Renovating our 1930's Dutch house
Phew! Moving is hard work. This weekend we moved house, about 4 kilometers north to a charming 1930’s neighborhood in Enschede, The Netherlands. Our new home is a few steps away from our little one’s primary school and closer to school for our big kids too. It was a lot of work, together with our friends, but we’re here and it already feels SO worth it. The whole family is pleased with our new home!
We live in the left half of this duplex.
Today boxes are everywhere and there’s much to do. Meanwhile, I thought I’d share some before and after pictures so that you can see what we’ve been busy with over the past few weeks. We did most of the work ourselves - painting, kitchen additions and some new flooring. We also had a team working here for a few days to remove a brick wall! It was messy, but exciting.
photos from previous owner
There was a lot I didn’t want to change, of course. The house has many original features from 1937. The stained glass has been preserved, with extra glass added behind for insulation. The tile entry, fireplace mantel and wooden living room floor are all original.
As I already shared, we painted a few walls in the living room with the Farrow & Ball color called Sudbury Yellow. Turns out that Farrow & Ball colors are inspired by historic English homes - no doubt a good feature when painting an older home. For me, it was very helpful to choose colors from the limited Farrow & Ball assortment, all intended for use in homes. I think the results are adventurous, but tasteful. I didn’t actually by Farrow & Ball paint, but had the colors mixed in a more affordable Sikkens paint.
photo from previous owner
We made some changes in the kitchen. The floating appliance you see in the previous owner’s kitchen is actually a small oven. The fridge was inconveniently located in the adjoining back entry room.
We added built-in cabinets in the space where the previous owner had a hutch. In the recent photo below, you can see the new built-in oven and microwave. The new refrigerator is also built-in to those light wooden cabinets. I’ll give you a better look at the finished kitchen after we settle in.
Oh, and did you catch the color of the walls in the back entry? Sulking Room Pink by Farrow & Ball. I really like this mauve-ish color with all the black and white. I got the idea in part from the color at the edge of the stain glass kitchen door.
On the first floor, the house used to have two bedrooms and one small study. To suit my longarm sewing machine, we combined the study with the bedroom beside it, creating one room across the front of the house. The undesirable wall was solid brick (as, it turns out, are all the walls in this house). Removing it was super messy work! We had help with this part, including placing the new support beam in the ceiling.
My kids won’t soon forget the spectacle of removing the bricks and debris via a tunnel attached to the window you see here. (Sorry, I didn’t think to get a picture!). To keep costs down, we helped a lot with the demo. We caught the debris at the bottom in a wheelbarrow and dumped it load by load into the dumpster nearby. Dusty!
Here is my newly created sewing room! Luckily I had time to re-paint that gray wall before we moved in.
From the sewing room windows I have a lovely view of the green square in the center of our neighborhood. Looking to the right, I can see Elora’s school gates and front playground, which remains open after school for neighborhood kids to play.
The remaining bedroom on the first floor is our master. It’s painted in Inchyra Blue from Farrow & Ball, a dark shade to suit my husband.
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photo from original owner
Like many Dutch houses, this one has fully finished rooms in the attic. Two rooms - one for our two girls and one for our son.
The girl’s room needed a serious dose of paint! Lemon yellow, true blue floors and blue/white striped walls with splashes of red - it was a wee bit overwhelming.
Aria (16) wanted a teal room and Elora (4) a pink one. For longevity, I went with Aria’s teal vision and plan to infuse peachy-pink accents all over Elora’s side of the room. I surprised her on moving day with a small peach cloud rug!
I absolutely adore this paint color - Vardo from Farrow & Ball. As my friend Hanneke said, “It feels like I’m in an aquarium, but in a good way.” The switch to wood laminate flooring also makes a big impact. This space has transformed into one of my favorite rooms in the house!
Here is the current state of my sewing room, so as you can see the work’s only begun! We have lots left to figure out, trim to install and bits that need painting. The mile-long to do list doesn’t make me feel burdened though. Instead I’m welcoming the familiar feeling of being a home-maker again. It feels like home, I believe, in part because we change things, fix things and personalize to our needs. We work together, with a shared vision of something better, and enjoy the process as well as the results.
How lucky we are to be caretakers of this piece of Enschede’s history! I know we are going to enjoy living here. We already do!
