Jeffrey Dungan Architects: Southern Farmhouse

Project: Southern Farmhouse

Architect: Jeffrey Dungan Architects

There was a certain down-home charm to the tiny tin-roofed cabin surrounded by the green, rolling hills of Lowndesboro, Alabama.

The owners, a couple with three grown children, had owned the 3,000-acre farmland for several years, and they had pitched in to help their farmhands build the humble house.

In the beginning, it more than served their needs. But as they spent more time at this weekend/summer retreat that’s a two-hour drive from their primary residence in Birmingham, they discovered that aesthetically and architecturally, their home away from home left much to be desired.

The main problem was that it was small—it measured only 30 feet by 30 feet—while their ideas for entertaining friends and family were large.

Jeffrey Dungan Architects added a dormer to the old farmhouse. The home is clad in cypress, and the roof is shingled in cedar shakes. William Abranowicz

When they commissioned architect Jeffrey Dungan of Mountain Brook, Alabama, to renovate and restore it, he suggested it be torn down so they could start from scratch.

“But it had too much sentimental value for them to do that,” says Dungan, who has fond memories of growing up on a small farm. “So the challenge became to capture the spirit of the old farmhouse and add a loose assimilation of ancillary buildings that convey the feeling of a village that grew up around it through the years.”

The changes he made more than doubled the size of the living spaces to over 5,000 square feet.

“The owners are nature lovers, and they wanted to extend the indoor space into the outdoors,” he says. “They come here to fish in the lakes, to ride horses,
and hunt deer and other game. It’s also a working forestry farm.”

Dungan, a two-time Palladio winner, clad the cabin in cypress and shingled the roof with cedar shakes.

He and his team removed the home’s interior cabinetry but saved the basic shape of the rooms and the vaulted ceilings as well as most of the original flooring, interior planking, and fieldstone fireplace and chimney.

“We also painted the wood and added antique oak beams, tresses, and other reclaimed pieces,” he says. “We had to shore up the chimney because it was slanting, but we wanted to keep it as a memento.”

The kitchen, which was moved and expanded, resembles a glass greenhouse. William Abranowicz

Dungan opened up the original house to the outdoors. In the living room, he added two pairs of French doors on each side of the fireplace and created a new screened porch that features a dining space and an outdoor fireplace.

“On a chilly day in the fall, this is the ideal spot to sit and sip a libation or two and take in the views,” he says, adding that the farmhouse is in an idyllic setting complete with moss-draped trees.

He brought light into the living space with a dormer high in the vaulted ceiling of the original cabin and moved and replaced the kitchen with a 1.5-story greenhouse-like glass box that is significantly larger than the original.

On one side of the house, Dungan added a master wing that has a shuttered sleeping porch.

He also created what he calls a “bunkhouse,” a large vaulted living area with a small bar and inglenook fireplace that opens to a long porch.

“No farm would be complete without such a large wide-open space for large gatherings,” he said, adding that it’s the perfect place to view the sunsets.

Natural materials, notably cedar shakes, moss-rock, and fieldstone, were selected to reference and reinforce the farmhouse’s bucolic setting.

“We wove the existing and new structures together with wrap-around porches, a classic Southern device,” he says. “The details of the railings take their cues from the ubiquitous horse fences surrounding the house and farm.”

The bunkhouse addition was designed for large gatherings. William Abranowicz

Since the compound’s completion, Dungan has spent many weekends at the farmhouse. “The owners have several homes, including some abroad, but they consider this home,” he says. “We get together and cook and enjoy the indoors and the outdoors.”

He and the owners always find it hard to leave such a peaceful setting.

The farmhouse, which Dungan calls a “rambling and refined rustic retreat,” is a “soulful place,” he says. “There’s nothing fancy about it; it’s all about comfort and enjoying the people you’re with.”

Spending time there, he adds, “is as good as it gets.”