apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

when i was a kid, some of my parents' friends had our house painted onto a christmas ornament and gave it to them as a gift.

That is a fantastic idea. I have thought about doing something similar, but just never got around to it. I've gathered photographs I've taken over the years from places I've visited and used them for Christmas cards every year.
Nothing beats a beautiful rendering, showing the facade of your home!

When I too was a wee lassie, not so long ago, I remember many of my friends' parents had framed sketches of their house in their homes...but I think most of them had custom-built homes.

My parents built our family home in 1958 and had the architect do a sketch for stationary. My parents also used a sketch of the house (or a variation, such as adding a Christmas ornament to the tree in front) as our family Christmas card each year from 1958 - 1977.

I agree with explauren, I used to see this a lot in my parents' fancy friends' houses in VA.
I suspect a drawing of my house would be about $10- just draw a tiny tiny rectangle with 3 windows and a door. No ornamentation- kind of like a monopoly house. sigh.

My boyfriend has done a couple of "house portraits" in watercolour for people, one as a gift and another on commission. Both were done shortly before a move as mementos.

When I was in college, my father took a job transfer that required an out-of-state move from the house we had lived in for 19 years. As a gift, my siblings and I had a drawing of our old house made and framed. We provided the artist with a photograph of the house to work from.

I used to sell real estate, and this was a very common practice for the flyers and ads.If you want one, look through the real estate section of the local paper and you are bound to see some there. Call the listing agent and ask who they use. It was never very pricey, but they may charge less for agents in expectation of repeat business.

My mom did this for the house I grew up in; she had it made into stationery and also has a framed print that she hangs in every new house she moves to.

Since I miss our old house desperately, I heartily approve. However, it does have an air of ex-boyfriend worship about it. :-)

Awesome post! I am an designer/illustrator and have a casual side business drawing houses and always think it's such a great (yet under-utilized) gift. Once the drawing is finished, I print the houses onto note cards and package them with matching envelopes. If you know anyone who would be interested, please have them contact me. There are a few samples of my house drawings at www.kellygold.com (on the right side under "Illustration"). Enjoy!

I commissioned artist philip ilatovsky from boston ma, http://www.friendswithfuture.com/philipilatovsky/mosocw.html
to make beautiful , nostalgic collage of my friends new home. he worked off the building photo and some family pictures to create very unusual piece of art. i planned to give it to my friends as house worming gift, but it turned to be a christmas family gift, which is still one of the most proud possessions they have. it's a conversation piece at any gatherings at their house ever since. i'm still glowing with satisfaction of giving such an amazing gift to the people i love.

A friend who is a book illustrator by trade gifted me with one when I bought my house....


http://www.flickr.com/photos/iloveupstate/885833646/

I scanned it and have used it on party invitations n stuff. Tres fun!

My mother does beautiful pen & ink drawing of small NYC buildings (brownstones, storefronts) -- so i asked her to do a drawing of my small apt building & its surroundings. she did it and I had it framed. it hangs in my bedroom -- a prized possession.

Not exactly the same thing, but here in the deep South, there was a tradition of wedding invitations having a drawing of the church on them. Very old-fashioned but quite lovely.

My parents had a sketch done in the first house I ever lived in. Now, about a dozen moves later - I'm purchasing my very first home in 2 weeks and intend on putting up the framed sketch in my first house.

Kind of neat to read about this and how others have had this done!

We have a sweet little pen-and-ink drawing of the home my boyfriend grew up in, with the family dog sprawled happily on the lawn. It was a present from his brother-in-law. Love the stationary idea.

Our previous house was painted several times. A tenant, an artist, used to regularly include a small watercolor of the house with her monthly rent. The house's massing and fenestration were always the same, but the house might be a Tuscan villa with Italianate details one time, another time a rustic cabin or a Tudor manor. The favorite was a chiaroscuro watercolor looking much like the house appeared on a foggy, snowy winter day. We've kept this series.

