Preserving Your Home’s Original Style during a Renovation

Lawrence Motta says many older homes have been remodeled over the years so it can take some sleuthing on the part of homeowners to find out the original architectural details. A lot of information about your particular home’s past may Carpets were pulled up in this mid-century home to find wood floors in pristine condition. Credit: Mike Hogan be on record in town hall. In addition, there’s a wealth of information online for every building style as well as for many name builders. Web sites, blogs and forums can be found for owners of, say, Greene and Greene Arts and Crafts bungalows and Joseph Eichler modernist homes. “The most important resource is the Internet,” Motta says. “People are talking to each other and sharing resources. You need to get in touch with them if you’re going to preserve an architecturally distinctive home.” Restore, Not Replace When Mike Hogan bought his 1956 Cape Cod style home in Columbus, Ohio, four years ago, he instantly knew which elements were irreplaceable. No matter what home projects he would eventually undertake, the existing hardwood floors, woodworking, doors, hardware, tub and plaster walls were going to stay. Hogan took a restore-not-replace mindset. He tore out old carpet and exposed the original hardwood floors. They were in pristine condition. Instead of replacing interior doors, he painted them with an oil-based white paint to give the home a fresh look and polished up the original hardware. “It’s amazing what a little paint and polish can do,” he says. When it came to his kitchen, Hogan decided that replacing his cabinetry would take away from the original look and feel he wanted to achieve. What’s more, he says, the craftsmanship would be hard to equal. Instead, he painted the cabinets and replaced the appliances. “Sometimes it can be a big decision whether you decide to start from scratch or use what you have,” Hogan says. “You might kick yourself in the butt if you find out that porcelain tub is worth thousands of dollars and now it's sitting in a dump yard or being sold on eBay.” Keeping key elements that reflect your home’s unique design and then surrounding them with updated features is a good strategy for maximizing your home’s character. Realize, too, that you’re not limited to the design elements that are already there. Scan books and online resources to see what period-appropriate details haven’t yet been used and consider incorporating them. “In the design process, we look to repeat the chosen details to a level as far as we can go throughout house, all the way down to drawer pulls,” Bennett says. Preserving the aesthetics of an older home takes time—something both builders and homeowners agree should be factored into any renovation schedule. Custom milled moldings, for instance, take a lot longer to make than buying off-the-shelf stock. Motta suggests snapping digital pictures of any architectural details you plan to replace and bringing the images to the local mill shop or fabricator to make sure they can be reproduced before you commit to ripping out the original. Mike Hogan admits that working with the original characteristics of an older home takes a lot of time and sweat equity but says the payoff is worth it. “In the end, you've maintained the character of the home which, to me, makes a home a home.”

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