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Nick Churton of Turpin Realtors’ London office finds a period piece in Summit City, New Jersey that liked him as much as he liked it.

The property: 1 Oakley Avenue, Summit City, New Jersey

The Broker: Turpin Realtors

The Agents: Victoria and Peter Fife

Often it takes a while to make a home. But sometimes one feels comfortable immediately. That’s what happened when the current owners of 1 Oakley Avenue, Summit City, New Jersey saw the house for the first time. It fitted them. It suited them. It was in the right place. But most of all it provided the perfect canvas for their art and furniture. It fitted their interest and love for the Arts and Crafts style.

The Arts and Crafts movement straddled the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Leading lights of the movement were Frank Lloyd Wright in America and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the UK. Another disciple was Gustav Stickley, a furniture designer and maker from Syracuse, New York. It was some of Stickley’s very fine pieces that were as perfectly suited to the house as the owners.

Sometimes, it seems to me, houses choose their buyers as much as buyers choose their houses. Houses can be rather like J K Rowling’s sorting hat in the Harry Potter books. They carefully select who is best suited to them.

I have little doubt that this very fine and beautifully designed home, full of wonderful period features, chose its current owners. Why not go and look for yourself. If you are very lucky it might choose you too.