Annabel TaylorYou’re driving down a bucolic country road, freshly turned hay bales sprawl out across a deep green field beside you. You turn a bend and the view opens to a wide valley of rolling farmland and clusters of country houses. A vintage Land Rover sits out in a field, the weeds growing
up around it, a beautiful addition to the scenery.
It could almost be the Cotswolds, but the streets aren’t edged with sand-colored stone, the houses aren’t lined with immaculately trimmed boxwoods and there’s not a thatched roof in sight. Although reminiscent in many ways, this is not the English countryside. The houses have clapboard siding. The roads, well, we drive on the opposite side. You’re in the Hudson Valley of Upstate New York or the bucolic villages of Connecticut’s Litchfield County. You’re about two hours north of New York City in an enclave just far enough from Manhattan to make it an appealing destination for New Yorkers wanting to trade in their cubicles for some fresh air on the weekends.
As for aesthetic charm, there is a lot in common. We’re Anglophiles, too. Our kitchens, in recent years, have become more than a bit English inspired (much in part thanks to English cabinet-maker deVOL). Our hedgerows, too. Our wallpaper selections, the fabric we source from across the pond for that “authentic” country house look; we’re watching British designers and taking notes.
With this Anglo-fascination comes an affinity for — you guessed it — vintage Land Rovers. As a real estate agent here, it’s not uncommon for a buyer to tell me about the Land Rover they’re going to buy when we find their picture-perfect country house, or the Land Rover they have in storage that they’re buying the house for. In fact, vintage Land Rovers have become as big a part of my marketing campaigns as the houses themselves.
When I’m working and traveling through the four counties that make up the Hudson Valley, I drive a 2024 Defender 90. In my off hours, I’m at the helm of a 2000 Discovery II that, thanks to my boyfriend’s Sawzall, became a convertible. To his dismay, I call it the Barbie Dreamcar. And when I post pictures of it on social media, my followers, who are all eagerly looking for the next great house, go as wild for the Land Rover as they do for the Greek Revival Farmhouse where I’ve staged it.
The realization came to me in Kinderhook, a tiny village in Columbia County, NY, as charming as Chipping Norton. The owners of a 1789 Centerhall Colonial called me to sell their house. They’d painted it a striking, deep green. And in their driveway was a Land Rover Defender L316 110, rebuilt by Helderburg, painted a complimentary shade of green to the house. We of course had to photograph it. And when the house hit my Instagram, I got as many calls about the Defender as I did the house. We sold both and the listing went viral. I knew we were onto something.
In Rhinebeck, NY later that year, I had the opportunity to list an 1880 cottage with Hudson River views. It was the definition of a jewel box, tiny and perfect. It had just undergone a major renovation by of-the-moment interior design firm Post Company. My stylist drove his 1994 Range Rover County LWB, Plymouth Blue with a Saddle Tan interior, to the shoot. We parked it in front of the light grey house and snapped a picture just as the sun was setting on the river. The online crowd went wild. We broke the price per square foot record in town.
Most recently, a 1993 Range Rover, owned by enthusiast/architect Rafe Churchill, helped sell a 1789 Eyebrow Colonial for me. The clapboard-sided house was painted a perfect shade of buttery white, and the Rover was Ardennes Green — a match made in heaven. I perched lightly on the hood, swung my cowboy boots in the air and my photographer snapped a photo. We just about broke the internet. That photo got over one million views overnight and the house went into contract the very next day.
I’ve found that Land Rovers and classic properties speak the same language to the same audiences; they complement one another so perfectly. A charming country house paired with a vintage Land Rover; it’s a match made in countryside heaven. It’s what our viewers want to imagine their lives in the country will look like. It’s made me realize that what I sell isn’t just a house or a classic vehicle. I mean, who doesn’t want to own the most handsome vehicle ever crafted alongside of a most handsome country home?
[Follow Anabell Taylor on Instagram @ahouseupstate]
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