Retro finds bring colour into Manon’s home

Manon and Bas transformed an uninspiring 1970s terraced house into a colourful family home with a modern industrial style

From the age of about eight I’ve been obsessed with interiors,’ says Manon. ‘When my friends suggested playing with Barbies, I’d want to decorate the Barbie house. I was always revamping my bedroom. My poor dad must have wallpapered and painted my room so many times!

When I met my husband Bas and got the chance to decorate my first home, I was over the moon. It was a small 1930s house with beautiful stained glass windows but it was in a terrible condition with dangerous old cloth wiring. We had to take everything out and completely rebuild it. Although we’d wanted to tackle a major renovation job, after two years we thought it would never be finished. Besides, it was too small for a family, and I started hankering after a grown-up house with more space where we could be closer to nature.

Seeing the potential

After much searching, a 1970s terraced house came up for sale just three steps from a park. It had been rented out and then stood empty for a long time. Although it had no fancy decorative elements, the sheer volume of space appealed to us.

Luckily the house was solid and in good nick, but we wanted to open it up, so we demolished a wall between the kitchen and living room to create one big space. We did everything ourselves with the help of our family, including renovating the bathroom, creating a laundry room next to the main bedroom in the attic, laying floors and painting. The garden was a wilderness and also needed a lot of work.

Gradual process

As we’d sold most of our furniture, it was a case of starting again from scratch and then fine-tuning step by step. I

tend to work on my gut feeling and only make mood boards if I need to drastically change a space. For instance, the boys’ bedrooms needed to work hard as a place to sleep, play games, watch TV and do homework, so that required a good plan.

Luckily Bas and I have the same taste and are both quite creative. I’m good at coming up with ideas while he’s especially good at the technical side. I’d urge anyone to do as much DIY as possible. If something goes wrong, you always learn from it. I only had one failed colour experiment with a blue and pink wall, but it soon got painted over.

Mixture of styles

As I find so many different styles beautiful, you’ll find a mix of rural, modern, vintage and industrial in my

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house. I also like a bit of kitsch and pieces that are rough around the edges. It’s the colours that pull everything together and can make or break a scheme. Black, white, sand, army green and blue reappear throughout the house. Army green is my all-time favourite though. I’ve used it for a long time as it matches all the other colours and has a nice warmth to it.

Colour play

Paint is definitely my best friend and my favourite styling tool. Just painting a wall a different colour can make the space look different in an hour. You’ll often find me with a paintbrush in my hand tackling everything from flower pots to kitchen cupboards. All my colourful accessories like cushions, rugs and lamps are budget friendly as I know I’ll want to change them at some

point. That’s why I got so excited about our green oven. It was one of my few splurges but it’ll last and it’s a beautiful statement piece.

Getting personal

For me, making a house cosy is all about fabrics, plants and personal photos. The latter are very important as they give character and soul to your interior. There are lots of things dotted about that have sentimental value, like my grandmother’s old sewing machine, my great-grandma’s wedding gloves and our sons’ first shoes. I also treasure those unique thrift finds, such as a beautiful old tin, a book full of circus posters or a vintage typewriter. It’s totally possible to mix up pieces from flea markets with both low-budget and trendy home furnishing stores. One of my favourites in The Netherlands is Loods 5 and I’m a fan of brands like VT Wonen, HK Living, Madam Stolz, and Mica for tableware. The only thing that’s missing is a black Eames lounge chair. I’ve loved them all my life but they’re so expensive. Who knows, once I finish a big job, I might spoil myself and buy one!

Our happy place

I’m always itching to tackle another project so I’d never say we’ll never move, but we’re very happy living here at the moment. In spring I love sitting on the bench in the front garden watching the world go by as the very first rays of sunshine come through. Looking back, we’re very proud that we’ve done so much of the work ourselves. It’s truly become a family home and a reflection of who we are.’

‘ADD AN EYE-CATCHING WALL MURAL AND PICK OUT COLOURS FROM IT AS A STARTING POINT FOR THE REST OF THE ROOM’S SCHEME’

ISLAND MAGIC ‘We used the teak worktop from our old kitchen and had new planks custom made – the rest is from Ikea. It was a huge puzzle to get it all right, but it works!’

ZONING THE SPACE ‘Because the kitchen is very open plan, we’ve chosen to make a clear transition with the wall finish’ HANG UP ‘We designed this plywood wall for coats and skateboards’

WORK NOOK ‘This mini desk was made from a steel frame and furniture panel’ EVOLVING LOOK ‘The panel behind the sofa has been wallpapered a few times and painted in various colours’

RETRO DECO ‘We made the table ourselves from old planks and a steel frame, but my favourite thing in the whole house is the vintage neon Food sign’

UPCYCLED PIECE ‘This small bench is an old picnic table with the legs sawn down’ OUTSIDE SPACE ‘We made the roof covering ourselves with homemade louvre panels to make it cosier. The coffee table and long sofa are DIY jobs made using a steel frame and vintage wood’ PERFECT MATCH ‘I found the vintage red teapot on the same day as the modern red plate’

SLEEP SPOT ‘Wessel’s headboard and footboard were made from wood from an old dance floor’ WARM TONES ‘Recently I painted the ceiling, side walls and floor in the same grey colour to contrast with the burgundy and dark brown walls’

COLOUR OPTIONS ‘We didn’t fully tile the bathroom as I like to change the wall colour’ NEW LOOK ‘I bought this Chinese cabinet at a thrift store. It was then white for a while before I painted it brown to blend into the wall’

DIY DESK ‘Multi-functional furniture works well in Wessel’s room. We made this desk from plywood and a TV hangs on the other side’ CHILL-OUT ZONE ‘We made Koen’s sofa from pallets with a mattress on top’