As a quilter, if you are like me, you are constantly brainstorming for new ideas.
Have you ever considered taking a road trip for inspiration?
If you take a drive through rural America, you are sure to drive past barns that have gorgeous barn quilt designs painted on them.
These huge quilt signs on barns are bound to inspire you not only for your next quilt project but to create your a barn quilt for your home.
We're sharing 27 barn quilt ideas to motivate you to run down to your local home improvement store and grab the supplies to make your own.
What's In This Article
What Do the Quilt Patterns on Barns Mean?
The different barn quilts that you see on barns and other buildings across the country symbolize different things depending on the area and who placed it.
Some symbolize the closeness of a community.
Others are dedicated to a specific person in a community or family. If there is a long family history of quilters, they may have their own “family quilt block” for their design.
Quilt patterns for barn art can vary in size and style as well. Just because you don’t have an actual barn on your property doesn’t mean you can’t display a beautiful barn quilt on your garage or house.
It has even become popular to have them hanging in entryways and living rooms of homes.
Like many things in the quilting community, barn quilts can “mean” or “symbolize” a myriad of memories and feelings. If a certain quilt block holds a special place in your heart, it could make a wonderful barn quilt design special and significant to you.
27 Beautiful Barn Quilt Patterns to Inspire You
These barn quilts patterns and images can inspire you to create your own for display. By all means, play around with the colors, sizing, and quilt block design to make something that will speak directly to you.
1. Stained Barn Quilt
Instead of painting a quilt pattern on a solid piece of wood, Anita Holland of Unique Creations by Anita pieced together this design and used stain instead of paint. This beautiful, unique barn quilt would look gorgeous inside your home or hanging outside on a barn or other building.
2. Monogram Barn Quilt
This fun barn quilt pattern features a monogrammed letter “L” in the center. This design would make a beautiful gift for a quilter or a family’s new home. You could easily switch up the colors to go with the home decor.
3. Texas Daisy Barn Quilt
I absolutely love this design! The daisy centerpiece is both adorable and welcoming and perfect for any home. I think making a set of three of these and painting them different colors would be a lovely decoration for a living room or bedroom, don’t you?
4. Sun Flower Barn Quilt
The sunflower symbolizes loyalty, the perfect flower for family and community. This design is an excellent option if you want to do different flowers since switching the color could make various flowers.
5. HST Barn Quilt
HST blocks are a staple block in any quilter’s arsenal of quilt blocks, so why not use them to make your own barn quilt?! This piece has a modern feel with the two-tone pink and blue blocks, which I love.
6. Hanging Barn Quilt Flag
Instead of a “Welcome” flag sign for your front door, why not make a unique barn quilt sign with your last name? This design fits a perfectly small sign to hang by your door. With this simple block design, you should be able to paint this in an afternoon.
7. Earth Tones Barn Quilt
The designer painted an eye-catching star within a star motif on wooden slates to create this barn quilt. The use of earth tone colors gives this barn quilt an earthy “cabin in the woods” look. You could make this style of barn quilt with boards you may have from another house project.
8. Lone Star Barn Quilt
These beautiful Autumn colors make this Lone Star design shine. This example is a large 4’x4’ barn quilt, but you could make this into a smaller version if you wanted to.
9. Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Barn Quilt
Wow, this is so gorgeous! This modern design would look amazing on a barn or shed or as a centerpiece over a fireplace, don’t you think? This design is definitely more complex than others on this list, but it would be worth the extra calculating and work.
10. Special Pattern Barn Quilt
This beautiful barn quilt is hung at 45° for some variety. The bright colors the designer chose to make the pattern pop against the white background. This barn quilt is another great example of a piece you could feature either indoors or outdoors.
11. House Number Barn Quilt
Check out this fantastic idea for incorporating a barn quilt into the outdoor decor of your home! Using a barn quilt this way is a genius idea and would be a beautiful gift for all your friends and family.
12. Cardinal Barn Quilt
This gorgeous cardinal barn quilt is a modern design for those who want the traditional decor of a barn quilt but with a more modern look. If you look closely, they’ve also created a mini barn quilt for the dog house with a little wind-up mouse toy. So cute!
