Home Improvement Guru Amy Matthews Tunes Her Modern Barnhouse to the Land
Last Updated: Mar 29, 2025"I've been in the building industry for a long time," says home-improvement guru Amy Matthews. A designer, general contractor, and the host of such television shows as Renovation Raiders, Sweat Equity, Bathroom Renovations, Blog Cabin, This New House, and This Old House, Matthews has long studied "all of the new and innovative technologies that go into homes," she says, including sustainable strategies. So, when the opportunity arose to build her own home, she was ready.
About five years ago, the owners of a five-acre rural property outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul, in the St. Croix River Valley, asked Matthews to help them with a remodel. She also had a television show in the works about the project. When the homeowners decided to move instead, Matthews bought their property.
Table of Contents
- "Tuning" the House to the Landscape
- Glass, Concrete, and SIPs
- What Windows Did Where Installed in the Modern Barnhouse?
- How Did the Modern Barnhouse Build Its Exterior?
- Partnerships and Giving Back
"Tuning" the House to the Landscape
Having worked with architect John Dwyer on the site's former remodel, Matthews decided to stay with the firm Dwyer co-founded, D/O Architects in Minneapolis, because of the firm's modern aesthetic. In building her own home from scratch, Matthews also knew "it wasn't just about a house, but about creating something that fits into and reflects the historical farmstead and surrounding landscape," she says.
The rural vernacular of the barn and the site's context as a farm worked by Scandinavian immigrants led D/O co-founder Colin Oglesbay to take a holistic approach to the home's design—in collaboration with Matthews.
Glass, Concrete, and SIPs
The construction team laid out the foundation forms in the shape of the 100-foot-long by 20-foot-wide home. The 14-by-15-foot wings on either side of the far end of the foundation are for the dining room and family sunroom; floor-to-ceiling windows will offer panoramic views of the farmstead. After the forms were filled with rebar-enforced concrete, they were removed. Then the team affixed rigid foam insulation to the exterior and interior foundation walls.
How Is the Modern Barnhouse Heated?
She also decided to heat the home with zoned hydronic in-floor heating. The garage and mudroom, main house, and dining room, and sunroom are in different zones. "The hydronic heat was the best way to effectively, affordably, and most comfortably heat the spaces," she says.
After installed the pipes, the team poured the concrete floor. Matthews had the concrete floors burnished "to make the floors strong and hard and shiny," she says. She loves the marbleized look burnishing creates. Moreover, underfoot the floor "feels like hard silk." To hear more on the construction, view Matthews' video here.
What Windows Did Where Installed in the Modern Barnhouse?
The house has 1,800-square-feet of energy-efficient glazing, which Matthews "tuned" to capture light throughout the day and seasons. The argon-gas-filled Sierra Pacific windows are coated with three layers of silver oxide, "which rejects the sun's heat in the summer, and keeps the house warm in the winter," she explains.
And those windows! There are trapezoid windows in the master bath to create a treehouse effect; 20-foot-tall windows on either side of the chimney to the west; glass boxes that project into the valley "creating a snow-globe experience in the dining room and sunroom"; and a two-story glass link that bridges the main house and master suite. In other words, the house thoroughly blurs any distinctions between the inside and the outdoors.
"I'm building a geographically appropriate house, as there are four strong seasons in Minnesota," Matthews adds. Because she doesn't like air conditioning, most of the windows are operable for natural ventilation. Strategically placed skylights can be opened in summer for a "stack effect," pulling hot air up and out of the house. This is, she continues, her 'passive' approach to creating comfort affordably."
Camille LeFevre
Camille LeFevre is an architecture and design writer based in the Twin Cities.
