Time-tested advice on how to choose a site, plan,
design, build, decorate, landscape and maintain your country
place, with historic designs of farmhouses, country homes,
cabins, cottages, barns, carriage houses and outbuildings.
Country PropertyThe
first steps to having a great country place are to find a great
site and then to plan it well. Here are some ideas on how to look at property and how to lay out
buildings on your land.
Country
Home DesignGood ideas from
the past on how to plan and design an attractive,
easy-to-build and easy-to-maintain home in the country.
American
Folk ArchitectureTraditional
American country buildings were efficient at serving their
purpose and at and withstanding the weather. Vernacular
buildings can provide some of the best ideas and inspiration for
new designs in the same climate.
Barns
& BackbuildingsRead time-tested advice
on how to plan, design, build, and maintain country barns,
carriage houses, garages, sheds and outbuildings. Find inspiration and
practical ideas in the photos and measured drawings of
yesterday's barns from the Historic American Building Survey.
American CabinsThe log cabin is thought of as every American's first home.
Original pioneer cabins and later revival design can be inspiration
for country cabins and log homes that complement their natural
settings.
How
to Build in the CountryHere's
some planning and building advice that's as good today as it was
more than a hundred
years ago, when it was written.
Country
Interiors
Old-time,
common sense ideas on how to create and furnish comfortable, attractive, easy
to maintain rooms in your country home.
Country
LandscapingWork
with nature, the way the old-timers did, to create a lush,
easy-to-maintain country landscape.
The
Kitchen Garden
Time-tested
advice on how to plan, prepare, grow and harvest a bountiful
family vegetable garden.
Homestead
Hints
Yesterday's
common sense ideas to help you maintain and enjoy your country
home, garden, landscape and property.
The
builders, architects and landscapers of yesterday's
picture-perfect country homes left us a legacy of design ideas
and practical building advice. Their words, drawings and designs
are as valuable now as they were then. This website presents
some of the best ideas from historic sources and from today's
experts on traditional designs.
This website is a
work in progress. Please check back often for new articles and
design ideas.
If
you are a website owner or editor you are welcome to link to
any of the individual articles on this site and to copy illustrations to your website. We ask that you credit The
Backroad Home,
and maintain a link to http://www.backroadhome.com
Donald
Berg, a member of the American Institute of Architects and the
Society of Architectural Historians, has published fifteen books
on traditional American building and landscape design. His designs, articles
and interviews have appeared in Home Magazine, Country Life, The
Old-House Journal, Yankee Home Magazine, Period Home Magazine,
Traditional Building and many other publications. He has
lectured on folk architecture at the Museum of American Folk Art
and appeared in the TV special The American Farmhouse on
HGTV.
"Almost
every American has an equally unaffected, though not, of course, an
equally appreciative, love for ‘the country.’ This love appears
intuitive, and the possibility of ease and a country place or suburban
cottage, large or small, is a vision that gives a zest to the labors
of industrious thousands. This one simple fact is of marked
importance; it shows that there is an innate homage to the natural in
contradistinction to the artificial—a preference for the works of
God to the works of man; and no matter what passing influences may
prevent the perfect working of this tendency, there it exists; and
with all its town-bred incongruities and frequently absurd
shortcomings, it furnishes a valuable proof of inherent good, true,
and healthy taste."
Architect Calvert Vaux, from his 1867 book,
Villas & Cottages
Homestead Help on the eBackroad Find
home and garden tools, products, furnishings and more. Check out
the free plans for country buildings and woodwork projects.
Improve Your Backyard
Build a shed, deck, gazebo, arbor, pergola, greenhouse, small
barn, playhouse or garden bridge with these plans and DIY
building kits.
Barns and Outbuildings Plans, prefabs and
easy building kits for horse barns, garages, sheds, pole barns,
work shops and country outbuildings.
Visit the Country Garden Center Find seed,
plants, orchard trees, tools, water garden supplies,
wildflowers, free project plans and good advice.