13. Blue Carolina Lily Barn Quilt
This folk art-inspired barn quilt will be sure to turn heads as people drive by. The design and colors look very Scandinavian to me, which I love. The designer chose to use slates instead of a solid piece of wood, giving it more of a “quilty” look.
14. Reclaimed Wood Barn Quilt
Like #1 in this list, this barn quilt has been pieced together with smaller pieces of reclaimed wood. The wood has then been stained with some beautiful shades that compliment each other beautifully.
15. Dark Background Barn Quilt
Using a dark background for your barn quilt will make the colors and design you choose pop up close and from a distance. Here are two examples of how the dark background makes the quilt design shine.
16. Mariners Compass Barn Quilt
The Mariners Compass is a traditional quilt pattern and an excellent option for a barn quilt. This designer chose to use the classic red, white, and blue color palette, but imagine using some blues and greens or sunset colors. Gorgeous!
17. Rustic Barn Quilt
Here is another example of using slates instead of a solid piece of wood for your foundation. This rustic design is simple and beautiful and could be translated into pretty much any simple quilt block to make your own barn quilt.
18. Framed Barn Quilt
Framing your barn quilt will give it a more finished and modern look. The designer also used some texture while painting their block design which provides it with another layer of interest and really catches the eye. It gives the perfect balance of rustic and modern with the colors and texture.
19. Large Barn Quilt
I’ve shown you several smaller barn quilts, so it’s about time to show a larger one. I love the combination is this rustic old red barn and the brightly colored modern barn quilt. Judging by the size of the opening of the barn, I would guess this barn quilt is between an 8’-10’ square.
20. Modern Barn Quilt
I don’t know about you, but I am obsessed with this unpainted background for this barn quilt. The modern feel of this quilt using bright rainbow colors mixed with the unfinished background is fabulous and perfect for either home decor or outside decoration for a barn or shed.
21. Spool Barn Quilt
22. Archer Barn Quilt
Isn’t this arrow design beautiful? The designer of this barn quilt chose to go with a modern design using four colorful arrows in a vertical placement. They made the foundation out of four slates of wood. They then framed each arrow with a thin rectangle of dark brown paint, giving the design a finished, professional effect.
23. Bookshelves Barn Quilt
Here is one of the more unique barn quilts I’ve ever seen. Using this idea of a bookshelf, you could create your design using some of your favorite things like the maker of this barn quilt did. This barn quilt would also make a wonderful personalized gift for someone you love.
24. Simple Barn Quilt
If you prefer a simple quilt barn design, this is a great option. The Ohio star quilt block is an excellent choice for a modern barn quilt. Choose your favorite colors and paint this in an afternoon!
25. Black and White Barn Quilt
This beautifully modern black and white barn quilt would look fabulous in your home. It has equal parts farmhouse chic and minimalist design, which makes it an excellent addition to any home decor. The base of the barn quilt is made from planks of wood.
26. Double Wedding Ring Barn Quilt
Here is a gorgeous double wedding ring design barn quilt. The maker of this barn quilt used incredible detail to make the individual pieces of the rings look like different printed fabrics.
27. Barn Quilt Trio
If you’re having a hard time deciding between several different quilt block designs, why not make a rectangular barn quilt that features several blocks? This is a fantastic idea, and as you can see in the image above, you can use various designs with coordinating colors to make a uniform barn quilt.
This gorgeous barn quilt was created for none other than the well-known quilter, Nancy Zieman. This barn quilt was hung on her family farm’s barn. This large barn art is an 8’ square, making quite a statement. Imagine making a mini version for your sewing area. I’m quite tempted to make one.
Final Thoughts
The great thing about designing a barn quilt is that you can find plenty of free printable barn quilt pattern ideas, including many regular quilt block printables. Translating a regular quilt block pattern into a barn quilt design should be simple.
I hope this list inspires you to design and create your own barn quilt for your home, whether it’s an inside wall hanging or an outside decoration for your house, shed, garage, or barn. Have fun with it!
