reverted to a living tree trunk.

A Japanese style soaking tub combines the ancient wooden tub inside and a new stainless steel exterior.

An exterior porch is folded in to the renovated interiors.

And the most dilapidated sink imaginable is offset by a very droll faucet and its own serious museum-like display space.

But one hopes that floods are rare because this ‘Floating Farmhouse’ is still sited right on the water.

Perhaps that is why it was in such a sorry state to begin with.