Country Living: How One Designer Crafted the Ultimate Southern-Style Farmhouse for His Family

As an architectural designer and owner of Vesta Design, Josh Huskins has been helping others design their homes for more than 15 years. So, when it came time to build his own dream home for his wife, son and two daughters, he knew exactly what he wanted. He centered his 2,192-square-foot Southern-style farmhouse in Suffield Township around a poplar open staircase that feeds directly into the kitchen.

“Our stairs is what really started the entire design,” says Huskins, who hired Scott Strayer of Helen Scott Custom Builders in Barberton to build his dream home. “There are times where the kids will sit down on the steps while my wife, Michelle, is cooking, and we have conversations right here.”

Featuring round balusters and stained to match the home's kitchen cabinets and other wood accents, the stairs’ location makes the kitchen the heart of the home. “I wanted the stairs to be in the kitchen but not block too much,” says Huskins. “That’s why we opened up both sides of the stairway.”

Every morning, Michelle is pulled toward the coffee bar in the corner where they put in custom-built shelving to account for the height of an espresso machine. From the kitchen sink, she has a view of the expansive front yard and the long, winding drive in from the main road. Wherever you stand, there’s enough natural lighting to brighten the home for most of the day.

“A lot of kitchens are toward the back of the house, but I wanted it out front,” says Michelle.

An expansive maple island with a low quartz countertop and four chairs at the center of the kitchen provides an unobstructed view of the living and dining rooms while doubling as a prep and service area. All of the cabinets, though inset, extend all the way to the ceiling, with a glossy ceramic subway tile backsplash and frost-colored grout. Even the smallest cabinets at the top have a specific function for displaying knickknacks and keepsakes behind seeded glass. Upper cabinet and under-cabinet lighting provides subtle ambiance after the sun sets.

This idea of form and function continues into the pantry. Completely hidden behind an Amish-built saloon door, it holds a butcher block countertop laden with small appliances and an extra refrigerator.

“I don’t like big, unused spaces,” says Huskins.

In the nearby mudroom, every family member has their own designated area where they can hang their jackets and bookbags with drawers and cubbies that hold shoes and other items year-round. It connects to a powder bath and creates a pathway perfect for kids running in and out of the house.

“I wanted a little bit of separation, almost like a family foyer area or separate locker space, where we don’t have to walk through a messy area to get to the half-bath,” says Huskins.

He’s put a lot of thought into the flow of the house. From the moment guests walk in the front door, they’re greeted by a dining room. A teardrop glistening chandelier hangs over a locally made table they purchased at an auction. Jeff Moore, owner of AAA Plastics & Pallets, built the wavy live-edge piece out of a maple tree from his yard.

On the other side of the staircase, the living room opens up under a cathedral ceiling with a central beam that matches the stained wood of the kitchen island. It cuts through the room with perfect symmetry above a cream-colored stone fireplace. Three floor-to-ceiling fixed-glass windows take up an entire wall, overlooking the covered concrete patio in the backyard, where the family spends their summer days lounging under ceiling fans that keep the bugs away.

“I wanted to be able to see outside everywhere I turned,” says Michelle. “There’s no one else out here, and it’s so quiet.”

Huskins’ love for symmetry continues into the primary bedroom, where a king-size bed takes up the center of the room — framed by matching nightstands beneath transom windows. Like the living room, the entire back wall has three fixed glass windows beneath wood paneling and a 10-foot tray ceiling.

“The tray ceiling gives it a little bit more of a grand feeling,” says Huskins. “It goes up into the trusses, so it doesn’t affect anything. It’s pretty minimal, but it’s enough to make this room feel more elaborate.”

In the primary bath, a maple linen cabinet acts as a barrier between his and her sinks. Smart mirrors offer temperature-controlled settings and subtle backlighting, softening the space. A laundry staging area is tucked off to the side. Much like the pantry, it provides a workspace that doesn’t muddle the limelight of the more open areas.

