A New Look for Fallen Branch Farm
Making it our own
When we moved to our last farm we thought that we would be there forever. Over six years we lovingly restored our sprawling 1860s farm house inside and out. But along the way it became evident that, even though we loved our home, the property just wasn't large enough to sustain our growing farm. So we started our seemingly futile search for a farm property that would suit our needs and was in our budget. After nearly giving up on the possibility of finding a place we were lucky enough to purchase our farm near Mildmay.
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The property is very picturesque located in the rolling hills of Carrick Township. The barn style home is perched at the highest point overlooking the barn and forest. The home was constructed in the late 1970s of Wiarton stone and board and batten wood cladding. A small barn and large garage were also built around that time. it was evident that the home's exterior would need some upgrading and so we started adding new life to the structures.
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Renovation and Restoration
Our goals were to have a barn that would work for us and the animals, a suitable shop area, and an updated home - in that order. We enlarged the barn, poured concrete, set up stalls, and ran water and hydro. The garage was set up with storage, garage, and a separate shop area. The exterior of the home needed some new roofing, eavestroughs, wiring upgrades, and some new windows. Once these were completed we were finally able to focus on the cosmetics of the exterior.
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I have been intrigued bu Yakisugi, or Shou Sugi Ban as it's referred to in North America. It is a traditional Japanese method of preserving and weatherproofing wood siding by charring it on one side. The look is a dark charcoal finish. Our selection of colour was based on how to replicate this technique. Given that the cedar siding was very worn and had never been treated, many sections of the buildings already had the appearance of charred wood. We matched our paint selection to the darkest charcoal colour on the house. We settled on a solid stain
from Benjamin Moore called Black Ink. For the doors we picked Benjamin Moore Dinner party. This colour was inspired from the worn paint on our living room light fixture. We stained the pillars and railings in a semi transparent stain, Hidden Valley by Benjamin Moore.
Before
After
