How To Keep Historic Homes Clean, Organized, And Classic

Buying a historic home, especially one listed in the National Register of Historic Places, can be enticing. A home is considered to be historic if it is at least 50 years old, has unique quirks, and character compared to modern construction, according to a report on Redfin. The architecture of historic homes also helps keep past stories intact. 

However, over time, dust, dirt, and air pollutants accumulate in your old home, and failure to keep up with maintenance and cleanliness affects the overall value of the property. To keep the value of historic properties, there are essential home maintenance tricks you should know. If you own a vintage house, here's how to keep historic homes clean, organized, and classic. 

Schedule Regular Maintenance

Regular upkeep, such as painting and fixing plumbing fixtures, goes a long way to help you protect the unique features of your historic home. Also, check the roof for leaks and get your heating and cooling appliances checked and cleaned once every few months. This trick helps reduce future damages that will not only affect the function and aesthetic of your vintage home but also cost more to fix. Other monthly home maintenance tasks you should add to your checklist include descaling faucets and shower heads, cleaning the furnace filter, inspecting tubs and sink drains, and testing smoke alarms. 

Dust Surfaces

There’s no doubt that vintage homes get better with time, but dust and debris accumulate, taking a toll on the quality of the windows, wall painting, and ceilings. Besides affecting the aesthetics of historic homes, dirt reduces indoor air quality. For this reason, it’s crucial to wipe dust from hard surfaces in your home. As a general rule of thumb, always start dusting from top to bottom. That way, you won’t have dirt resettle on clean surfaces. 

Make sure to wipe off dust from the ceiling and ceiling trim, walls, ceiling, and baseboards using a microfiber mop. Then, wipe other hard surfaces like shelves, wooden furniture, and built-ins with furniture cleaning agents or polish. Don’t forget to clean the nooks and crannies because that’s where pollutants, such as pollen, dust mites, food debris, and condensed particulate matter, hide. 

Deep cleaning windows is also key to improving air quality and brightening your home. When you deep clean the windows, you get rid of dust that accumulates on veneers and finds its way into the house through airflow and sunlight. Other ways to keep your vintage home free of dust and improve air quality include waxing wooden floors, restoring carpet pile, replacing HVAC filters, and keeping windows open during the day. 

Declutter Before Deep Cleaning

There are many reasons to declutter your home, including reduced stress, having more space, and peace of mind. Getting rid of clutter makes finding items within your space easier. After all, you’re only keeping the items you love and add value to your home and life. Clearing clutter also makes deep cleaning and organizing your historic home less stressful. Check to see if there are a few random items taking up space in the living room, kitchen cabinets, bathroom drawers, under the stairs, closets, tabletops, and workspaces. 

Historic homes have unique design features and tell interesting stories about the past. But the aesthetics and air quality of vintage properties deteriorate over time if not maintained properly. With this in mind, it's crucial to know the essentials of cleaning and organizing old homes to keep them classic and keep their homes. These steps include keeping up with routine maintenance, dusting surfaces regularly, decluttering, and deep cleaning.

Guest Post - Timeless Style: Seven Ways to Add Modern Flare to Your Historic Home

You’ve fallen in love with a historic home. It’s not difficult to see the appeal. Packed with charm and character, a historic home has an undeniable appeal that modern homes simply don’t possess.

What you need to consider when purchasing a historic home is how you plan to bring it into the 21st century. This is a huge design challenge for many homeowners, and it requires careful thought and consideration. How do you balance modern flourishes without comprising the unique character of your home?

Whether you’re buying a historic home Charleston, S.C., or renovating your Georgetown loft in Washington D.C., here are a few tips for adding contemporary touches to an old home:

Give the Walls a Fresh Coat of Paint

One of the easiest and most affordable ways to modernize an older home is with a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Not only does this refresh your walls and instantly update them, it can also draw attention to the elaborate crown molding and trim so common in older homes.

To highlight these beautiful details, consider using a higher gloss finish such as satin or semi-gloss. This will give your walls some shine and attract the eye to the gorgeous details of your historic home.

Add a Pop of Color to the Exterior

If you’ve ever strolled past centuries-old homes in Europe, you might have noticed that many of them feature colorful doors in a high-gloss paint. This attractive look is also widely seen in the charming single houses in historic cities such as Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, G.A., both of which were strongly influenced by European aesthetics.

It doesn’t need to be a bright color to attract attention. In fact, shiny black doors are absolutely stunning against a white façade and can potentially fetch a higher price when it comes time to sell your home.

Black doors are trendy yet truly timeless. You can add more modern flare to your home by adding trendy brass décor, as well.

Spruce Up the Fireplace

A brick fireplace in an older home can be a total eyesore if you haven’t given it some TLC. To make it an attractive focal point for your home, lighten up dark red brick by doing a German smear.