Huskins' daughters have their bedrooms on the second floor, each with a long, narrow walk-in closet and a shared bathroom. Fun features include a hidden crawlspace that connects the two rooms and a tiny nook where the girls can read and color.

“We had all this dead space and framing, so we decided to create a little reading nook for them,” says Huskins.

He has similar ideas in mind for unfinished rooms in the basement. He’s framed out a secret room that’ll connect his son’s bedroom with a special hangout area. He has also put in plumbing for a future wet bar and installed a second chimney flue in case they want to add another wood stove.

“Whenever I’m designing houses, I try to think of what you’re going to do down the road,” he explains.

Lately, his attention has been pulled toward the 14-car garage. In recent months, he converted a small portion of it into what he calls “a little party room,” with a golf simulator. Some nights, the family sits out there and watches movies. Most of the time, though, the garage provides exorbitant space for a collection of outdoor equipment.

One-fourth of the garage is also dedicated to Michelle’s Hartville Honey processing room. She maintains 10 hives on the property, but oversees a total of 500 hives with her business partner. The room holds an extractor, an industrial refrigerator and a warmer to keep the honey from crystallizing year-round. A rolling garage door at the back of the house allows in-and-out privileges without any hassle, and the entire room is lined with metal siding so it can easily be power washed.

“Last year, I had eight 55-gallon barrels of honey,” says Michelle. “This year, I hope to double that.”

Hive-inspired treasures, alongside other splashes of autumn, are touches Alicia Donald, owner of Hartville’s Dandelion Design & Décor, spread throughout the home. These items highlight Michelle’s passion for beekeeping throughout the home. A bee skep, woven together with small twigs, sits on a small heirloom console between the half-bath and the mudroom, surrounded by a small golden wreath. A list of “hive rules” — littered with bee puns — hangs on an adjacent wall.

“She blended her expertise with my taste to create a home I absolutely love,” says Michelle. “She has such talent for design and a thoughtful way of working.”

Elsewhere, design elements make a significant impact. Tucked away on the wall inside Huskins' office, there’s an authentic cow skull from Skull Bliss that was hand-carved in Bali. Intricately designed with painstaking detail, it captures Huskins' love of nature. Its stark white surface stands out against the midnight-black paint that saturates the space with depth and intensity.

“The money from these goes toward feeding local people,” says Huskins. “We found them online and thought it would look cool in a more masculine, dark room.”

Out front, the wraparound concrete porch is an homage to Southern living with six white columns and two identical porch swings on end. Between them, three rocking chairs sit beneath a haint blue ceiling — as if they’re inviting guests to stay awhile.

By marrying modern elegance with country living, the home is just one of several dreams the Huskinses continue to make a reality.

“It was really special for us that Josh got to design our house, and we had the ability to build a custom home,” says Michelle. “It holds that much more weight in the I love my home factor. For it to come to fruition was a very surreal and exciting experience, and there’s no one else I’d rather have design our home than Josh.”

STONE FIREPLACE

The stone fireplace in the living room is actually a wood stove insert, powerful enough to heat the entire house during winter. It allows the Huskinses to cut back on propane and electricity.

“We knew power outages in the area were common, so we wanted to be prepared ahead of time,” says Michelle Huskins. “If something happens, we need a way to heat the house, and that’s our primary source of heat. We’re constantly chopping and splitting wood.”

The raised hearth provides additional ledge seating for the family while they relax and watch deer graze mere feet away through the backyard windows.

At a glance, the mantle underneath the TV provides a space that can be decorated year-round and appears wooden. It’s actually a concrete beam painted to look like wood to match the beam overhead and the kitchen island.

“Nobody is ever able to tell that it’s not real wood,” says Josh Huskins. “Anytime you have a wood burning fireplace, you can’t have your mantle very close to it because it can catch fire. Having a concrete beam offers a solution that also fits in with the rest of the design.”