An 18th-Century Stone Farmhouse Reborn

Over the past 20 years, Jeffery Wyant and Maria Keares Wyant of Wyant Architecture in Philadelphia have become known for their clean, uncomplicated solutions to tricky design dilemmas.

Not long ago, the enterprising team put their skills to the test, when new clients asked them to enlarge the footprint of their 18th-century farmhouse in Elverson, Pennsylvania. “The couple wanted an addition sympathetic to the original architecture, but they didn’t just want to replicate what they already had,” says Jeffrey.

Built in the late 1700s, the two-story stone farmhouse had a cramped, compartmentalized layout with six-over-six double-hung windows that didn’t let in much light. While the architects tried to honor the provenance of the existing structure, they also wanted to create a new space for the family that was bright, spacious, and contemporary.

Slideshow: Tour the Farmhouse Addition

“We ultimately decided to make only minor modifications to the original living space and instead open it onto the new addition,” says Maria. Because the low ceilings of the existing house didn’t lend themselves to large, gracious spaces, the couple lowered the ground floor of the new addition to gain a more generous ceiling height on the first floor, and also opted for vaulted ceilings on the second level. The addition, which features a sleek master suite and a light-filled great room, expanded the family’s living space by roughly 2,000 square feet.

Besides creating more expansive common areas, one of the architects’ main goals was to redesign and re-orient the entryway. As it was, the front entrance faced out toward the road, but the driveway led straight to the back door, which, by default, had become the family’s primary entrance. To remedy this, Jeffrey and Maria sited the new addition at a perpendicular angle to the back of the farmhouse, thus creating a front entrance the family could access from the existing driveway.

The reconfigured entrance serves to tie the old and new structures together. “When we drafted the plans for the new entryway,” Maria says, “we wanted the connection between the addition and the original structure to be very thin and glassy, with the glass itself becoming a design element that served as a separator.”

This transparency was achieved by flanking the door with fixed casement windows from Pella’s Architect Series. The aluminum-clad windows rise to the second floor, forming a clerestory beneath the roofline, then wrap around the side of the house to fill in the master bedroom gable. “When we first described our idea about the windows to the owners, we used the analogy of a baseball,” remembers Jeffrey, who likens the flow of the glass across the addition to how the leather of a baseball is bound together by one continuous stitch of thread. “All in all, Maria and I felt the windows made the whole composition feel lighter, like the roof was almost floating on top of the stone wall,” Jeffrey says.

In terms of materials, the husband-and-wife team united the exterior of the structures by sheathing the new addition with nearly identical stones purchased from a neighboring farm. Riffing off the house’s original copper downspouts, the Wyants chose a standing-seam copper roof, which they extended down to create the wall at the rear elevation of the addition. “The copper will age and patina,” says Jeffrey. “It was shiny and bright when we first installed it, but it oxidized right away to this warm, bronze color.”

Instead of wood, a Burlington Stone from Stone Source was used on the ground level and the terrace beyond the great room’s glass wall. “The terrace flows out of the family room and is protected on three sides—by the addition, a wing off the 18th-century structure, and the stone guest house—so it feels very intimate, which is nice, since the farmland beyond it is so open and vast,” notes Maria.

The couple also installed a traditional Japanese-style rain chain on the terrace. “The chain hangs away from the building and becomes a water feature in stormy weather. The water’s both visible and audible, as it travels down the chain into the stone drainage bed below,” says Maria.

Besides the spacious master bedroom and its 400-square-foot deck, the second level of the addition includes a home office and a wide stair hall that connects the original and new portions of the house. Sustainable palm wood paves the floors. And the striking staircase features reclaimed lumber for the treads and a custom-designed railing made from plate steel.

Outfitted with a freestanding soaking tub, the open-design master bath pairs standard-issue white tiles with Erin Adams’ Zen Weave graphic tiles from Anne Sacks, not to mention 12-by-24-inch porcelain tiles with a copper patina, installed horizontally.

“We’re fortunate our clients were so open-minded. They gave us the freedom to design something modern and contemporary and in contrast to the historic structure,” says Jeffrey. “I think everyone was proud of the outcome.”

For a virtual house tour, click here. To learn more about the architects and other projects, visit Wyant Architecture.