The owner of this newly built home made it feel old by adding an iron daybed,
worn painted-wood pieces, and other countryish elements.

What is it about looking at a book full of photos of big old farmhouses filled with iron bed frames, chipped painted dressers, and white-linen-draped sofas that makes you want to quit your job, move out to the country, and take up butter churning?

“People are interested in returning to a simpler, healthier lifestyle,” says Fifi O’Neill, whose new book, Romantic Prairie Style, includes four homes in Illinois (shown on these pages), some just outside of Chicago.

Patinaed garden furniture, a primitive ladder holding vintage grain sacks, and other
rustic pieces lend character to the same new-construction house shown above.

O’Neill is a journalist, blogger, and photo stylist who was born in Paris and raised her children on the prairie in Manitoba, Canada. She decided to write about this homey, authentic style of life last summer while converting the garage of her home in Florida into a guesthouse that would channel her previous life (it, too, is featured in the book). On her blog, Chez Fifi (fabulousfifi.typepad.com), she asked readers to submit photos of their homes.

The chandelier in this suburban Chicago dining room shows that
a little glitter can have a place in prairie style.

In the same house as above, the owner sees the tarnishing of her silver as an advantage.
“I have always favored some imperfections,” she says.

She received hundreds of submissions, which she winnowed down to 12 homes from across the country. All of the families represented in the book live year-round in their homes and many farm their land or raise livestock, proving that prairie style has no geographical boundaries.

ROMANTIC PRAIRIE STYLE BY FIFI O’NEILL (Ryland Peters & Small, $29.95) rylandpeters.com

Photography: Mark Lohman 

This bucolic display in a McHenry farmhouse combines one of the classic colors of
prairie style—pale blue—with the elegance of tall candlesticks.

It does, however, have aesthetic boundaries. “For me the style is simple, inspired by things from the past,” O’Neill says. “You can have some newer things, but mostly traditional country stuff. No fancy antiques. More homemade pieces, passed down over the years.” Another cornerstone of the look is that one shouldn’t spend a lot of money to achieve it. “Quite often, people already have what they need in their house and they don’t see it,” says O’Neill. “Repaint something. Make a new slipcover. Simplify. Edit. The simpler, the better. Let things breathe.”

White linen in various forms creates softness in this sunroom.

Other elements of prairie style: faded floral prints mixed with rugged fabrics such as burlap and raw linen, wood and iron furniture, baskets, pillows made of grain sacks. It’s about “things that are simple but pretty, rustic but a little refined—nothing so beat-up that it feels like it’s ready for the trash.”

If you’re feeling a tad overwhelmed by all the requirements that must be met in order to achieve simplicity, relax. Even the woman who wrote the book admits that you can’t achieve this look overnight.

“It’s a learning process. It’s knowing what makes your heart flutter because it looks and feels like home to you,” she says. “Thirty years ago, I wasn’t there. I had the makings of it but I wasn’t there yet. The beauty of being a little older is that now I know.”

ROMANTIC PRAIRIE STYLE BY FIFI O’NEILL (Ryland Peters & Small, $29.95) rylandpeters.com

Photography: Mark Lohman