Bucolic Beauty: From Dream to Design

Anthony Slabaugh and his wife, Faye, always wanted to live on a farm.

“You get to a point in your life where you’re like, I just want to have my final place where I can make it how I want,” says Anthony, president of Anthony Slabaugh Remodeling & Design. “We’ve talked about it our entire marriage.”

Childhood trips to Hale Farm & Village and watching “Little House on the Prairie” — it all led to a desire for a slower, more intentional life.

“It just seems like the most idyllic setting for family and eventually grandkids,” adds Faye.

So, after living in Stow for 20 years, the Slabaughs moved to their dream property in Seville in 2021. While its exterior features — such as a bank barn from the 1860s, an old milk house, hand-carved sandstone water troughs and more — were perfect, the property’s dated warm wood farmhouse wasn’t exactly their style. Still, it had solid bones — and was large enough to accommodate their family of six.

“The exaggerated woodwork, the trim — anything about an old house, I just love,” says Faye. “This house happened to have the wonderful features of an old house but also had an addition that made it perfect for the size family that we have.”

Right after they moved in, the Slabaughs began remodeling the home — utilizing the same process available to a typical Slabaugh customer. They also enlisted the help of Slabaugh designer Nick Boka — remodeling the home to fit their Earth-toned, transitional farmhouse-style vision and uniting vintage charm and modern functionality.

“It’s rare that we walk into a project in the very beginning and just say, This is what you should do. This is the vision. It takes collaborating between the homeowner, an interior designer, the architectural designer,” Anthony says.

The project stretched over the next three to four years. Anthony sketched out changes, while Boka modeled them in an architectural design software. Boka also assisted in selecting materials from the Slabaugh design center.

“I use our design software called Chief Architect to help our clients visualize the space as we’re making selections of fixtures, colors and patterns, and looking at different options for layouts of cabinetry, even furniture,” says Boka. “That way, our clients have the most cohesive or collected concept for what space that we’re designing at that point in time.”

By July 2025, the project was completed.

Step through the front door of the farmhouse, and you’re greeted by a rich oak staircase, original to the home. It complements the oak used in molding throughout the front hall, including in pillars that frame the entrance to a sitting room painted entirely in a moody, dark blue.

Anthony coffered the ceiling in the room, which already boasted built-in bookcases, adding depth to its monochromatic palette.

“Something that is becoming more common in this era … is thinking of the ceiling as the fifth wall,” says Boka. “Choosing to use the ceiling and recognize the ceiling as another canvas to make a room feel even more cohesive, to pull off a certain vibe.”

Now, contrasting with maximalist gold frames, a crystal-drip chandelier and camel-colored leather armchairs, the room is both relaxing and quietly baroque — its upscale feel juxtaposed by a cowhide rug.

“I just love the idea of gallery walls and old vintage mirrors and that whole vibe,” says Faye. “It feels like you should have a cigar in there.”

Take the stairs up to second-floor living spaces, including a primary suite, three bedrooms and a kid’s bathroom. (As well as a third-floor finished attic with two bedrooms and built-in desks.) The primary suite features a four-poster bed and high-gloss paint, meant to create the illusion of a higher ceiling. Its bathroom showcases a neutral palette, with an encaustic-patterned, navy gray-and-white floor — which extends into a zero-clearance shower, great for aging in place — and a custom navy blue engineered quartz-topped double vanity cabinet with brushed brass hardware.

“Engineered quartz tends to be one of the most, if not the most, durable and low-maintenance countertop option on the market, especially if you’re looking more for a white, marble-looking countertop,” says Boka.

The kid’s bathroom, meanwhile, boasts large white subway tile in the shower and on the walls, as well as a hexagonal Carrara tile on the floor and in the shower.

“It lends well to that more vintage vibe, that farmhouse sort of feel,” says Boka. “Having the small hex mosaic on the floor and then the larger subway tile on the walls … it is more of a contemporary rendition of a very retro vintage look.”

Part of the home’s original red brick chimney is exposed in this bathroom, offering a pop of color and texture.

“It’s this fun moment,” Boka says, “and it also harkens back to when this home was built.”

Downstairs, the dining room has a more primitive style, with Sherwin-Williams' Black of Night-painted wainscoting, a built-in cabinet with antique brass hardware and a black wrought iron-style chandelier. Pass through a swinging oak butler door into the heart of the home — its kitchen.

“We do a lot of cooking. We try to eat very clean. We had our own cattle, so grass-fed beef, we have a garden, a greenhouse … we have chickens, so we have fresh eggs every day,” says Faye. “When people come over, all the kids are sitting at the table, I’m cooking, he’s cooking or the kids are helping us, and you’re still all together. … Even if you’re on the couch, sitting by the fire, you’re still with the same people that are in the kitchen.”

Crowned by Amish-made dark green-painted maple cabinets and reclaimed barnwood beams, the kitchen feels both vintage and contemporary. Calacatta marble countertops echo the marble backsplash.

“They just fell in love with the look of actual, natural marble,” says Boka. “There’s nothing like it. Each slab has its own story to tell.”

Wood accents, such as an original pine door leading from the kitchen to the wraparound porch, culminate in a walnut range hood.

“There’s an old door in the kitchen that goes out to the wraparound porch. And I knew I was keeping that door no matter what. It’s beautiful. I love it,” says Faye. “I wanted to tie the floor with that door into the wood on the island and then somehow up. So, the range was one way to do that, and the beams were another way to do that, just to kind of tie it all together.”

The kitchen opens into a dining area with a white oak table, which then flows into the home’s great room. The centerpiece of this room is a large, natural stone fireplace with a reclaimed barn beam mantle, reflective of further beams that jut overhead. Already part of its design before the remodel, the stones for this fireplace came from the farm property.

Behind the kitchen, step into an expansive butler’s pantry, complete with storage for serving dishes, canned goods, homemade honey, jarred sauces and more. A quartz-topped serving station, with a glazed ceramic mosaic backsplash and a mini fridge, allows guests to grab drinks before heading outside or down to the basement.

“It’s just a very useful area for a transition between the kitchen and the downstairs, where traffic flows,” says Faye.

The paneled ceiling hides an attic pull-out, while the flooring is a mix of three types of brick, arranged in a herringbone pattern. This unique flooring spills into a guest bathroom, as well as the laundry room, which is complete with painted maple cabinets and accessed through a Dutch oak door.

“I didn’t want it to be all red, so I mixed in a lot of lighter tones, grays and whites,” says Faye. “It came out gorgeous.”

The brick, like so many elements of the remodeled home, harkens back to the farmhouse’s past — creating the perfect mix of antique style and contemporary function.

“We wanted to upgrade and have some modern amenities and maybe even a transitional style that we pulled in. So, there’s some little bit of modern flair, but keeping with the old bones of the home so it looks like it belongs here,” Anthony says. “It really, really worked well.”

The Slabaughs now have goats, pigs, chickens and sheep — and love farm life.

“It’s beautiful. It’s calming. There’s always fun things to do,” Faye says. “We’re always working, but it’s fun work, like picking my tomatoes. It’s not hard — it’s wonderful. It’s relaxing, even though you’re constantly busy, constantly working. It’s a respite.”