Drew Scott Shares Which Historical Home Features Are Worth Keeping (& Which To Ditch)

When you scroll through Instagram or turn on HGTV, you're flooded with images of updated modern farmhouses, featuring new white oak floors, black banister staircases, and soaring ceilings. It can become easy to be swept away by the newness of it all, which in turn might make old features in a home feel dated or undesirable. But should you get rid of vintage home features? If you asked HGTV's Drew Scott, he would tell you that it depends.

If you're looking to sell, you need to focus on changes that will add value to your buying pool. Because of this, Scott recommends keeping the old flooring since it creates a nice historical backdrop to any new updates you'd have to do, allowing you to keep some of the home's character. He also recommends keeping things that fit the style of the house, like transoms and stained glass windows. However, he thinks you should definitely remove things that aren't very useful or don't add value, as well as any features that aren't very decorative or pretty. He also thinks it's fine to paint wood if it helps you save the architectural detail rather than ripping it out. Here is a closer look at his advice. 

The first thing that Scott recommends keeping is historic floors, since they allow you to keep the rich, historical charm of your home when modernizing other pieces. Plus, it will create a cohesive link throughout the entire floorplan. "Flooring is something that you want to keep that looks maybe a little bit more traditional because that can flow through the entire house," he shares on the Drew & Jonathan YouTube channel. He also recommends keeping woodwork like built-ins and wainscoting, but he thinks it's fine to paint them. Painting wood is pretty controversial, but if it helps you keep the historical piece rather than ripping it out, he thinks it's the lesser of two evils. "A lot of the houses, even back in the day, they used to paint out the trim, so go for it," he notes. "Keep in mind you're not destroying an original feature of the home by painting out the wood. You're just breathing some fresh life into it."

As for what to toss, he thinks you should get rid of anything that looks cheap and doesn't serve a purpose, like cheap plastic dividers in entryways. "Flimsy divides like this don't do something like that [add value.] Either put a door in or just open things up," she shares. Lastly, he also thinks you should remove architectural features that aren't as decorative or beautiful as they could be. "It's nice that you have some wainscoting, some woodwork, but I don't think it's the nicest looking thing. I would probably swap that out or maybe do something that's a little bit more decorative detail for the wall."