She advises researching your house. By looking up old deeds and wills and searching historic archives, you can learn who lived in the house and whether the tradition was Dutch or English, for example. Visiting antiques fairs saves on gas, since you can check out 80 to 100 dealers at once.
Oseas said it’s vital to get a receipt that indicates in writing the dealer vouching that the item is what he says it is, so you can get your money back if the item turns out be a fake. What about haggling? “If the item is really rare and I really want it, I don’t haggle,” Oseas said. “However, it’s always okay to politely ask if the dealer can do any better.”
Let your house speak. Traditionalists feel strongly that owners should preserve as much of the original features of the house as possible. Everyone has a story about a wealthy weekender — that’s usually who it is — who installed a trophy kitchen or ripped out a wall in their new stone house to put in a Palladian-style window, behavior that is frowned upon. The fact is, most 18th-century houses are low-ceilinged and dark (though sometimes you get lucky, as in the case of the Van Deusen house, which has unusually high ceilings and capacious rooms). That’s part of their charm. The traditional white plastered walls — a light-patterned wallpaper is also acceptable, said Oseas — help lighten the space.
Focusing on the strengths, such as placement of the house, often allows for a plenitude of natural light, as is the case of the 1751 house owned by Robert Sweeney and his partner, Eddie Catuzzo, located in Town of Ulster. Sweeney takes special pleasure in the illumination of the house’s various handmade textures, from the undulating plaster of the walls to the hand-planed boards of the wooden ceiling.
Sweeney said he has preserved the functionality of the house, placing the couple’s bed in one of the three downstairs rooms and using furniture that is multipurpose, so that a dining area can be set up in a living room space, for example. “It’s easier for us to change the way we live than change these houses,” Sweeney said. “We’ve stuck with small, lightweight furniture that we can around easily and reconfigure the design of the room. It’s more about having if feel and look correct. We use furniture that was designed for rooms shaped like this.” He showcases his collection sparingly, rather than hang 30 trivets or choppers on the wall, to better let each piece stand out.
Every interior is an interpretation. While their house would originally have been very simply furnished, Sweeney and Catuzzo chose a more elegant look. A solid mahogany 18th-century Chippendale drop-leaf table and a tilt-top serpentine tea table are among the standout pieces.
The exterior of the house retains its country look, down to the green, red-orange and yellow shutters, whose bright colors are historically accurate. When the shutters are closed at night and a candle placed in the window — true to the Dutch style, the house doesn’t have curtains — Sweeney said that the bright colors are illuminated like a picture. He speculates that one reason some Hudson Valley primitive pieces are so garishly colored is that they were meant to be viewed by candlelight, which softens their hues. Sweeney also built a cowshed on the property, which is typical of the small barns that once graced every Hudson Valley farmhouse.
