The Difference Between Preservation, Restoration, and Renovation
As someone who lives in a world where all three happen pretty regularly, I wanted to set the record straight on what term means what, so that you can gain a clear understanding about which camp you're in.
Restoration
This is the hardcore group. They want houses to be untouched, left the way it was originally built. Or if it has had updates for modern living, undo all of those changes and restore it back to it's original state. Think, museum-level. It will serve as a purpose of education, both for history of a specific area and architecture. Everyone did things their own way in different cities with architecture in style, due to climate, trends, and other reasons. Having a house type that is in the same style as others (example: the difference between a Queen Anne house from Louisiana and a Queen Anne house in Michigan) would be significant if it was untouched after 100+ years.
Renovation
This is the one I have the most feelings about. This is where you take an old home and do whatever you want to it to fit it to modern life, stripping away most of the historic features and details. Taking out the older chandeliers and their medallions, replacing double hung windows with more modern “maintenance free” windows (which is a B.S. sell… when they can’t be maintained, they just go in the trash when they’re done functioning), and pocket doors for double parlors to create open floor plans. There are definitely reasons why people do this. I'm just sayin', I see a lot of new "trendy" stuff being put in houses and I think it makes them lose some of that charm we all love about historic houses... And I don’t think the trends will hold up. Meanwhile, the intact historic homes from days gone by have been shown to hold more value than a Frankenstein version from different 1900’s decades. Besides, it costs $0 to leave things alone :)
Preservation
There's always a happy medium, right? This is probably my favorite group since restoration is not for everyone and neither is renovation. If you fall somewhere in between those two, welcome to the club! These are the guys who want to keep all of that old charm around and know it's going to probably be a pain to maintain, but they agree to do it anyway. It's a labor of love, y'all.
That's kind of it, just thought you'd like to know the difference. I’ve got lots of resources if you’re pondering how to do this in your old home. Let’s leave that soul intact.
This is the interior of an open house I did for/with my colleague Jane Marmelstein. This house had been in the family for 50 years and shows perfectly how you can leave a house pretty much the same and update visually with good decor taste. Home was built in 1910.
