Ideas

One family’s “fantasy farmhouse” come true

When a young couple decided to start a life in the country, they kept one mantra in mind: be simple.
Inside a kitchen, a woman holds a young boy who is pouring water into a glass.
One of our greatest joys is helping our customers live their best lives. We do this by contributing to homes that support their passions, connect them to the people they love, and ground them in the environments that feed their souls. That’s why we’re so excited to share this story of a couple who left the city behind to pursue the simple country lifestyle they wanted for their growing family.
“When I thought about how I wanted to raise my kids, it was set to the tune of the country,” said Carrie Valentine. She imagined “getting lost in the woods all afternoon, foraging for berries — the whole idyllic scene.” So, the interior designer and her husband began an experiment in modern homesteading that took them from an urban brownstone to a 5-acre parcel of woodland and sunny pasture on Minnesota’s Snake River. Their new home puts the focus on the surrounding natural beauty where new life abounds — their two young sons, the chickens in the backyard, and more. “I always like to tell a story within a space. This story just happened to be what my fantasy farmhouse looked like,” Valentine said.
“I feel like we are playing farm, since we are city kids, but our boys won’t know the difference, and that’s the incredible thing — we're creating a backdrop for their childhood,”

Carrie Valentine, Homeowner and Interior Designer

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