Tangible happiness

A real find

“My wife and I are both really into architecture,” explains the owner. “When we bought this house about three years ago from an old man of 94, we could see that it was a complete wreck, but also that it had huge potential. The previous owner had lived here for more than half a century and had raised seven children in it. The house was built in 1840 and many of the original features were in poor condition. But they were still there. With careful restoration, we could breathe new life into them. Only the rear part of the building was beyond redemption, so we completely rebuilt it. The new extension seemed the perfect candidate for a clean, contemporary decor.”

Care and respect

The old classic part of the house flows seamlessly into the new extension with its clean, modern design. Although there is clearly a change in style, it does not feel like a sudden switch. “Exactly, that’s our impression too,” says the owner. “The careful choice of colours and materials, the subtle use of painting techniques and the interpretation of the Matthijs & Co experts – it all came together and we’re absolutely delighted with the results. Another thing I appreciated was that they took such good care of our house and really understood what it means to us. With a lot of painters, they just come into a room, throw a sheet on the floor and start painting. That’s not how Matthijs & Co go about things. They make sure they protect everything, sometimes going to ridiculous lengths by masking the floors, skirting boards and other areas. They don’t take any risks at all, which really reassured us.”

Not a museum

Now that everything is finished, the owners and their two teenage children can enjoy it to the full. “And that was precisely our aim. We’re traditionalists and have tried to treat everything with the greatest respect, but at the same time we didn’t want to turn our house into a museum. The living room and library have been restored to their former glory. But we decided that the walls of the staircase, for instance, which had been painted over by the previous owners, wouldn’t be returned to their original condition, as the result would have been just too ‘busy’. People used to like that exuberance, but these days we prefer to tone it down a bit (laughs).”

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