At home in Amsterdam

It's been a pretty rough week for me. My mom has been in the hospital since Monday and luckily she's ok (relatively). Despite this being a crappy week, a ray of sunshine plopped itself into my inbox when Alice Jane sent along some photos she had promised me. Alice Jane, a Canadian now living in Amsterdam, recently renovated some rooms in her home and had a professional photographer take some unbelievable photos of her new spaces. I absolutely adore what she's done to her home so far, and the photos show all the wonderful touches she's included. Alice Jane added some descriptions to her email which I will include below. I've got to start with the kitchen, as it is BY FAR my favourite room.

- The kitchen -- The man you see in one of the pictures is Dion Roosen of Timmerbedrijf Roosen. He is the carpenter who worked with me to create the kitchen units. In the picture of him, Dion is sitting on the window seat. In addition, Dion (and occasionally his son Willem) did all of the tiling in the bathroom and kitchen (floors and walls). The plumbing and electrics were done by Dion's project partner, Bram de Mooij of Legend. To match the white-waxed, natural wood found throughout the house, Dion went to a wrecker's/restorer's warehouse near Amsterdam (a place called Schijf) and found used floor planks that more or less matched. He then created a sculptural design that looked right, bringing
me samples and drawing lots of pictures with me before going ahead. When the units were complete he found a white wax to apply for the right finish. Smells nice, too. P.S. That's her in one of the photos. :)






- The master bedroom -- The cats you see in a couple of these pictures are Paillette (the orange queen) and James Bond (the black tom). We had the door, walls, and ceiling painted by local artists, Louise Vines and Caroline Trew, a few years ago when we moved in. The ceiling is a Dutch sky in the golden hour before dusk.







- The bathroom -- Large by Dutch standards, this is a wonderful bathroom to have because of its natural light, spacious bath, and separate WC/shower area. The door and spaces above the windows and door are inset
with painted lozenges done by an American artist who now lives in France, J. Henry Kester (I might have misspelled his surname, but I think/hope it's right). He used to own the house with his now-husband, Harm van Duin. We had the bath repaired and painted with the same motif by local artists, Louise Vines and Caroline Trew. Incidentally, J. Henry is responsible for the white-waxed natural wood throughout the house. It is his vision that we love, and try to respect, as we make changes to our home.






- The WC -- This room was more or less completed by a random Polish team. They were nowhere near as experienced, quick, and helpful as Bram and Dion, though, so I decided not continue with them once the WC was near
ready.



The images are by the Amsterdam photographer, Ula Mirowska (http://www.ulamirowska.com/). Her sensitive gaze captures the architecture and the mood of the house beautifully. Ula specializes in portraits and interiors.

All of the art in the house is meaningful in some way, but I won't bore you with long explanations. Much of it is Canadian, brought by me with my household goods when I emigrated. Weirdly, we might have the larges collection of Canadiana in the Netherlands. Many of the small ceramic scultures are by my partner, Jonathan's father, Christopher Hart, who are British.

(Thank you AJ!)

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