Clients are arriving with the style already picked. The James Hardie Modern Homes Forecast 2026 sets out where each of these two looks comes from, which is the part that decides what it costs to deliver.
Clients now arrive with the style already chosen
Most residential jobs now start with a picture.
A client walks in with a render, a saved folder or a display home in mind, and the style question has effectively been settled before the builder has seen the block, the budget or the selections schedule.
That sequence is not going to reverse. What it means in practice is that the people pricing the work carry the job of understanding where a given look actually comes from, because that is what determines the cost to deliver it and how much of it survives the first round of value management.
It is the same shift we have written about before, where clients arriving with a story about materials changed what builders were expected to know about their own supply chain. Style is the next version of that conversation.
Barn and Modern Farmhouse make a useful test case. Both sit in the James Hardie Modern Homes Forecast 2026, a trend forecast published by the manufacturer covering eight residential styles, and both are moving. They are not moving in the same direction.
The forecast moves the two styles apart
James Hardie describes Barn as heading toward something immersive, distinctive and soothing, refreshed with dramatic shapes, natural light and restorative palettes drawn from nature.
Modern Farmhouse is described as moving toward something resilient, grounded and nurturing, positioned for shared and multigenerational living.
The forecast is not a solo exercise. James Hardie commissioned the research and developed it in partnership with global trend forecasting company WGSN, translating global design signals and local consumer data into a forward looking view of residential housing in Australia.
That combination is what makes it worth reading. Global forecasting picks up shifts in form, colour and material well before they reach a display village here. Local consumer data shows which of those shifts Australian buyers are actually responding to. Together it is a read on what is likely to be asked for rather than a record of what has already been built, which is an earlier and more useful signal than anything an approvals release will give you.
What it does tell you is what is likely to walk through the door. Material of this kind is assembled from what is being specified, what is going into display homes and what designers are drawing. For a builder that is early notice rather than analysis, and early notice has its own value.
The difference in one line
Barn is a simple, recognisable gable with a dramatic roof pitch and crisp edges, commonly built double storey on a smaller frontage with central voids over the living areas. Modern Farmhouse is a set of interconnected gabled and hipped pavilions with generous verandahs, commonly single level and planned around a central courtyard.
The Barn look is carried by silhouette, not by spend
Justin Logan, architect and director at Obi Office, puts the Barn form in a single line.
“The Barn form is all about keeping things modest and humble.”
That restraint is the style. The street presence comes from the gable, the pitch of the roof and the crispness of the edges. Detail is deliberately held back so that shape and shadow do the work.
Logan describes using exterior solutions in a way that adds contrast and a bit of mystery to the Barn home, with living spaces connected more closely to the garden to tie in with the idea of wellness.
For anyone pricing the job, that has a practical read. A Barn elevation executed well is not carrying a long list of expensive inclusions. It is carrying a resolved roof line, controlled material changes, and trim that lands exactly where it is meant to.
The risk is not the budget. The risk is the execution. On a facade this plain there is nowhere for a poorly set out junction to hide.
Modern Farmhouse is being pulled by how households live
Logan describes Modern Farmhouse as one of the most successful styles that James Hardie currently has in its forecast, balancing rustic character with contemporary efficiency.
The framing around shared and multigenerational living is the part worth sitting with, because it connects a facade trend to something structural.
Pavilion planning, single level layouts and a central courtyard are not purely aesthetic decisions. They are how a floor plan accommodates more than one household under one roof, with separation between zones and more than one living area. The look follows the plan rather than the other way around.
The constraint is width. Pavilions, verandahs and a courtyard need frontage. On a narrowing lot, that planning compresses quickly, and what tends to survive is the colour palette and the trim rather than the arrangement that made the style work in the first place.
Which is a useful thing to know before a client signs on a block.
The cost sits in the junctions, not the sheet
Both styles run on texture and rhythm across the facade rather than on rich substrate.
Barn leans on layered smooth and brushed surfaces, deeper greens and bark tones set against warm whites, and board and batten definition. Modern Farmhouse leans on vertical cladding rhythms, clean battens and grounded colour. In both cases the material itself is fibre cement, the same thing that quietly sits in the background of most residential jobs, specified for the look rather than as a premium line item.
The visual effect is produced by how the sheet is set out, where the trims land, and how changes of plane are resolved.
Which is where the hours go.
A facade with more material changes, more trim runs and more junctions takes longer to set out and longer to finish than the same wall area in a single expanse. That is a labour and program question rather than a materials question.
It shows up differently in each style. Barn concentrates its complexity into a small number of decisive lines, so the setout has to be right in a handful of places. Modern Farmhouse spreads it across more elevations, more roof and more verandah edge, so the same detail gets repeated many times over.
It is also the part most often underestimated when a quote is built from a render instead of an elevation with the detailing resolved, and it lands on the trades who are hardest to secure. Carpentry capacity is the constraint the whole industry is working on, and facade complexity is one of the quieter places that pressure shows up.
Style is locked in before the contract, not after
The common thread across both styles is that the decisions determining cost happen early.
Roof pitch, storey count, pavilion arrangement and courtyard placement are planning decisions. Cladding profile, trim and colour are selections decisions. Once a client has committed to a look, changing any of it late becomes a variation with a program cost attached to it.
Builders pricing these facades accurately tend to be working from resolved detailing rather than from a picture. Manufacturer style handbooks and forecast material are useful for exactly that reason. They set out what a look requires while the job is still on paper, which is the only point at which changing it is cheap.
The style will keep arriving from the client. What actually gets built is decided by everyone who touches it afterwards.
Read the full James Hardie comparison of the Barn and Modern Farmhouse styles at James Hardie’s blog, or explore the Modern Homes Forecast 2026 to see how all eight styles are evolving. For practical guidance, download the Trade Handbook, which translates the Modern Homes Forecast 2026 into actionable insights for builders.
Modern House Design Trends & Forecast 2026 | James Hardie
Frequently asked questions
Barn is defined by a simple, recognisable gable with a dramatic roof pitch and crisp edges. It is commonly built double storey on a smaller frontage, with central voids over the living areas. Modern Farmhouse is built from interconnected gabled and hipped pavilions with generous verandahs. It is commonly single level and planned around a central courtyard.
The forecast describes Barn moving toward an immersive, distinctive and soothing style, refreshed with dramatic shapes, natural light and restorative palettes that evoke nature. Modern Farmhouse is described as moving toward a resilient, grounded and nurturing style, positioned for shared and multigenerational living.
The Barn form is described as suiting compact sites, because it commonly runs double storey on a smaller frontage with volume created vertically through central voids. Modern Farmhouse planning relies on pavilions, verandahs and a central courtyard, which need more width to work as intended.
In both styles the look is produced by texture, rhythm and setout rather than by expensive substrate. The labour concentrates in material changes, trim runs and junctions. That makes it a setout and program consideration more than a materials one, and it is the element most often underestimated when a price is built from a render.
No. It is a trend forecast published by a building products manufacturer. It reflects what James Hardie is seeing across specification, display homes and design work, which is a useful signal about what clients will ask for. It is not an independent statistical series and does not function as one.
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Last updated: 15 September 2026
General information only. This article is general in nature and does not take into account the circumstances of any particular business or project. Design, planning and building requirements vary by state, territory and local government area, and product selections should be confirmed against current manufacturer technical documentation and the relevant building approval. Professional advice should be obtained before acting on any information in this article.
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