The beautifully eclectic style of this A msterdam home is designed to delight
DINING AREA
The graphic wallpaper and low wall give this space a distinctive identity separate from the kitchen.
r enova ting homes is in Nicoline Beerkens’ blood, and the schemes she created in her own Amsterdam apartment speak to this natural intuition – there’s an easy language of colour and pattern that is finely tuned yet joyously unrestrained.
Her exposure to interior design started from a young age when she watched as her mother endlessly tinkered with schemes, wallpapers and fabrics. Interior design has become a shorthand language between mother and daughter, seeping into every aspect of their communication. ‘While on the phone other people probably doodle stick figures but we draw floor plans and layouts,’ Nicoline laughs.
Abandoning a short-lived career in law, Nicoline travelled to Los Angeles and found her calling at the studio of interior designer Michael Moloney. The breezy and colourful West Coast style has now made its way over the Atlantic into the home she shares with husband Pieter van Herpen and their two children. ‘I love a warm interior with vibrant colours and to be reminded of California – like the sunny, yellow-striped tiles in the garden and the bar stools in the kitchen that bring a beach-house feel,’ Nicoline notes.
The couple made the move out of central Amsterdam to the quieter neighbourhood of Amsterdam-Zuid in 2018, hoping to find somewhere the children could play on the street but within easy reach of the city centre and canals. A spacious 1930s ground-floor apartment proved to be the answer and was run-down enough to capture Nicoline’s creative imagination. ‘The property had been occupied by one woman living alone and the interior was outdated, but what I envisaged was a new floor plan where each room comes off the central hall offering a tremendous sense of connection. We came to see it rather like a hotel suite – all on one level and s
