Janet Koenig creates painted quilts to add flair to local barns

When Janet Koenig started painting barn quilts, she started seeing old barns in a new light -- and when Ellen Frye, who with her husband Steve owns Eggers and Company General Store and Bed and Breakfast in Farrar, Missouri, saw what she was up to, she knew she had to have one.

"Janet is the barn quilt painter, and we were the 20th barn quilt she's done in one year," Ellen Frye says.

"It's really taken off," she adds.

Koenig says she first saw a barn quilt on a friend's structure.

"I fell in love with it and decided I wanted one," Koenig says.

Janet Koenig, left, and Ellen Frye, right, pose for a photo in front of Ellen's barn and barn quilt made by Janet at Eggers and Company General Store Bed and Breakfast Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 in Farrar. This is Janet's 20th barn quilt with a Grandmother's Flower Garden style and plans to continue to make her barn quilt trail throughout Perry County.Andrew J. Whitaker

So she made one for her own barn, then for her brother-in-law's barn, and along the way was thinking about barn quilt trails she'd seen in magazines and heard of in other Midwestern states.

"I thought it would be neat if we could have a trail here in Perry County," Koenig says.

"All I had to do was start hanging a couple, that spurred an interest," she says.

She's made 21 in the year she's been painting them.

Not all are visible from the road, she says, but the goal is to get a barn quilt trail started.

Janet Koenig's Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt style hangs at Eggers and Company General Store Bed and Breakfast Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 in Farrar. She plans to continue to make her barn quilt trail throughout Perry County.Andrew J. Whitaker

All that would be needed would be a map and, of course, sites that are easily visible from the road, Frye says.

But that's in the works.

Frye says she commissioned Koenig to paint a barn quilt in the "Grandmother's Flower Garden" pattern, and chose colors that historically have been special in relation to Eggers and Company.

Since Frye's grandparents owned Eggers and Company for 46 years, and one of Frye's fondest memories is of her grandmother's flower garden, she says it was a great fit.

The artsy-country feel is a great fit with the overall aim of Eggers and Company, too, Frye says.

Janet Koenig's In the Garden quilt style hangs at Miesner Farm Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 in Farrar. She plans to continue to make her barn quilt trail throughout Perry County.Andrew J. Whitaker

The way Koenig explains it, a barn quilt is a decoration for the side of a barn, a panel painted in a stylized pattern, often modeled on a quilt block design.

Koenig paints them in exterior-grade latex paint, on a form of smooth plywood called MDO, short for Medium Density Overlay.

"It works much better than regular exterior plywood," Koenig says, adding it's made especially for signs, which fits.

She tapes the designs using frog tape, so she gets a smooth, crisp line when she paints, Koenig says.

Usually, she doesn't seal them, because "if you're painting a house, you don't put sealer on," Koenig says, laughing.

Janet Koenig's Patriotic Star quilt style hangs at the Koenig Brother's Farm Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 in Farrar. She plans to continue to make her barn quilt trail throughout Perry County.Andrew J. Whitaker

Different websites she's read don't advise putting sealer on, either, since it tends to yellow the paint over time, Koenig says.

"It made sense," Koenig says.

Generally speaking, Koenig tends to go for a bigger barn quilt for a bigger barn. Scale is important, she says.

"I have made some 2 feet by 2 feet [quilts], but if you put the barn quilts on a large barn, you need a larger barn quilt, too," Koenig says. "Most of the ones I have made are 6 feet by 6 feet or 4 by 4, but I just have one here in my basement which is 8 by 8 feet. That, you'll be able to see from a distance."

Depending on how far from the road the building is, a smaller quilt can have a greater effect, Koenig adds.

"Now if the building was close to the road, the 4-foot or 6-foot ones would show up well," Koenig says. "If the building is a piece from the road, the 8-foot do show up really well."

Koenig says the barn quilts are more than just a hobby for her. They're a new way of seeing what's been mostly in the background for her whole life.

"I see the barns in a different light now," she says. "I'll drive by and see something I've seen all my life and just didn't really see until I had this passion."