In 2014 I moved from London to Brussels with the aim of starting a family on my own. To launch this project in the most secure way, I first wanted to guarantee we would have a place to call OUR home. I thus purchased a two bedroom apartment, which had hardly been touched since its construction back in the mid-60’s. As an interior architect, I wholeheartedly welcomed the challenge of a renovation. For me, it represented a unique opportunity to finally benefit personally from my professional skills… and to let my creativity run as wild as I wished!

As a passionate interior architect and more particularly one specialised in retail design, I had accumulated over my many years of practice a large number of ideas I wished to integrate into my future home. For each room, I thus already had a specific vision either associated with a theme (“summer all year round” in the kitchen for instance) or more of a visual impression (modern white box with touches of red and grey for the living room). My main overall goal was to create a safe haven for my future family and me. A space where I could feel 100% free to let loose, drop social masks and be myself. In this line, it thus needed to reflect my personality and more specifically balance functionality in terms of “operations” with unique, quirky, creative and welcoming decor elements.

I took on as many roles as possible to guarantee my vision would take the specific form I wished:

• Designer (the role most familiar to me) – conceptualising each room’s unique theme / look & feel through mood boards, sketches and where necessary detailed plans
• Project manager – defining and overseeing an overall budget and timeframe
• Contractor – sourcing all necessary resources
• Builder – taking on as much of the works I could do myself as possible
• Site supervisor – overseeing the interventions of specialised contractors for those works I could not execute myself

This unique opportunity to get involved in the actual construction not only provided me with a deeper understanding of my profession but also created a deeper connection with what truly has materialised as MY very special home.