The Brief

A family home in Haarlem-Noord, bought unrenovated and redesigned from scratch. The clients — a family of five with a love of travel and collecting — wanted a house full of personality: layered, liveable, and built to last.

Planning

The ground floor was reorganised around a new kitchen extension that opens onto the garden. Upstairs, four bedrooms were reconfigured to give each child a genuinely private room, with a shared bathroom designed to handle the morning rush gracefully.

Kitchen + Dining

The kitchen is the heart of the house. A long scrubbed-pine table seats ten. Units in hand-painted sage green flank a professional range; open shelving displays pottery collected over years of travel.

Living Room

The living room is deliberately eclectic: a deep velvet sofa from De Sede, mid-century lounge chairs, Persian rugs layered on the original herringbone parquet. Books are everywhere. It is a room for living in, not just looking at.

Children’s Rooms

Each child’s room was designed with their personality and stage of life in mind. One has a platform bed and a climbing wall; another is built around a large desk and bookcase for a serious reader; the youngest has a bed shaped like a boat.