Also known as a mortar wash, a German smear is a whitewashing technique that involves spreading wet mortar over bricks and removing some of the material before it dries. It mimics the look of centuries-old cottages in northern Germany, creating an old-world charm that is both modern and traditional.

If you’re obsessed with the TV show “Fixer Upper,” you might have seen Chip and Joanna Gaines use the German smear technique for Jeff and Sara Jones. Although this style was far outside of Joanna’s typical farmhouse style, she nailed the look by perfectly creating a traditional European look.

Mix Contemporary Furnishings with Antiques

No matter how much you try to preserve the original character of your home, chances are good that you have modern appliances and furnishings mixed into your design. Most of us prefer to have a TV and other 21st century technology.

To avoid making your home appear too modern, decorate with a mix of antiques and contemporary furnishings. Check out your local antiques store and scour it for fun statement pieces that will add interest to your home.

For example, you can balance the look of your flat-screen TV over the fireplace by decorating your mantel with an old sign encased in a modern frame, a charming figurine or antique books arranged artfully on the shelf. Mixing old and new is an artform, so don’t be afraid to play around with your décor until you get the balance just right.

Play up Contrast

Rather than hide the distinctive features of your historic home, why not play them up with contrast instead? For example, painting stair railings and doors black will make them pop against white walls and create a visually striking look.

If you’re really daring, you can paint an entire wall black as a strong contrast to your white fireplace. For those who prefer a bit more color, adding foliage or playing with different textures can achieve a similar effect.

For instance, pairing sleek furniture with textured antiqued lamps and a uniquely-patterned coffee table can create visual contrast that is slightly more toned down while still emphasizing your historic home. You can also showcase different textures in a modern bookcase to incorporate traditional elements into your historic home.

Preserve Some Time-Honored Character

Most people don’t purchase a historic home with the intent of changing everything that makes it unique. Rather than renovate each space entirely, consider the original purpose of the space.

This will require you to know the history of your home — a fun exercise in itself. If you have a room that was once used as a mini-ballroom, consider placing an old piano in the room to preserve its original function in a small way.

Use Distressed Pieces for a Well-Worn Look

Modern pieces that feature a distressed look will fit perfectly into your historic home without making it seem too contemporary. Your bedroom is an easy place to start.

Some well-worn items for your bedroom can include an antique chest at the foot of a modern bed, a distressed nightstand or a rustic clock. It doesn’t matter whether these items were made in 1920 or 2019. Their vintage look will fit right in with your historic home.

Bring Your Historic Home into the 21st Century

To modernize your historic home, you don’t need to replace or update everything that makes your house unique. You also don’t need to be feel obligated to live in the time period of when your home was first built.

Decorating a historic home involves finding the perfect balance between old and new, respecting the character of the home while incorporating modern flourishes for a 21st-century mode of living. Eventually, you’ll have a visually stunning home that strikes the right balance between old quirks and modern charm.

Author Bio: Traci Magnus is a realtor for Dunes Properties located in Charleston, SC. She was born and raised on the Charleston coast and attended the College of Charleston before obtaining her real estate license. When she’s not working, you can find her spending time with her husband Glen and son Max or wandering the historic streets downtown.

Interview - Greenwich Historical Society

At House to Home Organizing one of the habits we encourage is a switch from focusing on stuff towards experiences. We spoke with Stasha Healy from the Greenwich Historical Society about their mission and why you should stop in for a visit.

For the busy person, what is the Greenwich Historical Society?

We connect the community and the world to the important history of Greenwich by telling its stories through items in our collections, lectures, museum exhibitions, educational programs for school children and teachers, championing historic preservation, media outreach, and more. We are the stewards for the circa 1730 National Historic Landmark Bush-Holley House, which survived the American Revolution and became the site of America’s first American Impressionist art colony from 1890 to 1920.

What was the recent renovation?

We restored a former hotel and saloon that had been used more recently as a residence, back to its former architectural integrity and seamlessly added a new building to it that is home to new state-of-the-art, climate-controlled library and archives and museum galleries. One gallery presents rotating exhibitions relating to Greenwich’s history and art; the other gallery has a short film and timeline that explain the history of Greenwich at a glance as well as an area that showcases some of the beautiful works of the former residents of the Cos Cob art colony.

The GHS conducts many programs what are some of your favorites?

Candlelight is a wonderful, free event where the community gathers for live music, a visit from Santa, treats, and seasonal crafts for kids. People can also take tours of Bush-Holley House decorated for the holidays. I also really enjoy the Landmarks Recognition Program: Every year we identify buildings with historic value and tell their stories. This past year my favorite was a home on North Street that was built nearly as an exact replica of the Petit Trianon of Versailles!

What are the archives?

The repository for documents and items relating to Greenwich history.

If someone has something they want to donate, what is the process?

If people have documents to donate they should contact Christopher Shields. If they have items other than documents they should contact Karen Frederick.