house of fun
Cheerful pops of colour bring joy to this light and airy Dutch townhouse
Bea Kroeze and her partner, Remon, were already on the hunt for a larger home in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden, when they saw that a four-bedroom period corner terrace that Bea had fallen in love with as a child was for sale. ‘Growing up, I lived in the Old Town a block away and I used to call this property the Pippi Longstocking house because it looked like the kind of home she would live in,’ says Bea, a secondary school teacher.
Once inside the house, she and Remon knew instantly that it was the one for them. ‘The kitchen and bathroom dated from the Sixties, there were four layers of wallpaper, lots of brown paint and dark carpets, but we could see past all that,’ she says. ‘All the original elements – the ornamental high ceilings, French doors, stone fireplaces, stained glass windows and carved wood banisters – were still there.’
The pair spent a year gutting the interior and stripping surfaces back before installing wooden floors and painting walls and floors white throughout. ‘I’ve always decorated our previous houses to the same formula, by using a simple white background with pops of bright colour,’ says Bea of her cheerful and lively home, made even livelier since the arrival of their two-year-old son, Silvijn.
Flashes of vibrant colour can be seen throughout the interior, from the purple front door to the striking multicoloured tiles in the bathroom and the orange fridge in the industrial-looking stainless steel kitchen. As with most large-scale decorating projects, this one wasn’t without mishaps. The couple painted the woodwork and window frames on the ground-floor sitting room and dining area
with an inexpensive white paint and, after about a year, it had taken on a yellowish tint. ‘It meant we had to repaint it all,’ says Bea. ‘The lesson we learnt is that it’s always worth paying more for good materials.’
Bea also prefers to save up for key heirloom pieces of furniture that she really loves rather than buying something cheaper immediately – or she searches long and hard for treasured objects in flea markets and on Dutch ebay. ‘One of my favourite items is the Big Tulip chair by Pierre Paulin in the sitting room,’ she says. ‘I always wanted one of these, but they are quite expensive, so I searched for a second-hand one for years. When I finally tracked one down, I had it re-covered in purple.’ Bea also counts her red dining chairs, which she bought with the first royalties she earned from her other career as a writer, as a special find. ‘That was 20 years ago and they are still going strong,’ she says.
For Bea and her family, the dining area is the heart of the home. ‘It’s such a nice spot, because it’s so light and it’s literally in the middle of the house. I can see Silvijn if he’s playing nearby and look straight through the house to the garden.’ This year, Bea is looking forward to the theatre, film and arts events taking place across the city, which is a European Capital of Culture 2018, but when at home, she likes nothing more than planning her next DIY project. ‘Silvijn needed a bigger bedroom, so we recently swapped his room with the study and I’m currently deciding how to decorate it,’ Bea explains. ‘I enjoy looking at inspiring images, browsing through Pinterest and making mood boards – it’s something I could happily do all day.’