The Bin at Blueberry Farms lies in the rolling hills of Santa Fe, Tennessee, which is a quick drive from Franklin, Brentwood, and Nashville, but far from the hustle and bustle of the city. It is the brainchild of Michael and Donnise Warf.
“It started during the pandemic when you were limited on the things you could do, and the interactions you could have with people,” explained Donnise. “We started looking into Airbnbs, and I would search for unique ones. And we found this amazing grain bin in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi. There was nothing in this town but this grain bin, actually they have two of them, and we were sparked by how cool that was.”
They continued to stay in different grain bins, all not too far away, as they needed to stay close to their farm. Doing one-night stays, they found every single grain bin they visited had a unique quality to it, and the more they visited, the more they kept saying to themselves, “we can do that.”
What Makes Their Bin Different?
What makes theirs different is that they decided to put the bedroom into the bin itself, instead of into the add-on at the back that they all have, including this one. And the others didn’t seem to focus on the bin part, which is what the Warfs felt made the whole concept unique. They wanted to keep the bin itself as authentic as they possibly could and provide the experience of sleeping in a true grain bin.
The bin itself has some very unique qualities. The sound carries through the ceiling. At the edges, you sound normal, but in the center, there is a kind of vibration, which has been discovered by some musicians who have shown interest in renting the space to write songs.
Both Donnise and Michael love to reuse old things, be it furniture or wood from a downed tree on their property. The ceiling was made from an old cedar tree on the property. They had it milled, and then each piece was measured, hand-cut and put into place by Michael one board at a time. There are 1,008 pieces, 2,200 cuts.
Mr. Billy Potts, a sweet older man who lives in the community, helped Michael build out the ceiling. Michael was up on the scaffolding in the middle of the grain bin, as he has no fear of heights from his 30 years of being a fireman, and Mr. Potts would run the pulley system they had created to get the wood up to Michael as he installed it.
“I don’t know that the ceiling would have happened without Mr. Potts,” noted Donnise.
The wood that is above the metal on the wall in the main room is made of the woods that no one wants to use to build anything – gum, beach and ash. But once it was planed-down, Michael saw the beauty of the wood and he knew just what to do with it.
“Also, there is 550 pounds of corn in this floor,” said Michael. “It doesn’t look like it, but it is all corn epoxied over. Her son-in-law does that for a living, so he did the floor for us. He put down a layer of epoxy, then we put corn over the top, then we all kind of walked it in, just like you would stomp grapes or something like that, to flatten it out. After it dried, we swept up all the excess and then added five layers of epoxy.”
Donnise had the idea of just doing the corn floor at the entry, but Michael suggested they do the whole floor. It became a community project. Friends and family came to help them stomp down the corn.
“Except for the man who came in to pour the concrete slab, Michael did all of the work with the help of our kids,” said Donnise.
Furnishings and Décor Received Help from the Community
When the space was complete, Donnise stepped in to do the decorating. The decor is all “found objects” that came from all sorts of places.
“We love vintage décor,” said Donnie, “we have always collected it. Old pieces are what I prefer. We had a stash in the barn, we had stuff in the house that we pulled out, we went to auctions…”
“The piece in the bathroom that serves as a vanity we bought at an auction on the square,” noted Michael.
“The family we bought it from even came to our open house and saw that their great-grandmother’s dresser now holds the bathroom sink,” Donnise added.
Michael was tearing down an old house for a lady and Donnise found the late 1950s era cabinet with the kitchen sink.
“I said, Ms. White, ‘can I have this old sink in here?’ And she replied, ‘yeah, what do you want to do with it?’ Because it was covered in rust. I sanded it and I sanded it and I sanded it. I painted it and I painted it and I painted it. You can see that it is restored beautifully in the kitchen. It has all of the original hardware, except the faucet. We had to replace that.”
Like the dresser and the sink cabinet, many of the items decorating The Bin are sentimental to people in the community of Santa Fe. Michael and Donnie have simply given them a home. They have another piece from the Water Valley Community Center.
“I kept saying I wanted a unique bed to be the focal point of the room,” explained Donnise. “But I don’t really know what I am looking for. I looked on Facebook Marketplace. I looked at other places online. I knew I didn’t want anything new.
One day, Michael sent her a photo of a jumble of wood that was an enormous bed that was sitting in their friend Kevin’s barn. Donnise thought it could be promising. She cleaned it for a couple of days, and it ended up being perfect. It even lights up! And she decorates it for every holiday.
What is Next?
Their first rental came the same day they put it on Airbnb and Vrbo. It was rented for four days for the Pilgrimage Festival. And they now have it rented through the first part of 2026.
Both being energetic, project-oriented people, they are always doing something. They are now contemplating their next project being a treehouse.
The Bin at Blueberry Farm can be found on Facebook.
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