Do house portraits make good gifts?

Yes, house portraits make amaaaazing gifts! They’re not just housewarming gifts or realtor gifts - they are awesome for that hard-to-buy person in your life. Whether it’s for a birthday, Christmas, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, or a wedding anniversary - a house portrait is unique, personal, and the recipient will love the thoughtfulness you put into your gift selection. In these days of digital-everything and AI, owning a one-off, unique, personalised hand-drawn-in-ink artwork is extra special.

You can easily be a gift-giving hero - and without having to go to the shops or mall!

How do I order a house portrait?

Ordering a house portrait is easy! Here’s how it works, step by step:

1. Place your order
Visit my Shop, choose your house portrait, and make the payment. Be sure to check the current turnaround time, as I only take on a limited number of commissions each month. If you have a special date in mind, please order as early as possible - I do my best to meet deadlines, but courier delivery times are outside of my control.

Note: If I have sold all my commission spots for the month, be sure to sign up to my newsletter to be notified when my sketchbook opens again for new commissions. Scroll to the bottom of this web page to see my newsletter signup box.

2. Answer a few questions at checkout
During the checkout process, I will ask you a few questions to gather the essential details I need.

3. Email me your house photos
After completing your order, you’ll need to email me photos of your house. I’ve prepared a handy guide, ‘How to photograph your house’, to make this step easy and help you get the best result.

4. Confirmation & turnaround
Once I have your photos and all the details, I will review everything and email you to confirm. If anything is unclear, I will be in touch before starting. The turnaround time begins once I confirm that I have all I need. I will also let you know when you can expect your finished portrait.

Do you need a photo of my house? What kind of photo is best?

Yes, I will need a photo of your house - I can’t draw what I can’t see! My handy ‘How to photograph your house’ guide explains what I need.

Note that I don’t draw commercial properties, building interiors, cars, people, or pets, sorry.

What if the front of the house isn’t the nicest/most charming angle?

It’s often the case that there may be a nicer view of the home, and that’s fine - the house portrait can be of any side of the home. For example, the house portrait below is the view from the side of this particular home:

What materials do you use?

I use a waterproof black ink pen (Uni Pin - or a fountain pen with waterproof Carbon Ink), and beautiful 300gsm Hahnemühle acid-free watercolour paper.

For the coloured house portraits, it’s the same, and then I loosely add high quality watercolours. I use the Van Gogh brand (by Royal Talens) - the colours are rated lightfast for at least 100 years under museum conditions - i.e. out of direct light.

What is meant by ‘loose’ watercolours?

Loose watercolours refers to a painting style that’s all about freedom of brushwork and limited detail: it’s about capturing the essence of a home, rather than creating a photographic likeness. The goal is to create a feeling or mood rather than perfect realism - an approach that goes well with my doodle-style ink sketches.

How are the house portraits packaged?

Your finished house portrait is ready to frame! I’ll package the house portrait carefully, with hard cardboard backing so it doesn’t bend, in a plastic sleeve for water protection. This is the same professional artist packaging and presentation you might get with a print from an art gallery.

If your order is being shipped (rather than being picked up), this is then placed in a rigid cardboard envelope for further protection. I use NZ Post couriers.

I’m local to Kerikeri and don’t want to pay for the shipping of my house portrait, what to do?

I totally get it! In the checkout process, you’ll see an option for local pickup, which is free, so please select that. (And if you’re not local and select that option, I’ll be in touch for the payment for shipping before I start drawing your house portrait.)

Please see also my shipping policy.

Can you provide the house portrait in a frame?

I can frame your house portrait if you are local to Kerikeri and select local pickup or delivery - I’m not willing to courier glass, sorry. The good news is that you can easily purchase standard frame sizes to fit your house portrait:

A 5” x 7” frame works well for the A5 size, if you can’t find an A5 size frame. (You may need to trim a little bit off the side for a 5” x 7” frame.)
An A4 size frame is perfect for the A4 artwork.

I draw my house portraits with plenty of space around the edge to make framing easy.

Do you offer refunds?

As each house sketch is a custom, hand-drawn artwork, I do not offer refunds for commissioned pieces. However, customer satisfaction is important - if you have any concerns about your order, please get in touch so we can work towards a resolution.

Who owns the copyright of the house portraits and any other artwork from Home Sketch Home?

All artwork created by Home Sketch Home remains the copyright of the artist, Cornelia Luethi. The purchaser is granted a non-exclusive license to display and gift the artwork for personal use. Reproduction or commercial use without written permission is not permitted. Home Sketch Home reserves the right to use images of commissioned work for promotional purposes unless otherwise agreed.

Will you post the house portrait on social media?

I’d love to post your house portrait on social media. And if it’s a gift or a surprise, just let me know, and I’ll make sure to post the portrait after the event, so as not to ruin the surprise. :)

Are house portraits good realtor closing gifts?

Yes, house portraits are fabulous realtor gifts for clients! Unlike food hampers, wine, chocolate, flowers, or restaurant vouchers - house portraits are something your client will treasure forever. And your client will likely think of you every time they look at their house portrait - this is marketing that lives on forever! For that reason, you might consider giving a house portrait to both the buyer AND the seller!

Read more about house portraits as real estate agent gifts.

Bonus tip: put the house portrait in a frame (a 5 x 7 frame works well for the A5 size, or an A4 frame for the A4 artwork), and paste your business card on the back of the frame.

Best of all, the process of getting a house portrait will be really straightforward for you, as you’ll already have great house photos from the marketing campaign for me to work from!

You can order your house portrait from my Shop.

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