Last week I had the privilege of photographing a charming home in lower Dutchess County. The home was approximately 200 years old and had a charm all its own. The photo above is of one of the bedrooms. I picked it for this blog because it shows the wide plank floors in all their glory, the non-standard windows behind the bed and the old-fashioned wall paper that looks so in place in this setting. The furnishings finish off the look. In other words the room is charming and there is no attempt made to "hide" the age of the home or to "Pottery Barn" the look.
These days staging is an essential part of selling a home. Often that has meant de-cluttering and de-personalizing to the point where the home looks like a sample room at the Pottery Barn or Ethan Allen. Now I mean no disrespect to either of these establishments. However, there are some cases where this sort of "transformation" is neither practical nor desirable.
The home I was photographing was from another era. This sort of home will not be for every home buyer. It would take a certain type of person to actually be attracted to this house. However, the right person for this house would also appreciate the history and want to work with it, not against it. Don't get me wrong, de-personalizing is a good thing. However, one has to be careful that it doesn't destroy the character of a truly unique home. Although the wall-paper would be dated to some, I found it quite charming in the context of that period home. Would modernizing the room with slick paint and modern furnishings help to sell it? In this type of a unique home, my guess is no. It might actually do the opposite.
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