City Farmhouse Style: Designs for a Modern Country Life

by Kim Leggett, Alissa Saylor (Photographer)

In City Farmhouse Style , come along on the hunt to coveted country sources and the best secret antiquing spots and learn how to create country farmhouse style in your city house, townhouse, or apartment.

“What happens when homeowners throw out the design rule book? Genius decorating ideas pop up everywhere. A flip through Leggett’s book reveals dozens.” ― Architectural Digest

Author Kim Leggett is the creator of City Farmhouse, an interior design business, pop-up antiquing fair, and vintage store. She is also a legendary “picker” and favorite designer to celebrity clients (and country-style mavens) including Meg Ryan, Ralph Lauren, Sheryl Crow, and Phillip Sweet and Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town .

In City Farmhouse Style , Leggett offers great style advice, breaking down the design vocabulary that makes for fresh country style (no matter the setting). The popularity of farmhouse style has designers, homeowners, and fans in search of inspiration to create this look in all its rural glory. Topics Leggett writes in her introduction, “The real beauty of farmhouse style—unlike more fleeting design trends—is that it’s rooted in roll-up-your-sleeves practicality. Farmhouses have been around for hundreds of years, after all, and they were designed to work hard—to accommodate multigenerational families, feed a crowd, and, yes, handle a little dirt. . . . I also suspect farmhouse style has such widespread appeal because it’s inherently inviting. It’s warm, welcoming, and thanks to its adaptability, all inclusive.”

City Farmhouse Style focuses entirely on transforming urban interiors with unfussy, welcoming, country-style decor. It’s a unique resource whether you have a small apartment or a large townhouse.

“Leggett celebrates the ageless appeal of farmhouse staples—and explains why the look isn’t going anywhere.” — Country Living

Includes color illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Interior Design, Reference, Architecture

224 pages, Hardcover

Published September 12, 2017

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photos and friendly text . Plenty of inspiration. A nice , relaxing rest falling into the soothing pages.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I waited a long time for this title through interlibrary loan. It was a bit of a disappointment to me as I do not care for the color palette of subdued whites and beiges in decorating. My idea of farmhouse style has more color and more items. Apparently these photos are just to stark and sparse for my tastes.

[Corinnagoodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very white washed pallet, if you are only looking at the pictures, but if you read the book it was very interesting and it had a guide for every state in the back of the book.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring!

[Amanda Knox · Rating 1 out of 5]

A series of photos with no real explanation of how to pull any particular look together. It wasn't quite my style anyway. For a real guidebook, check out Homebody by Joanna Gaines.

[Megan Kophamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best farmhouse books I've read. Will read again! Beautiful!

[Leah Gritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as home decor books go, this one is in the Tops. Inspiring! The title accurately portrays what you will find within these pages. A variety of decorating styles, beautiful photographs, ingenious repurposing ideas, and helpful explanations of those ideas. Nice balance of photographs and text. Even going so far as to lay out a step-by-step plan for how to adapt old finds into your space (i.e: how to treat antique doors before installing in your home, in order to make them "safe"), without being overly wordy. A beautiful book.

[Donna Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very pretty and informative.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice layout, pretty photographs. I do find it ironic that the author starts off talking about how farmhouse style has its roots in practicality and functionality -- yet the houses she shows are far from practical. It would take a significant amount of money to replicate some of these looks.

[IE · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok but a bit too washed out and plain for my tastes, there were a couple of inspiring ideas but overall not a book I would personally revisit.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're into the current craze for an old-fashioned farmhouse look in a modern home, you'll love this book. If you like Chip & Joanna Gaines and Fixer Upper, you'll love this book. To me, it's all a bit "been there done that." Nothing new here in this book, although it's well-written with nice photos. My favorite chapter was the one on the French country style, previously known as French Provincial. The city farmhouse style may look easy to achieve, but in fact it takes quite a bit of design sense to choose the best among chippy furniture bits, old appliances and tools, and shabby fabrics, to re-purpose for your suburban rooms. The secret is in the scale and styling. If you don't have a good eye for design already, your rooms will end up looking like a junk shop!

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photographs are crisp and pleasing the the eye. There are so many great resources on where to find farmhouse style, how to restore antiques, and how to spot fake antiques. I loved reading about the history to many of the pieces and was inspired by the unexpected uses of some of the salvaged antiques.

[Susan Kendrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Read” is probably a stretch, but I did look through it multiple times. It’s pretty but right now Cozy Minimalist Home is my benchmark for interior design books as it is easy on the eyes AND immensely practical. This one did not have enough useful info to warrant a cover to cover read. But still, it is pretty.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was visually pleasing to look through and had a great representation of vintage farmhouses!

I don't know that I can say it helped me be able to cultivate a city farmhouse look (lots of the items were like one-of-a-kind finds) but again, it was nice to look through. I especially liked the section about white paints and its varying hues for specific looks.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first farmhouse shown in this book wasn't my style, but my goodness, some of the others are stunning. I particularly loved the resource section listing some places to look for farmhouse finds. As I don't live near any of these, I'll have to content myself browsing some of the web-pages and wishing/dreaming :)

[The Flipped Page (Susan K) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, lovely mix of country and city, style, oldness and antiques mixed with a few pieces of modern flair and decor.
Lovely photos, set within homes of people, and not just staged. Worth a look at if you are looking for some style or something unique.

[Trish Boese · Rating 3 out of 5]

3* Great pictures of farmhouse style, lots of white and wood. The best farmhouse style is always one-of-a-kind; it would be hard to replicate anything directly from the book. The style here makes me wish I had access to a great flea market.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The designs struck me as amateurish, repetitive and unimaginative. Ouch. Perhaps a less snobby way to say it is I felt as if I coulda come up with these designs and want something more from a design book than a rehash of Pinterest. Ouch.

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the pictures

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Some looks were appealing to me, and some not so much.

[Mary Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful photos and nice layout. Nothing new here, for fans of farmhouse style only. Excellent purchasing resources though, so worth checking out from library.

[Ambur Taft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely pictures of lovely things and great motivation to use old found things, refurbished or not, and mix them with new things to create beautiful spaces.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking to switch over to the farmhouse style this book has many different ways to do it.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of shabby chic, I found city farmhouse style very appealing. I found many great ideas to incorporate into my dream home.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty pictures but not much that is really useful. Maybe there's no such thing as a "city farmhouse." This has the look of a weekend get-away B&B.

[Kendra · Rating 2 out of 5]

My grandmother would have thought this insane - white everywhere in a farmhouse?!?

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could eat a book, this one would be on the menu. Great structure, beautiful photographs, scads of ideas..very creative.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great pictures with different design ideas for very "non-farmhouse" houses, like apartments or modern ranches.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually treat, full of inspiring and creative ideas.