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" The New York architect Gil Schafer III is an elegant anachronism\u2014a classicist who has made traditional architecture the height of fashion. Beloved by such stylesetters as decorators Miles Redd and Michael S. Smith, Schafer is the man to call, whether you are undertaking the resuscitation of an 18th-century house or building a new home you want to imbue with an old soul. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s something magical in a building you&amp;#039;ve restored, something you don&amp;#039;t get in new construction,&amp;quot; Schafer says. &amp;quot;I probably shouldn&amp;#039;t say that because I sell both.&amp;quot;  Tradition \u2022 I grew up in a farmhouse in New Jersey. As a child I loved Frank Lloyd Wright and modern things, but I also loved Colonial Williamsburg and Palladio. It wasn&amp;#039;t until I got to architecture school at Yale that I was told that there were good things to look at\u2014basically modern architecture\u2014 and bad things, which were those things that expressed the past. It disconnected me from the things I loved growing up. \u2022 A garden and a house have to work together. I recently renovated a Charles Platt house, and one of the first things I did was to put back Platt&amp;#039;s French doors, which were removed in the 1950s. I reestablished the views to the garden. Renovation Essentials \u2022 My practice used to be fifty-fifty new construction and renovation, but since the recession more than half of what I do is renovation. People are looking at what they have and trying to enhance it. \u2022 If you are buying an old house, make sure it hasn&amp;#039;t been monkeyed with too much. Does it have any of the spirit of the original? Figure out how much you have to do to get it back. Every case is unique. \u2022 There is no X-ray machine that can reveal everything about a house. Expect the unexpected. It will cost more than you originally thought. If you know that going in, you can relax a bit. Edit down to what feels right to the DNA of a house\u2014or you&amp;#039;ll be ripping it out in a few years. Blueprint \u2022 Invest in areas that have an impact on your daily life, such as kitchens and bathrooms. In a kitchen in an antique house, I&amp;#039;ll design cabinetry that is more furniture-like. A refrigerator can look like an armoire. \u2022 Rethink the floor plan of an old house. Relocate the kitchen to the heart of the home. Turn a small bedroom into a bath, and an attic into a playroom or office. Add doors and enfilades for better flow. Nuts and Bolts \u2022 Stick to the language of the original. The moldings and detailing should fit with what is there. Get the bones right. \u2022 It throws off a wall to have an ugly switch plate or thermostat. We set our switch plates about three feet from the floor. I&amp;#039;m not one of those people who says you can&amp;#039;t have a downlight. For task or accent lighting, I use small ones with no flange from Lucifer Lighting. \u2022 My country house is new, and when I built it I was going to be a purist with single-glazed windows. Each time I have to remove or replace the storm windows, I wonder why I made that decision. For clients, I do insulated, double-glazed windows\u2014easier and energy efficient. You want the muntins narrow\u20147/8&amp;quot;-wide look right on an older house. Decorating \u2022 Often the architect is more rigid and the decorator is freer\u2014the combination can be wonderful. I was renovating a house with an amazing loggia. I thought it would be painted in a light hue. Decorator David Netto lacquered it the color of Coca-Cola. It&amp;#039;s magic. \u2022 I like a lot of color\u2014mostly muted colors, like a dusty orange. I like how it sets off artwork and plays against the architecture of a room. Click here to see Gil Schafer&amp;#039;s work. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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