The modern farmhouse look is changing with shifts in both material and design, and we're seeing more and more how the familiar white siding and black trim combination is giving way to earthy greens, warm browns, terracotta, stone, and mixed materials.
The goal of farmhouse design isn’t to make a home look rustic or old-fashioned. Instead, today’s versions are taking the clean simplicity that made the style popular and adding more color, texture, and connection to the landscape.
Black and White Make Way for Color
There’s a reason the classic farmhouse combination became so recognizable. It was simple, easy to reproduce, and looked good on almost any house.
“White farmhouses aren't actually the historical default people assume — white paint was expensive, and in the 1800s a freshly painted white house was a visible sign of order and prosperity,” shared Kate Smith of Sensational Color for Westlake Royal Building Products. “Barns got the cheap red iron-oxide paint; the house got the good coat. Modern farmhouse borrowed that old signal of a well-kept house and gave it a 2010s update: keep the white but trade the soft historic trim colors for stark black windows and doors, which read as crisp and graphic in a way that photographed perfectly for the Pinterest and Instagram era.”
That picture-perfect quality helped turn the farmhouse into one of the most recognizable home styles of the past decade. Now, homeowners have more room to move beyond the formula.
Smith is seeing more colors pulled from the landscape itself, including dark green, terracotta, baked-clay tones, and warm browns.
Design professionals across the industry are highlighting a shift towards warmth, too. “The move away from stark white-and-gray interiors continues, as we saw in the 2026 U.S. Houzz Emerging Trends Report, but warmth is now less of a trend and more of a foundation for home design,” cited Mitchell Parker, Houzz home design expert. “[Homeowners are] layering warm wood tones, earthy colors, multiple textures and natural materials to give rooms more depth and personality. .”
Those colors can still give a light exterior contrast without the sharpness of black or going all-in on beige; that’s one thing that we love about them.
Roofing is Part of the Color Story, Too
Farmhouse roofs used to be treated as a background element, one that could weather with time. Evolving demand for materials that improve energy efficiency while withstanding severe weather forced homeowners and builders to take a step back. As such, newer farmhouse roof designs tend to have more visual weight, particularly as homeowners move toward warmer exterior palettes.
We still love the look of a wood roof or a traditional black asphalt shingle roof, but keep in mind that there are plenty of modern engineered products that can deliver the look you want while handling the maintenance and durability demands of a contemporary home. Brava's composite cedar shake wood-like shingles we'd choose for a farmhouse or a classic cape.
Smith works with synthetic slate and shake and points to roofing colors that mimic the way real wood changes over time. “Engineered roofing has changed what's realistic for this style. My work is in synthetic slate and shake, and the colors are modeled on the stages of real cedar aging—the reddish burn of a shake roof's first few years, the mossy green cast that comes next, the near-black of a much older roof.”
Synthetic materials subsequently expand choices beyond the standard black roof. Want weathered gray or deep brown? There are products for that. Favor a muted green, or another color that ties the roof to the siding and surrounding landscape? No doubt that between the multitude of manufacturers expanding to include modern offerings, you’ll find something that works to make your farmhouse uniquely yours.
Hardware is changing along with the roof, and while this refers broadly to all home exterior hardware (not just to gutter systems), Smith noted to us that warm, matte, cast-iron-style finishes are taking over some of the work that black trim used to do. Beyond roofline gutters and downspouts, think of how color can extend to exterior lights, door hardware, and other small details.
Layered Materials
Another farmhouse shift has less to do with color and more to do with texture. Instead of covering the entire exterior in one type of siding, designers are mixing materials on the farmhouse framework to give the facade more depth.
Smith sees use of these materials as a more authentic way to capture the character people associate with older farmhouses.
“The real story in farmhouse exteriors right now is texture, not just color. Instead of one material across the whole facade, I'm seeing stone paired with wood-look siding (such as combining Cultured Stone manufactured stone veneer with poly-ash TruExterior Siding or cellular PVC Celect Siding), brick with vertical board-and-batten, limewash over masonry. That layering is what gives a house depth instead of looking like a single flat plane — and it's a more historically accurate way to build a true farmhouse look than a single flat white wall ever was.”
You don't need five different materials to get the effect (in fact, please don’t). Two or three well-chosen finishes can be enough to distinguish your home. The trick is letting each one have a purpose rather than adding materials just to make the exterior look busier.
The Influence of Fixer Upper
The original modern farmhouse boom made the style easy to copy. Smith credits Fixer Upper with helping turn those elements into a repeatable formula.
“Joanna Gaines and Fixer Upper didn't invent farmhouse style, but they turned it into a formula anyone could order from a builder or contractor: white board-and-batten, black windows, black trim. It worked on nearly any house shape; it was easy to describe, and it photographed as well in a listing photo as it did on TV. That combination of simplicity and photogenic contrast is exactly why it spread as fast as it did.”
The newer approach is less about checking off a list of farmhouse features and more about choosing materials that make sense together on the farmhouse frame. That could mean cream siding with a dark green door, a brown roof with stone accents, or a mix of brick and wood-look siding.
FAQ
Are outdoor wellness spaces a good fit for farmhouse homes?
Without a doubt! Houzz reports that 72% of homeowners are investing in outdoor features, and a study conducted by Talker Research for Trex Company found that nearly half of U.S. homeowners planned to transform their backyards into personal “sanctuaries” or retreats. Outdoor showers, plunge pools, saunas, and hot/cold tubs work well with farmhouse-style landscaping because they can be built around natural materials, and a wellness area can feel more connected to the house than other outdoor features.
Deckorators 2026 Outdoor Living Report also highlighted the importance of creating livable spaces to promote wellness, particularly in the front of the house where front yards, porches, and entry decks are often overlooked spaces.
For a more private wellness setup, homeowners can also consider placing their wellness space near an existing fence, garden wall, or mature landscaping.
What is solar-reflective roofing, and is it a good option for a farmhouse?
Solar-reflective roofing uses materials designed to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than conventional roofing, explained John Moore, Sr. Product Manager Roofing at CertainTeed. “[These shingles help] to reduce roof surface temperatures during periods of intense sun exposure. This allows homes to stay cooler during the hotter months.” He references that CertainTeed's Landmark® Solaris® is available in 16 colors—more than just black and gray—while still offering homeowners the same capabilities and performance.
If you’re in an area that experiences extreme weather and scorching hot summer temperatures, your choice of roofing is important, and farmhouse-style homes aren’t excluded from that.
