One of the best things about interior design is that it’s not permanent. Furniture can be rearranged, accessories and artwork added or subtracted, and walls repainted. Interior design is not a science, with definitively right or wrong answers. Despite what the self-proclaimed experts on home renovation shows say, there are few rules and little consensus about what must be done to a home.  

  And that’s a good thing, because we often change our minds.

We’ve enjoyed the design choices we made in our old farmhouse, as cataloged in prior issues of this magazine. But, well, some of those choices have been reconsidered.

Photo by Chris Stout-Hazard

Version one of our living room featured deep blue walls, a bronze ceiling, a lot of art, and multiple furniture groupings. We loved how cozy it was in the evening, but we didn’t love how dark it could be on overcast days. We loved the gallery effect and the furniture, but we perhaps should have allowed more open space for our energetic, bouncy dogs. 

Photo by Chris Stout-Hazard

Version two of the farmhouse’s living room retains most of what we loved—the checkerboard floor, the blue and bronze paint, much of the furniture—and adds brightness with a half-wall board-and-batten effect, white trim, and a huge paper lantern pendant. The floor space is more open with less furniture, and we’ve brought our large dining table into the center of the room to eat meals and work.

Photo by Chris Stout-Hazard

We tweaked our main bedroom and library, too. The blue floors were repainted in white. The built-ins and paneling in the bedroom—previously a deep chocolate brown—received one rough coat of white paint, giving them a pickled effect, with the headboard wall going black to better integrate our cowhide headboard. The library’s dark green walls and bookcases got the same whitewash treatment, and a rearrangement of furniture opened and further lightened the room.

Photo by Chris Stout-Hazard

Total cost for all of these changes? Almost nothing. Other than buying a bit of wood for the board-and-batten treatment and a $30 paper lantern, these adjustments involved nothing more than leftover paint we had sitting in the basement, furniture and accessories we already had, and a bit of time.

Until next time, Roger and Chris, at Double Heart Farm.  

Visit doubleheartfarm.com or instagram.com/dblheartfarm to see more.

This article originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Omaha Home. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.