A feminine-style interior north of Amsterdam

This original interior design project by Lotte Faassen from Rotterdam-based firm Studio de Blieck was for a house in Hoorn, a picturesque town in the northwest of the Netherlands where the Dutch East India Company was headquartered in the 16th and 17th centuries. The new owners were not entirely satisfied with the layout of their recently purchased property and commissioned interior designer Lotte Faassen to carry out an extensive restyling project. She demolished some of the walls, redesigned the finishes and surface coverings and changed the layout and style of the furnishings and accessories. “Our client loves soft colours and textures. She wanted a unique, feminine home where she would live with her son, so we designed it with those needs in mind. We included some playful elements such as the dining area featuring a sofa used as a low-dining seat and a few light touches to make the rooms more informal and contemporary,” explains Lotte Faassen, who began working in this field at a very young age at her parents’ Kitsch & Kunst concept store. Weaving together these elements of lightness and playfulness, she created an elegant and highly sophisticated stylistic fabric, a small jewel of interior design that stands out for its many striking details. Perhaps the most evident of these is the textured floor tile chosen from Coem’s WIDEGres 280 collection, a thin porcelain tile in a thickness of just 6 mm and a 120×280 mm size with all the allure of a caramel-coloured veined marble. “We chose this porcelain surface with its pale colour and dark veins to bring extra power to the design,” explains the Rotterdam-based interior designer. “The vein is a critical element, creating a beautiful marble-effect porcelain floor tile that offers a highly realistic imitation of natural stone.” It is a style worthy of someone with an open, cosmopolitan idea of beauty. The owners’ taste in design is also reflected in the choice of a number of well-known international furnishing brands, such as the Italian brand Sovet, inspired by the glassmaking tradition, the Austrian style of Wittmann, and the young and emotional style of Mogg, Giopato&Coombes and Lichtadvies 010 for the lighting fixtures, all combined with the large windows that illuminate the interior and create a contact with the outside world. The fluid interior spaces form an open, seamless living area where the boundaries between functional areas are blurred and where the curved lines and soft, organic volumes of sofas and tables (such as the oval dining table) take centre stage. The gold coloured chrome plating, the mirrored doors of the kitchen furniture and the design elements scattered around the various rooms clearly denote a strong female personality, someone who is determined and open to contemporary influences but at the same time appreciates luxury and a glamourous style.