This former dreary and cold music school in Haarlem, just outside Amsterdam, now looks as though someone has waved a magic wand over it, such is the spellbinding use of color employed by its owners, Leonie Hendrikse and Jeroen Stock of Stock Dutch Design.
They breathed new life into the monumental 1886 building, transforming it into a modern home and their enchanting live/work environment. Small rooms, suspended ceilings, cold, gray, and even a little grim — the words Leonie used to describe what it was like when she bought it.
"I even got the shivers when I first walked in. But I could immediately picture what it needed to become."
"This floor in the dining space was my breaking point in the house," says Leonie. "Every piece we had to put in by hand. One of our sons helped me because I could only cry!"
A set of simple curved dining chairs allows an irregular-shaped table to take center stage — and they're ergonomic, too.
"Because this is a big space without daylight, it was necessary to use warm, happy colors," says Leonie.
Part of Stock Dutch Design’s ethos has always been to welcome clients into the couple’s own home, so it made sense to buy a place that could double as a workspace.
"A home where you can pull open drawers and see what bespoke craftsmanship really means," Leonie says. "Where you notice how nice it is to have a little bench in the dressing room and why you’d want a tap high enough to rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth.
"Here, clients can see the effect of, say, a painted ceiling or curtains finished with passementerie. That’s what we wanted this property to do. You can see, touch, and feel what’s possible."
"The walls and woodwork are very sweet and soft, so it needed a more brutal feeling to it, hence the darker colors used around the edges of the room," says Leonie of this plum kitchen.
Convinced you should go dark in your own kitchen? Make like Leonie and choose Brinjal for a deep, moody hue.
The small kitchen in the ground-floor office, covered in onyx, is also used in the summer when the family entertains outside.
Aside from all the bureaucratic hurdles that come with renovating a listed building, the staircase posed the biggest challenge. "It was gray and gloomy," Leonie recalls.
"We wanted a warm entrance that immediately makes you feel welcome, but which also reflects the building’s stately grandeur. That had been completely lost over the years. I think the end result is spectacular."
This is where the family spends most of their time together, hunkered into the purposefully cozy den room.
"The only thing that still hints at the old look is the neon artwork on the first floor. We actually planned to remove it until someone said, 'You can’t do that! It’s by Jan van Munster; his work is in the Kröller-Müller Museum.'
"We’re great lovers of art, but we didn’t know this piece. Of course, we kept it. Art is always an important part of our designs — though it doesn’t have to be expensive. Here we have exceptional works alongside pieces by my mother and great-grandmother, and drawings by our own children. It’s about the emotional connection art can create."
The fireplace in the bathroom had to stay. Now, bespoke marble-ribbed washbasins flank each side — an especially striking effect alongside trompe l’œil wallpaper.
A mural in the bathroom feels delightfully indulgent — we love this design from Graham & Brown.
The arched headboard is the instant focal point of the space, helping to pull focus from the cavernously high ceiling.
Now the project is finished — the offices with the team of six who work for Stock Dutch Design have moved in — and the house is alive; Leonie is truly proud of the result.
"It was a huge task, but it turned out exactly as we envisioned. Heritage, colors and patterns, and future-proof design have been our core values for 20 years — and they all come together in this creation."
