‘Old things gave this place character’
Roos and Daniel ten Voorde turned a bland Seventies house into a family home with a comfortable retro vibe
Tucked between apartment buildings in the seaside town of Katwijk in The Netherlands, the box-shaped Seventies house that Roos ten Voorde shares with her husband Daniel and their children was rather uninspiring when they first moved in. Seeing potential in its large rooms and high ceilings, Roos used her creative skills to bring the interior to life with an industrial-rustic style.
Her first priority was to bring more light and space into the ground floor. ‘I knocked down the dividing wall between the kitchen and living room, then installed a new wooden floor to integrate the two spaces,’ she explains. At the same time, she and Daniel replaced the kitchen with simple grey units fitted into the corner of the room in an L shape.
To add character, Roos has filled the house with weathered-wood furniture and upcycled items – artwork made from the pages of old books, reclaimed wood used for a windowsill and furniture, flea-market finds and displays of feathers and foliage picked up on walks.
What ties these mismatched pieces together is a gentle palette of grey, teal and duck egg, while cowhide rugs, sheepskin throws and clusters of plants add texture and warmth. ‘The house has a fresh but tough-looking feel to it,’ says Roos. ‘I don’t need to handle my things with a lot of care and I like to see that things have been used. I like the idea of something becoming more beautiful with time.’
The house constantly evolves as the couple find new treasures or repurpose old things: ‘Even though we have finished renovating the house and the major work has been done, we still like to make small changes once in a while,’ says Roos. ‘I’m usually the one who comes up with new ideas, then we go to work on it together.’
We love old, weathered objects – which is great for our kids because we don’t get upset if they scratch or dent something!