A timeless backdrop for a design collector, this Antwerp home’s unassuming palette comes alive through crafted, textural finishes.
On the verdant outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium, this renovation re-establishes a 1960s two-storey home’s character, where previous works had left a fragmented floorplan and stark, impersonal interiors. Interior designer and co-founder of Æ Studio, Arno Broeckhoven, consulted his client—a collector of art and vintage furnishings—to concept a responsive design with longevity. “It evolved into a truly inspiring collaboration and ongoing dialogue, from which we both learned. Clients—so passionate and informed—are rare,” Broeckhoven reflects.
The home comprises a primary suite, en suite, two additional bedrooms and a bathroom that occupy the private second storey. The ground floor bands open-plan kitchen, dining and living areas with an office, which also hosts wine tasting. This reconfiguration “brought a fresh contemporary purpose,” Broeckhoven describes.
Achieving warm comfort within strong, shadowing architecture, Broeckhoven references the sightlines of Dom Hans van der Laan-designed monasteries. Translated within the home, internal views, including through walnut timber shelving, “completely transformed the plan, integrating even the hallway,” Broeckhoven says.
The solid geometries of a bespoke, natural stone island bench centre the open plan kitchen with custom black Stucco cabinetry, while a Spectrum Middle table and chairs by Martin Vissers forms a fire-side dining space. Oak timber panelling encases the ceilings, lit by a Stilnovo Monumental 1950s 12-globe glass and metal chandelier.
Harnessing the interwoven spaces, darkness and light, naturally and artificially, drive the home’s ambience. Artworks, curated with the client, are specifically lit, giving each space holds the ability to manoeuvre between a sense of uplift, and a bedded-down sanctuary.
A strategic palette and finishes introduce depth and personality, without competing with the client’s design and art collection. On the ground floor, a gallery’s coolness is avoided by a colour gradation that plays across a monochromatic spectrum. Coffee browns to ambers, brushed blacks and creams bring textured finishes of natural stone, timbers and fabrics, together into one correlating canvas. “The black stucco kitchen walls visually draw the kitchen closer to the living space, and oak timber ceilings bring softness,” Broeckhoven explains.
Broeckhoven describes that for this home there was a need to, “…allow the art to take centre stage. Other elements needed to blend, never competing for attention.” Design ego sidelined; core interior features instead subtly emerge from the building’s foundations. In the living space a fireplace is camouflaged sculpturally within the corner. The staircase balustrade adopts blanketed curves, while upstairs in tranquil bedrooms the ceiling volumes enfold, creating softer transitions that contrast the geometries of furnishings.
A timeless backdrop, Æ Studio’s reimaging of this Antwerp home rationalises a diverse and treasured design collection within one inviting space. Devoid of pretension and showy display, it instils a homely repose that encase’s the client’s appreciation of wine, art and all things design.
A custom-made couch and armchair, upholstered in Designs of the Time fabric, softens the living space, with a marcasite-detailed vintage coffee table by Ado Chale alongside an organically formed, Japanese papier-mâché stool. Cabinetry and walls are cloaked in a sponge-like layer of velvety, hand-applied mineral plaster.
The integrated hallway, designed to visually connect spaces rather than delineate, is adorned by vintage wall-mounted Cubosfera glass lamps by Alessandro Mendini. Walnut timber shelving punctuates the internal views between the living, kitchen and integrated hallway.
A vintage 1970s Formanova corner desk with ebony finish by Gianni Moscatelli, accompanied by an Eames executive chair, structures the office space, backdropped by bespoke, Palisander timber shelving. Curated with the client, art and vintage furnishings guided the needs of each space, such as accommodating a red-trimmed Alda lamp by Gaetano Pesce that glows in the corner beside a vintage Maniera Rosewood and rope lounge chair III by Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai.
The upstairs hallway is used to hero the moulded forms of a 14-cube Lumenform Onda wall lamp by Claudio Salocchi.
In a bedroom a 1960s Diagamma chair and footrest by Ignazio Gardella sits beneath a Lampros 3 ceiling light by Ettore Sottsass.
