Yeah, Farmhouse Decor is Still Cool

At the end of 2023 and the beginning of the new year, I noticed several articles on farmhouse decor - from Home & Garden, Southern Living, and even Forbes asking, "Is farmhouse decor still popular, or is it out?" I think if you live in an authentic farmhouse out in the country, the answer is obvious - duh. 

Since the late 1970s, I have always gone with more of a vintage farmhouse decor in my kitchen with antique milk bottles, crocks, baskets, and copper. These items reminded me of the useful things in my grandmother's kitchen. While Grandpa built Grandma a new and modern house in 1954, she still had old crock mixing bowls, milk bottles, and well-used tin kitchen tools scattered among the new countertops, and old iron skillets on the new stove. Grandpa was a "gentleman farmer" with a large garden, a couple of fruit trees, a few chickens, sometimes a cow, and always a horse in the pasture. 

In the last 20 years, my kitchen decor has evolved into a pseudo-French farmhouse kitchen and I live over 5,000 miles from France. One day I walked into my kitchen and noticed I had a theme going with additions of old wooden French wine crates, French country cookbooks, and a few crocks and plates from France. I didn't do it on purpose, it just happened. 

My thinking is these things we collect should be of a "natural" selection and not with purpose. When shopping at thrift, antique, and decor shops, we should pick out items that we cannot leave on the shelves. Our selection should be about what we love, and not what the department stores and magazines are pushing. Am I making sense? 

Sometimes I get conflicted when it comes to home decor. Sure, I had a few moments when I shuddered with disapproval of everything from the 1960s-1970s from the Italian hand-blown glass vases like my mother owned to cartoon-looking mushrooms on canisters and everything macrame. Wouldn't you know, now it's the stuff the younger generation covets? Finally, I resigned myself to the nostalgia and this decor is rather sweet if not flattering for the era I grew up in. However, I still have no desire to own any of it. 

The answer if farmhouse decor is in or out? After reading the articles there seems to be no firm answer. Some designers are referring to the former title of farmhouse decor as now "rustic," or think Euro-cottage. 

Some of their decor tips are to allow the rooms to evolve such as the stainless steel refrigerator will look just fine against the rustic white shiplap. There are suggestions of less shiplap and more vintage-inspired wallpaper, combining old and new furniture, and less matching-matchy. Keep the style that you enjoy but refresh it a bit. Instead of the mass-produced faux vintage-like pieces, replace them with the real thing. 

To allow a room to evolve with the farmhouse look makes a lot of sense as we know an authentic farmhouse was made of generations who brought into their home what was always needed. Again, they didn't go shopping for decor to make their farmhouse look like a... farmhouse. 

Here are my thoughts, and I am not a professional interior designer nor do I play one on TV. To allow our rooms to evolve blending old and new makes sense to me. Remember, an old farmhouse is a collection of useful things from many past generations.