A Before and After Look at a Modern Farmhouse Home Remodel

Scott and Julie completed a modern farmhouse remodel of their ranch-style home in DeForest, Wisconsin, focusing on the kitchen, master bathroom, laundry room, and screen porch. The kitchen was redesigned to feel more open and functional, while the laundry room gained ample storage and organizational features. The master bath was reimagined for a more spacious, luxurious experience. The project resulted in a home that is both beautiful and better suited to the homeowners’ needs.

A Modern Farmhouse Remodel in Deforest, WI

Updating an older ranch home with modern farmhouse aesthetics and improved functionality.

Scott and Julie are longtime residents of the Conservancy Place neighborhood. They had their first family home built soon after the neighborhood was created. They moved to an empty-nest ranch home, a former Parade home built by a well-known Madison area builder.

The couple decided the 13-year-old home was ready for a remodel to personalize the space. They contacted us about remodeling the kitchen, master bathroom, laundry room, and screen porch to update them and create the modern farmhouse aesthetic they both loved, as well as to improve the home’s overall functionality.

See the before-and-after photos of our updated floor plan and the new, modern farmhouse remodel, including a reimagined kitchen, master bath, laundry room, and 3-season porch.

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A New Modern Farmhouse Kitchen

The home’s existing kitchen was serviceable. It had some luxuries like a cooktop with a wall oven and microwave, and a large island. However, due to fundamental design flaws, it felt small, cramped, and desperately in need of an upgrade. Our first step was to rethink the space's overall design and redefine its place in the home.

Behind the island was a centrally located T-shaped stairwell with entrances from the kitchen and the entry hall. This detail made the kitchen feel small and pushed back into a corner on the main level, so it didn’t block or conflict with the stairs. This stairway placement made the kitchen feel like an afterthought. The existing kitchen also featured an ineffective and odd layout that placed the sink and cooktop next to each other, the wall oven across from the sink, and the refrigerator away from both appliances. This layout forced users to constantly cross between the kitchen's different workstations. The layout also left no designated space for cooking, food storage, or dishwashing. This led to cluttered and undefined areas in the kitchen.

Creating A New, More Functional Layout

We started by presenting the homeowners with several design options. Scott and Julie chose the best plan to meet their needs. We started by reimaging the stairway. We removed the kitchen side of the stairs to the basement and consolidated traffic to a single stairway with a single entrance from the living room. This completely changed the kitchen area, allowing us to create a new, more ideal layout.

We started by relocating the cooktop to increase the space between it and the farmhouse sink. This meant that we needed to relocate the refrigerator and wall oven. We moved the refrigerator to the right of the sink and the wall oven to a newly created wall of cabinets where the basement stairs used to be. All of these changes spread the kitchen out, giving it room to breathe and placing everything in an ideal location.

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Before Laundry Room Remodel

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After Laundry Room Remodel

Reimagining the Laundry Room

The existing laundry room was a simple design, consisting of a single sink cabinet, the washer, and the dryer. Scott and Julie decided they didn’t need the laundry room sink, so we removed it and replaced it with a wall of built-in maple cabinetry painted Thyme green to tie into the kitchen color scheme visually.

We kept the washer and dryer in the same location, added a butcher-block countertop above them, and created a clean subway tile backsplash. We included functional accessories in the laundry room cabinetry, including laundry hamper pull-outs, an ironing board drawer, and a hanging rod.

A Modern Functional Primary Bathroom

The existing bathroom, like the kitchen, was serviceable and included some luxury features, such as a full-tile shower with a touchpad control; however, like the kitchen, it also had fundamental design flaws. The design made it feel small and cramped. The existing bathroom was split into two rooms: a vanity room and a water closet with the toilet and shower. The vanity room was cramped and not efficient. It had three doors that swung into the space – the closet door, the bedroom door, and the water closet door. Again, like the kitchen, the bathroom required a complete redesign.

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Before Bathroom Remodel

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After Bathroom Remodel

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Before Shower Remodel

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After Bathroom Remodel

A Modern Farmhouse Remodel: Master Bathroom

To create our new design, our modern farmhouse remodel reduced the master bathroom to a blank floor plan. We removed the dividing wall between the vanity and the water closet. This gave us a large, open floor plan to work with. We began filling in the space!

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Before Bathroom Remodel

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After Bathroom Remodel

To address the door issue, we added a pocket door from the master bedroom into the bath. We kept the vanity in the same location; however, by removing the dividing wall, we were able to lengthen the vanity and include a Sunrise Custom Cabinetry linen cabinet at the end, painted the same thyme green as the kitchen island and laundry cabinetry, tying it into the modern farmhouse color palette. To create a design contrast, the new vanity featured alder wood cabinetry stained in white ash. We topped it with a Cambria Inverness 3cm quartz countertop mirroring the kitchen island. We were able to keep the toilet in the same location, with the linen cabinet providing some privacy.

After we removed the dividing wall, the bathroom became significantly longer. To reduce the feeling of length, we added a wall to divide the fully tiled walk-in shower from the rest of the bathroom. To visually connect the shower to the laundry room, we used the same subway tile and grout. As an accent feature, we used Maniscalo Chameleon hexagonal tile in sage green in the shower cubbies.

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Before Porch Remodel

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After Porch Remodel

Updating the Screen Porch

The existing screen porch was functional but lacked any style. It was basically a two-season sitting area that offered no real connection to the rest of the home, functionally or aesthetically.

Our modern farmhouse remodel of the screen porch started by enclosing the space. The half wall, finished with 6-inch shiplap, tied our design into the modern farmhouse aesthetic of the rest of the house. To provide plenty of natural light while keeping the airy open feel, we used three walls of Marvin Ultimate Clad Glider windows. Finally, we replaced the ceiling fan with a more contemporary model to complete our updated design.

Frequently Asked Questions for the Modern Farmhouse Home Remodel Project

• What was the main goal of this home remodel?

  The primary goal was to update an older ranch home with modern farmhouse aesthetics while improving the functionality of the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and screen porch for the homeowners, Scott and Julie.

• Which rooms were included in the remodel?

  The remodel focused on the kitchen, master bathroom, laundry room, and screen porch, addressing both design and organizational improvements in each space.

• What were some key changes made to the kitchen?

  The kitchen layout was reimagined by opening up the stairway, relocating appliances, and creating a more open and breathable space, making it feel larger and more functional.

• How was the master bathroom improved?

  The master bathroom was completely redesigned by removing a dividing wall, extending the vanity, and adding a linen cabinet, resulting in a more spacious and luxurious feel.

• What new features were added to the laundry room?

  The laundry room now features built-in Maple storage cabinets, a Maple butcher block countertop, a tile backsplash, and organizational accessories such as laundry-hamper pull-outs, an ironing board drawer, and a hanging clothing rod.

The Result of this Project

Scott and Julie completed a modern farmhouse remodel of their ranch-style home in DeForest, Wisconsin, focusing on the kitchen, en-suite bathroom, laundry room, and screen porch. We redesigned the kitchen to look more open and functional, while the laundry room gained abundant storage and organizational features. The master bath was reimagined for a more spacious, luxurious experience. The project delivered a home that is as beautiful as it is better suited to the homeowners’ needs.

Are you planning a remodeling project? Let us help you create a new look and design! If you live in the Greater Madison area, call the experts at Degnan Design-Build-Remodel at (608) 846-5963. We can take your home to the next level of comfort, design, and function! Are you ready to learn more? We're always happy to answer your questions.