Many of you were asking when I was going to put up pictures of my own home. I was planning to do so for a while but just wanted to get a new camera first in order to make good pictures. Camera phones are fun, but Blackberry is not too great with pixels.
But here you go. yesterday a brand new digital pocket camera was delivered to my doorstep. (after I ordered it I should add) Today the weather is a bit grim, but with a few lights on here and there I think the result is pretty good.
Let’s start with telling a bit about the house. It’s two top floors, the 2nd (or 3rd in the US) and 3rd, on top of a city monument in the heart of Amsterdam. This means a bit of a climb but once upstairs it’s worth it. The apartment is light, roomy and has many nice features such as panelled doors, doorknobs inspired by French train doors and a solid hard wood floor. All in all it measures approximately 140m2 which is 1500 square feet give or take.
Hall, toilet, middle bit of the living room
The three frames contain old record sleeves. I found the small tea table on Marktplaats
On the main floor of the apartment, which is the 2nd floor of the building, there are a hall, toilet, living room and kitchen. It has a large and deep, albeit narrow-ish, l-shaped living room from the front to the rear with big windows on both ends. The windows in the back are new, and don’t really fit the house as much as we would like to. This is why we hope to renovate them and put a small balcony there too.
Sitting room and dining room
The red sofa is Ikea. The love seat we bought on sale in a huge department store. We ended up renting a van to move it which made the sale price a little less amazing. The blue and white rug on the love seat is from Tunisia. We bought it when we were visiting my brother who lives there. The two chandeliers above the table are from Ikea as mentioned in an earlier post.
As the view to the back is very nice with big gardens below and a massive tree in the back, we decided to put the dining table in the back and the sitting room in the front. Also, the kitchen is in the back so it makes sense to have the table there too. I sit there as I write this and through the kitchen window it looks as if I am in the woods instead of the city. The tram down the street gives away the true location though. To the front, the view is less appealing. We look onto a very grim and dull 1960’s office building. They are planning to demolish it though. Hopefully they’ll replace it with something more in feel with the area.
Kitchen, dining room, book shelves and art!
The Tabasco pictures are actually three photographs printed on canvas. A friend of ours is a stills and commercial photographer and gave this to us when we moved in. The kitchen was brand new when we bought the house. So was everything really. We didn’t have to do anything but move in. I love the extraction hood with the clutter on it. The kitchen has many stainless steel details which is nice enough but tends to look rather cold. This way it makes it more cosy.
Upstairs are three modest sized bedrooms, one with walk in closet (too small for the wow factor). Furthermore there are a bathroom, a storage for washer/dryer and stairs to the roof-light with access to the roof. We are not allowed to create a roof terrace there unfortunately. The council does not allow any alterations to sloped roof constructions on city monuments.
We fell in love with the bathroom
The bathroom is amazing. We didn’t do it ourselves, everything was done by a contractor hired by the guy who sold the house. He shares the same taste though as we love it. It was done in dark grey slate tiles and crispy white porcelain for the sinks. The tabs are all modern. To break the sterility of it a bit we put up a very baroque mirror. If anyone can give me tips on how to remove calcium stains I would appreciate it!
Master bedroom
We found the white little chest of drawers by the trash one night. We changed the original knobs with porcelain ones we got for our wedding.
One of the original features in our bedroom is the
pulley with wooden beam many houses in Amsterdam have.
We use one of the other two bedrooms as study/office. I am supposed to run my
business from there but prefer working downstairs. The other bedroom is in use as dressing room and guestroom. I now realize I don’t have pictures of that room. On the compilation below, the picture with the antlers above the portrait of our Queen’s great grandfather is taken in the study.
Picture frames in the stairway, vew from sitting room to dining area, liqour cabinet and more picture frames in the kitchen
The brown cabinet with the black lamp on it was bought at Emmaus, a flee market in my hometown Haarzuilens. I bought it as partition when I moved into my first flat which was a studio flat. It let the light shine through both ends of the room, yet provided for a separate sleeping area. Now it’s used as liquor cabinet. Along the stairs we put up many picture frames and artifacts. We both used to travel extensively for work and when flying business with KLM you get a Delft Blue porcelain house. Most of them are not mine to be fair.
There you have it, my home. I am very curious to hear what you guys think. Please let me know. And don’t forget to share pictures of your own homes!
Home voyeurs.... a peek into homes 
