Converting a Barn into a Home
Walking through the front door of Tim Franklin’s home in Bath is like walking into the 19th century. Worn terra-cotta tiles under your feet lead you to an imposing black and silver metal potbellied stove in a corner framed by rough-hewn beams that anchor into behemoth blocks of stone. Framed sepia-tone photos of the original barn and cleared farmland upon which this structure was built begin to tell the story of its age.
When you look up, however, the spell is broken. An open metal and recycled wood staircase in dazzling white rises through three stories as if floating on air. Honey-colored beams that were original to the barn cross the metal railings as treads, echoing the warm wood of the openwork ceiling and posts beyond. The combination of 208-year-old wood and clean white accents creates a modern living space with surprising coziness.
“My approach was old and new,” he says. “I recycled everything I could. These were beams that I made into the stairs. I used a combination of metal so we could have a very open floor plan.” Metal stringers support the stairs, allowing the floor-to-ceiling carry-through of a single, branching staircase.
Franklin purchased the circa 1810 barn and its surrounding 2.2 acres in 1988, then spent the following two years converting the barn into a home for himself and his two children. In the years since, he and his company, Franklin & Associates, have converted other barns and renovated many historic buildings. A typical barn conversion takes about a year, but his took longer because he did a lot of the work himself while also building his business. The Akron native left a job in New York City and returned to Ohio where he started his design-build company with a team of architects, engineers and craftspeople, which was a new concept at the time. “We really feel like we’re a team, [and] we engage the client as part of the team,” he says.
Once the basic structure of his barn was livable, he chipped away at the details. “It wasn’t where I wanted to be, but then I’d do something every year,” he says. “Eventually I got it the way I wanted it. It took me 10 years.”
Franklin has always enjoyed working on old buildings because he feels it’s an important part of being a good steward of the planet to reuse things, but it’s also more than that. “We can do new, but new doesn’t look like old,” he says. “When you do a barn, it’s unique.”
Because it had been a working barn, every surface of the structure had to be power-washed to remove decades of residue from animals and the environment. Once the grime was gone, honey-colored posts with charming gouges and holes from the original construction emerged. Franklin kept them intact and complemented them with white walls for an unexpectedly cozy feel in the expansive open space. “A lot of barns that are converted, they leave too much wood,” he says. “I did a combination of drywall and wood to lighten it up.”
Adding to the light-filled ambiance of the home are banks of very large windows on the front, back and sides of the building. “A lot of barns that are converted have teeny windows,” he says. “These windows [and] doors are 8 feet tall.” The extra height is not noticeable, though, because of the sweeping scale of the space, so everything simply looks appropriate. “I truly am a stickler for symmetry and proportion. No one ever comes in here and goes, Oh look, you have tall doors. It just feels like the right size.”
That sense of proportion carries through on the higher-than-usual wainscoting in his son’s room and some of the furniture, like an oversized leather sofa in a TV area for the kids and the dining room table that is one of many pieces Franklin designed and had built. It is square rather than the traditional rectangle, with beveled light-colored wood framing a blasted glass center. It could easily seat eight to 10 people and defines an airy corner surrounded by windows.
Using furniture to define spaces is how Franklin’s thoughtful design keeps the openness of the home from feeling cavernous. “How do you create individual rooms in a wide-open plan?” he muses. “My trick is I use a screen. I use that floating credenza. It’s actually held by pins.” No legs touch the floor under the 6-foot-long credenza in light oak that really does seem to float between two of the barn’s original posts as it creates definition between the dining and living areas. “It feels like it all flows, but there are designated areas.”
White upholstered barrel chairs Franklin designed cluster around the unique curved fireplace to create another defined space. And a sleek entertainment center — also designed by Franklin — that looks midcentury modern pairs with a leather sectional to designate an area where the kids play video games. Each piece or grouping was carefully considered for how it would fit not only the space but Franklin’s long-term vision for his home. “I designed them and built them as I could afford them, so it evolved,” he says.
Another important consideration for the project was energy efficiency, a very forward-thinking concept for the early ‘90s. “We practiced green marketing before there was even green,” Franklin says. With a total of 6,600 square feet of living space, including two indoor garages and an indoor gym, in what was essentially an uninsulated wooden box, heating and cooling were a challenge. Franklin met that challenge with windows made of heat loss-protecting low-E argon glass, now an industry standard, and structural insulated panels in the walls sandwiched between the drywall and cedar siding. “When it heats up, it stays warm,” he says. “It’s much more efficient.”
Everywhere you look, little details remind you that this was once a barn. In the game loft that features a pool table and pinball machine at the highest level of the home, track lighting at the apex of the roof was installed directly over an original pulley from the barn. “The pulley works,” Franklin says. “It would bring over hay and supplies from one end of the barn to the next.” From that peak, the ceiling angles down into eaves that create more intimate nooks amid the openness. “Because of the scale of the barn [and] where I positioned the lofts, you have cozy spots all around.”
Sometimes that coziness made for particular design challenges, like closet space in the master suite that is also near the structure’s roof. “Working with the ceiling, you have to get creative. These two doors I made for a closet — they’re angled,” he says, indicating two sharply angled, 4-foot doors nestled into the eaves. On the opposite side of the room, next to the master bath where the ceiling is higher, he squeaked in a walk-in closet with a regular door.
“Then in the bathroom, I went with a ‘20s deco feel you can almost see over at Stan Hywet,” Franklin says. Indeed, black-and-white tile floors, brushed metal fixtures and clean lines softened by exposed ceiling beams that smell softly of cedar evoke the hygienic yet stylish decor of F.A. Seiberling’s manse.
Standing outside the master suite at the top of those light-as-air stairs, all is open before you. “The whole idea is to have some unique view no matter where you are,” he says. You can look over the railing and see all the way down to the main entrance two stories below, out all the big windows to the lush gardens behind the home, down into the living and gathering room or even into the kitchen and across into the loft.
Those views are tempered by the natural light that floods the home even on overcast days, giving the white walls a dynamic effect. “This paint looks very different in the morning when the sun comes up, very different when the sun sets,” he says. “The walls — it seems like they change color.”
Despite having the vision and design authority for this incredible home, Franklin is quick to acknowledge his skilled team, especially Chris Janca, lead project manager, who oversees day-to-day construction. “Every project is different, so it keeps you sharp,” he says. “I hate seeing barns torn down.”
Level Up
That old barn on your property is just taking up space. You want to salvage it, but you don’t have the money to convert it into a year-round living space right now. No problem! Tim Franklin and his team, Franklin & Associates, can help you save and refurbish your structure in a cost-effective, sustainable manner one step at a time.
“There’s a big effort, design and cost difference between repairing a barn versus making it year-round living,” he says. “We like to come up with a master plan, then we keep building layer after layer to get what you want at the end.” Here’s how the process breaks down.
- Step 1: “Make sure the thing doesn’t fall down,” Franklin says. Shore up foundation, roof and other structural concerns. Estimated time frame: Two to six months
- Step 2: Add electricity and supplemental heat. “You wouldn’t live there all the time, but the heat can take the edge off,” he says. Make the structure more useful for entertaining or seasonal housing. Estimated time frame: Dependent on the extent of the conversion
- Step 3: “Later, we do the full conversion,” Franklin says. “But we’re not spending money twice. Everything we did the first time piggybacks on what we’re doing to convert it.” Estimated time frame: Design and planning, three to four months; construction, one year to 18 months.