When an adult asks a teenager whether he or she was raised in a barn, the rhetorical question implies a lack of manners and refinement. But a new slate of modern farm-building-to-residence conversions is changing that association, making the idea of living in a barn a lot more enticing and elegant than it used to be.
Historic barns, stables and other rural outbuildings often have beautiful bones and weathered materials packed with character, not to mention interior layouts with a lot of potential for big, open spaces. In the case of this former stable in Ibiza, Spain, the tall and narrow structure makes for a particularly unique guest house.

Standard Studio, an architecture firm based in Amsterdam, took on the project of adapting the 200-year-old outbuilding into a contemporary dream house that doubles as a showroom for the company Ibiza Interiors. Located on a traditional ‘finca’ (Spanish agricultural property) in the rugged north of Ibiza, the 484-square-foot structure features stunning authentic sabina beams (which are rounded, rustic tree trunks) throughout. Prior to its conversion, the building had lain abandoned for many years and had started to deteriorate, threatening the integrity of its historic elements. Only the walls and parts of the roof remained by the time Standard Studio got started on the project, and there were no connections to electricity, water or sewage systems. Access to a private well and solar panels have brought it up to modern livin...