As a thank you gift, another artist gave us a much larger watercolor of the house, quite accurate in detail but rendering the house in a fantastic garden setting (about the time I'd thrown in the towel/trowel and sworn to never again try perennial borders). I'm not as fond of this larger watercolor and would like to give it to the two women who recently purchased the house; my partner feels I shouldn't give a gift to someone else. Although I designed the house I never felt the larger rendering reflected how I had thought of the house, while the artist of the smaller series seemed to "get" what I'd been after. Can't I give the larger watercolor to the new owners? It reflects better their image of the house than mine.

We just moved into our first home--a 1920s bungalow--and I'm absolutely in love with it. I had actually considered doing something like this, but was worried that it might seem ostentatious. Glad to see that others like the idea too. :)

I think you should give it to the new owners, if you're not happy with it than why keep it? They would probably love it. I would like to do this as a gift to my parents, they've had their house for 20 years. If only it wasn't that expensive. I'm thinking $100 for the pic and then more to frame.

When my in-laws sold their house, in which they had lived for over 20 years, to move to a retirement community my husband and I gave them a pen and ink drawing of the old home as a housewarming gift. It is proudly framed in their new kitchen as a reminder of their former home and all the memories they have of it.

I work at a stationery store where I have been commissioned to do sketches of historic houses in the neighborhood for customers. It really is a great idea for stationery, especially if you live in a historic home and it adds a personal touch to your stationery. I am trying to start doing freelance work to offer my illustration services, so if anyone has any advise, I would greatly appreciate it.

I second giving the painting to the current owners, if i were them i'd be estatic!

i paid for a good part of my undergrad (over 10 years ago... yikes) by doing these drawings for realtors in richmond, va and washington, dc... over a few hundred in the end. i worked from photos and was able to capture a likeness of the house sans any weird bits (trees in the way, window unit ACs, etc). i provided the agent with 3 copies of the rendering on 8X10 cardstock -- one for the seller, one for the buyer and one for the newspaper -- and it was generally a boon for the agent. most were traditional suburban cape cods or colonials, but a few were more unique... here's a link to a neat, ramshackle cottage in church hill (richmond) and a tudor in georgetown.

The promo flyer for the house we just bought included a sketch of the property (and no photos, the place was a mess). I'm now using the sketch to make "Just Moved" cards to announce our change of address.

I also have a framed sketch of the house my grandmother has lived in since she got married at 17 - she just turned 96 - created by my grandfather. My dad had a copy framed for me and my sister one year as a Christmas gift.

my parents actually have a collection of these--they move around a bit and they keep getting them in various styles from their real estate agents as housewarming presents. some of them are very nice and others aren't quite their style (like the really kitschy needlepoint one). my mom usually hangs them all in a group in each new house.

on a side note--my parents moved again recently and for the first time in the last 5 moves they didn't get a house warming present from their agent. it has been about 4 years since their last move, do agents not do gifts anymore? is it a sign of a bad real estate market or a bad real estate agent?

My aunt photographed my grandparents' house four times -once each season. It does take quite a while to do, but the end results are totally worth it. Very original and it only requires four photographs.

My ex's parents had a painting (think it was painted) of their house done, and as the story goes, this artist was working door to door. As in, he came to the door one day and offered for x amount of dollars to paint a portrait of the house, and I guess had samples in the van, so they said yeah. I think he said it was about $300, and he parked his easel and did it in an afternoon, and that was not very recently. I kind of think that's probably not a lot of money for what they ended up with had they intentionally sought out the business, but it's kind of weird to be going about your day, and end up spending that much money kind of on the impulse of a stranger coming to your door and asking for it, especially considering how cheap they were about everything else.

@I Love Upstate-your home and lot is gorgeous.

My uncle is an architectural draftsman and did an illutstration of my sorrority house for me as a graduation gift. He even rendered the truck I drove in college parked out in front. It's a very meaningful gift that captures a very fun and special time in my life.

Thanks so much for mentioning my business (Your Door and More). We can work from photographs or illustrations so if you have older photos of a home you no longer live in - we can present those as illustrations as well. We also do illustrations of your front door which make ideal change of address cards or house warming gifts.