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creative workspace
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There’s no reason for the interior design of an office to be dull. A playful, colourful space is much more conducive to creative work. Case in point, the office of interior designers Theo-Bert Pot and Jelle Van de Schoor, who transformed the ground floor of his own home into his new headquarters. Pot used every opportunity he could to add colour, patterns and life to the space, but the most stunning elements are certainly the walls. In the main reception area, he covered the entire wall, which frames an ornately carved fireplace, with a dreamy hilly scene that looks as if it were painted in situ. He then matched the pinkish tone of the wallcovering to the original wood-plank floors, which he painted a dusty shade of rose. In the workspaces, he went for a comparably more subdued concept, but still teeming with life. The walls were painted a deep shade of forest green, save for a single accent wall above the second fireplace. He opted for an ultra-contemporary yellow-and-gold motif, which adds a layer of interest without being overpowering. The perfect setting to let your creativity run free.
— designer Theo-Bert Pot & Jelle Van de Schoor
— location The Netherlands
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Pot and Van de Schoor carefully coordinated sightlines between spaces to always include a vibrant pop of colour or a vivacious print. From one of the ground-floor sitting rooms, where the walls are painted a muted shade of pink, a boisterous pattern featuring jungle plants is visible through the doorway, adding a nice sense of contrast between the rooms.
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the notary’s house
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Colour is the main character in this grand family home in Utrecht by Norwegian designer Linda Lagrand. What was once a notary’s office and mayor’s home was transformed into a sumptuous residence by the Rotterdam-based designer. Throughout the house, the rooms are full of colour and life, but it is in the private spaces that true luxury reigns. In designing the primary bedroom, Lagrand says they chose the colour palette first. ‘We wanted to make it feel like a rich hotel suite,’ she explains of the choice of colour, a deep aubergine. ‘Since we like to work with natural materials and colours from nature, we thought the burgundy would enhance the room.’ For the wallcovering, Lagrand continued with the theme of natural materials. She chose a woven diamond pattern made out of sisal, a type of agave plant from southern Mexico whose strong fibres make for long-wearing and sturdy textiles. Panels of the woven sisal were then framed within the wall moulding to break up the height of the ceilings and centre the placement of the bed, creating a sense of symmetry in the room. From there, she chose textiles and furnishings to complement the colourful walls, deftly mixing texture and pattern to grand effect.
— designer Linda Lagrand
— location The Netherlands
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linda lagrand
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Linda Lagrand started Lagrand Interiors in 2010 after someone at a dinner party asked what she would do if it could be anything. The next day she enlisted for design education, and her days haven’t felt like work ever since. Lagrand Interiors stands for tranquillity, colour and the boutique hotel feeling at home. By using muted colours that stem from nature, we design warm spaces that make you feel at home instantly. For the past twelve years, Lagrand has created numerous residential and commercial interiors where the five-star hotel experience resonates. Her Norwegian roots bring her to nature, her Rotterdam location adds sparkle and dynamics, and her love for art and craftsmanship is the finishing touch to her signature look.
— the notary’s house The Netherlands —
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The project, in the designer’s words: This was quite a classical, older building. It had been used in the beginning as a private home, then later it was used for a notary’s office and the mayor’s house. We wanted to bring back the classical details they used to have at that time, but we didn’t want to do it in a classical way. That meant putting wallpaper in the frames on the wall in a contemporary colour palette. We chose burgundy because it felt both natural and rich – like a luxury hotel suite. How do you go about modernising such a classical building? The fact about these old buildings, at least here in The Netherlands, is that they have these high ceilings. You have more to work with, but you also have to do more to make it feel like an intimate bedroom, because they are so high and the rooms are so big. The panels with wallcovering inside are a great way to break up the height of the ceiling and make the room feel more cosy. How do you mix patterns while still creating a calm space? We like to do tone-on-tone in our rooms, which means colours that are quite near to one another, but also using materials and patterns that are quite opposite and contradictory. For example, even though we use a lot of patterns – we have a pattern in the floor carpet; we have patterns on the upholstery on the bench next to the bed, in the curtains, in the chair next to the vanity table – because they all have similar tones, they work together very well. Then the wallcovering is the element that ties everything together; it brings a classical feeling to the room. How could someone replicate your design process at home? What we do is called a material and colour study, which we do for every room. We want the feeling to be the same in the whole house, so even if you walk from a blue room to this burgundy room, you still have the same feeling of calmness and peace. When we are in the studio, we will have all the samples and all the fabrics and we will put them together on a table to see if it’s okay, this works; this doesn’t work. It allows us to see how all of the fabrics and textures will work together before installing them. This way, we are sure we’ve chosen the right wallcovering for the project, because we know that the rest of the textiles will work well with it. It’s like making a mood board but for materials. What are your tips for a first-time decorator choosing a wallcovering? My advice would be to embrace the idea of wallcovering. Don’t just put it on the wall behind your bed in your bedroom or the sofa in your living room. Covering an entire room with wallpaper makes the space feel as if it is embracing you; there is a much greater feeling of unity. It creates much more of a luxurious feeling when the walls are tactile, compared with when they are just smooth and painted.
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graphic —
CHAPTER 6 —
touches
Accent walls that steal the show
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luxury farmhouse
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‘With the renovation of this old farm we created a real family house,’ says Studio La Plume, who is responsible for this luxury farmhouse conversion in The Netherlands. ‘The large spaces of the former farming company required a professional restyling to make it a cosy whole. The building is now an atmospheric house where all family members have their own space.’ In the primary bedroom, the designers made the unconventional choice of aligning the bed in the centre of the room, against a wall that divides the A-frame loft into a sleeping area and closet. In order to attract the eye and give some weight to the added surface, they decorated the wall with a metallic textile covered in a repetitive cube pattern, a striking contrast to the natural materials and understated finishing found throughout the rest of the room. They then highlighted the luxe addition with a series of floating pendant lamps that beautifully reflect the metallic threads.
— designer Studio La Plume
— location The Netherlands
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The metallic sheen of the woven textile wallcovering gorgeously reflects the soft amber-coloured light emitted from the sunburst-shaped pendant lamps.
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