Barns are versatile buildings that can be timelessly beautiful as well as functional. In the past, barns were made of wood, uniquely designed to reflect the culture of the builder, and typically painted red. Barns have long been a cherished part of the American landscape, as symbols of the agricultural heritage. Barns of the past were built so the farmers who built would have a place to store the crops and animals they raised.

Today, barns are built with many different materials and for a variety of purposes, signaling a barn-building renaissance. Barn kits and floor plans are readily available to assist in barn building, whether it is a horse barn, metal barn, steel barn, or barn house. Modern barn designs allow for greater variation in style as well as functionality. Z-braced barn doors and traditional window trim give new barns that classic feel. Traditional barns used to consist of two or more floors, or at least a floor and a loft. Modern pole barns are without lofts but have shallow-truss roofs. Thus, they present a flat, uninteresting look. To make a barn look attractive as well as traditional, one has to have a steeper pitched roof — at least an 8:12 pitch (the roof inclines 8 inches for every 12 inches of length), with large overhangs. One of the classic barn features is the cupola, which should be big enough to ventilate the barn. Farmers earlier designed cupolas, to reflect their individual styles.

Even now, many barns are designed with agricultural purposes in mind: animal shelters and horse stalls, storing hay, or securing a tractor. They just as often become garages in which cars, boats, trucks, RV's, and campers are kept. Others use their barns as workshops, studios, or storage sheds. Still other barn owners simply favor the old world charm of the farmhouse barn without any specific functionality in mind. Regardless of how they are used, barns add a unique as well as useful dimension to the home.