An Arkansas Timber Home Shared With Horses

Home and Photos Courtesy of Timberlyne

Barn-style houses have been all the rage for the past few years. In some cases, an old barn is given new life as a refurbished residence. In others, a new home is designed to look like it had once been an antique barn. But have you ever seen a house is also an actual working barn — horses and all? You have now.

The owner of this northern Arkansas house has such a love of horses, didn’t want to schlep out to a barn on his 130-acre property to visit his animals. So, he designed a timber-framed house/stable, complete with three horse stalls and a tack room. The size of the living quarters is modest — only 1,536 square feet. By contrast, the barn portion totals more than 3,000 and includes one two-bay garage for his cars, another one for his mowers and farm equipment and third that he uses for his shop. 

He got the idea for his unique plan from an ad he saw for Timberlyne, a Nebraska-based timber frame company. After poring through their catalog of plans, he found a lot of great ideas but didn’t see exactly what he was looking for, so he took a trip to their headquarters, met with their design team and came away with the ideal plan for his barn abode.

The interior post-and-beam employs beautiful and strong Norwegian red pine, which also serves as the tongue-and-groove that panels the ceiling. Farmhouse-inspired details can be found throughout, from the Z-style barn doors to the X-brace detail on the classic white beadboard cabinetry in the kitchen. Even the enormous ceiling fan is a genuine, reclaimed windmill that found new purpose in the home.

There’s an obvious question that comes to mind when you think of living in a working horse barn: Isn’t there an … odor? “Absolutely not!” according to Timberlyne's Cody Wortman. “The way he designed is really slick. They’re connected but separate. The connector is the laundry/mudroom, which has a double-door system that creates an air-lock of sorts. If you weren’t told the barn was part of the house, you’d never know it was there.” Now that’s the sweet smell of a successful design.

This home was part of our "Best of the Best" contest for 2019.