Given the fact that you have chosen to visit “Something Old, Something New”, it will probably come as no surprise that my first post is about making a new home feel as though it has been around for many years…in a good way. This has been a very popular and highly-discussed topic for a while now in the design world, with numerous articles and books being written on the subject. It is a very personal one for me, as we have built two homes in the past eight years and adding “old” features into a new structure can be quite the challenge to undertake. While I enjoy many of the newer amenities found in homes currently being built today, I have always had an appreciation for the things that give a house “character” if you will. Russell Versaci states it best in his book, Creating a New Old Houses when he says, “A new old house combines the emotional comforts of yesterday with the creature comforts of today.”
I suppose I come by this honestly after watching my parents spend many painstakingly difficult years designing and then building a “New Orleans Style” home that they have now enjoyed for the past twenty-two years. They enlisted A. Hays Town, a famous Architect who passed away in 2005, along with Al Jones, one of his protégés, and ended up with a design that was perfect for them and authentic to the homes you see across the low country regions. Now, this was a LONG and sometimes frustrating process but the end result was worth the wait. In this welcoming and well-loved home, my parents have hosted many happy occasions, including the weddings of both daughters. My inspiration comes from this childhood home, and from having the incredible opportunity to watch an architect and a designer, who have perfected their crafts, do it correctly.
In my opinion, one of the biggest challenges is taking the design concept from start to finish and keeping true to the style of the home desired. From the building materials used to the landscape design, the art is to keep everything consistent, timeless and classic.
Unfortunately according to Versaci, “Most of the new houses are cookie-cutter copies and ordinary” and “Many of today’s homebuilders seem to have lost touch with the principles of the old way of building.” “Keenly aware of the attraction of old architectural styles, the faux traditional house has become universal in subdivisions across the country.”
This concept of “faux traditional” really resonates with me after disappointing visits with architects and even our own builder that resulted in designs and materials that were not always in keeping with the style of our home but were much easier for them to produce and to keep a house on the building schedule.
How do you start from scratch and end up with the desired product of a “New” Old House? Well, this is something that I am still trying to navigate but have learned a few things over our past building experiences that I do think are helpful and can be implemented to achieve the desired result:

Old Brick (Porches, Fireplace, Mudroom )
Old Beams on Ceilings
Slate
Landscaping
Mixture of Exterior Materials
Simple/Streamlined Woodwork (Cabinets, Columns)

The ultimate goal is to “create the patina of age” (again by Versaci) so that a new home will still have the quality and feel of one that has been around for hundreds of years.
This probably goes without saying, but I also feel strongly that the interior accents also play a key role in “finishing” a house and helping to create the feel of a well-loved home even if it is new construction. Never underestimate the power of a well-placed antique rug or stack of old books. My parents’ longtime friend and designer Ellen Dupps was instrumental in the entire building process. Her skillful knowledge of mixing and layering fabrics, while incorporating antiques in keeping with the French country style, all combined to complete the desired effect and one that has the “flow” we all instinctively desire when we enter a home.

What I have learned:

Pictures! + Patience! + Perserverance! = PATINA!!!