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"In the summer of 2005, architect Douglas Larson and his wife, Torrie, the parents of a young son, decided it was time to invest in a second home, in upstate New York. But when Doug typed their modest target price into a multiple-listings website, it pulled up mostly trailers. So, when a mid-19th-century farmhouse on two acres in Stanfordville scrolled into view, he eagerly pounced. &amp;quot;I knew it had good bones the minute I saw it,&amp;quot; he recalls (indeed, the couple got into a bidding war with another architect who possessed a kindred eye for potential).  &amp;quot;I wasn&amp;#039;t doing backflips, but I wasn&amp;#039;t freaking out either,&amp;quot; says Torrie, a public-relations manager, of the fixer-upper. &amp;quot;Doug had never built anything for himself. He wanted a project.&amp;quot;  The 1,200-square-foot home didn&amp;#039;t inspire awe. &amp;quot;It was like the Collyer brothers,&amp;quot; admits Doug, because it was littered with cars, televisions and lawn mowers. &amp;quot;There was even a vat of pickles in the basement.&amp;quot; Its post-and-beam structure was sound, however, and exposing it would create an attractive design element.   He stripped the home to its frame, harvesting clapboard siding and windows for reuse, and deepened the porch to nine feet (anything bigger would skew proportions, he says). As in many farmhouses of the era, the interior was a warren of small rooms, so Doug removed the wall separating the living and dining rooms, converting them into a single, graciously scaled great room.  Arguably the boldest move was the reconfigured kitchen. Left as it was, its cooking area would have been visible from the newly airy living/dining room. &amp;quot;I felt it was important for service spaces to be tucked away out of sight lines,&amp;quot; Doug says, something he often does in high-end residential projects. And his retail-design experience taught him the importance of luring visitors into a store by drawing the eye to the rear. So he relocated appliances to a different corner and created a dramatic glass wall consisting of French doors topped by windows that go right up to the gable.  Doug&amp;#039;s Swedish background informed the decor: relatively minimal furnishings set amid white-painted floors and walls. &amp;quot;A spartan aesthetic appeals to me, especially in the country,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s also cost-effective. You can decorate simply, so that important pieces really sing.&amp;quot; Splurges include a custom sofa in the kitchen and a headboard in the master bedroom, both covered in Josef Frank fabric, and, at the kitchen table, a Jacobsen Egg chair that swivels around to face the sylvan view. Indeed, the house, if not quite quintessentially Gustavian, has a bright Scandinavian feel to it, though with a modern American inflection.   The renovation was so successful that Doug has since received three commissions from neighbors. Torrie recalls one man who complimented its appropriate scale for the landscape. &amp;quot;We didn&amp;#039;t build a big house and surround it with little trees,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s very simple and fits perfectly into its environment.&amp;quot;  Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;Modern Swedish Style.&amp;quot;   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/home-remodeling-renovating/a3936/modern-swedish-style-a-57740/>