The Modern Farmhouse Is Today's McMansion. And It's Here to Stay.

Large black

frame windows

White board

and batten

vertical siding

Wood beams

Swing or

Adirondack

chairs

Gables

Large black

frame windows

White board

and batten

vertical siding

Wood beams

Swing or

Adirondack

chairs

Gables

Drive through any American suburb and odds are you'll spot a modern farmhouse in its natural habitat. The style is hard to miss: white board and batten vertical siding, large black frame windows, and gables. A covered porch, with a swing or maybe Adirondack chairs. A tin roof. And of course, house numbers in sans serif font.

Love it or hate it, the modern farmhouse is the millennial answer to the baby boomer McMansion.

This post-agrarian look is the defining style of the current era — dominating renovations, new construction and subdivisions in communities with no connection to farming, with interiors that have open concept floor plans, wide plank wood floors, plenty of shiplap, and kitchens with apron sinks and floating shelves made of reclaimed wood. Even multifamily homes are getting the modern farmhouse treatment, falling into the barndominium category, as they embrace vertical siding, gables and tin roofs, giving a folksy nod to apartment complexes.

America's House of the Moment

America is a house-proud nation. "We have long used our homes to not only express ourselves, but also to express larger currents in society," said Thomas Mellins, an architectural historian.

From the colonial revival to the modern farmhouse, take a look at these home styles →

Kate Glicksberg for The New York Times

Colonial revival has come in and out of fashion since the 1880s. We turn to it during periods of heightened nationalism, like in the 1920s when the federal government sharply curtailed immigration. At these moments, Americans look nostalgically at the colonial style of pre-revolutionary America and reimagine it for a new era.

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

Americans embraced modern architecture, building homes with larger rooms and cleaner lines, in postwar America. They were also falling in love with their cars. Cue the split level ranch, a style that so thoroughly embraces car culture that it manages to bring the beloved automobile into the house.

Rachel Vanni for The New York Times

The McMansion first appeared in American suburbs in the 1980s, filling subdivisions with supersize, poorly constructed, convoluted homes. The style had its heyday in the early 2000s, at a time when banks were doling out subprime mortgages, fueling an overheated housing market that collapsed in 2008, bringing an end to the McMansion.

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The modern farmhouse has captured the nation's attention as the country grapples with rising populism amid deepening political divisions. It offers Americans an opportunity to embrace a romanticized, even fantastical, agrarian past with its cozy porches, quaint gables and wood beams. But step inside and the finishes offer all the creature comforts of a modern life.

Kate Glicksberg for The New York Times

Read more about the modern farmhouse style.