Very nice photo! We reconstructed a barn 30 years ago from new poles and old barn boards, looks very similar to yours. I am wanting to keep the red/not-red look while protecting the siding and have tried various applications. Last try was to overcoat everything with a neutral oil, which worked for the most part. But, we have some newer wood on one side of the barn which I would really like to try to age, if at all possible, preferably with a reddish tinge. Any thoughts?

Thanks, I love the barn too! When we built the house I was pretty adamant that I wanted my kitchen window to look out at the garden and the barn. My husband laughed about it but humored me so that's what I look at when I'm cooking or doing dishes. Makes those chores not so tedious. We put a metal roof on the barn but the siding is like it was when we came. We have the material and my DH has a plan for maintaining the siding but we haven't gotten it done yet.
There is a stain/finish that gives that old look to the wood. I've gotten it in green for other projects and I don't know if it comes in red but it's worth checking out. I'll see if I still have some of the green and tree-mail you what it is.

This should be a jigsaw puzzle. Seriously.

What a lovely photo of a lovely garden!

Thanks so much!

Very beautiful Susie, I was going to ask if I could see more pics of your barn. I think your barn is as big as my house! Love the image sets, so much eye candy!

Thanks Susan! Funny you should say that about the barn, cause I almost talked my husband into making a house out of it instead of building our house! But as you can see it was a no go which was a good thing because it's at the bottom of our hill and snow drifts in really bad. We would have had difficulty getting out in the winter. This way it's eye candy for me too.

I really would love to have a barn! (sticking out lower lip)..I am green with envy!

Funny story: When we built our home, we built the barn first so we would have immediate covered storage and workshop area, along with some space to relax in out of the weather. The precise identity of the barn was always a bit hazy. For the planning department, it was a garage - otherwise it had to be on the back half of our property. For the building department, it was a barn - and hence subject to different codes. Not sure what the assessor called it, whatever is the higher tax levy I assume. For practical purposes, it is a bit of everything - garage for our vehicles, shop for my husband, mini-storage for our adult children, sports/camp equipment storage, pool room when the kids were young, and early on we did actually keep livestock in one section. That outbuilding has certainly been well used over the years, and like a garden, is ever-evolving.

That was an excellent idea!

Good story Deb! Ours is used for storage also. We have my husbands' dads' tractor stored there and an old car that our son-in-law hopes to restore. I have to bring all my cute little garden things in for the winter and all my pots so they all go there. It's basically a catch all. I empathize with both your desire for a barn, they are lovely pieces of architecture.

I don't know why barns tug at many of our heart strings but they do. Maybe they represent our connection to the land and a simpler time when we were more self sustaining. Maybe it's the architecture and the beautiful outlines, but I know the pictures of barns and passing by one always draws my attention. So many of the beautiful barns that used to be in this area are slowly going down and I am always sad when I see it happening. The small dairy farm is fading and as that was the use for most of these barns, either through lack of interest or lack of money to maintain them, they are deteriorating and eventually going down. So sad when many people would love to have one.