As a surprise to my boyfriend I booked a guided tour through our new neighborhood. We saw old and new architecture, inside and out. We discovered that not only is there more interesting architecture than we knew, it never gets as interesting as peeking behind the facades of it. We realized that inside people´s homes is where the magic happens. And that certainly goes for the home we visited today.
The magic starts at the doorstep of a typical 19th century home in Rotterdam Noord. Orange dots throughout the stairscase welcome us and are scarcely lit by blacklight, making our aged group members trip and stumble. It is as though we are travelling to Alice´s Wonderland, a feeling that stays until we are back out on the street. Let me introduce you to Rotterdam’s happiest home!
We meet husband and dad “flowerpower”. He is an architect, explaining the source of his creative ideas. He and his wife let their imagination run freely when they wanted to create more light and space in their tradition house. This resulted into a roof terrass with removable sides and rooftop where the family could hang out throughout the seasons. The adjoining kitchen and living space area seem to be one with the terrass due to the glass doors that open entirely. The one time the rooftop is open in cold seasons is when it is snowing, to encourage their children to make snowmen. It is amazing.
Mr. Flowerpower and his wife wanted to create a happy home. They dreamed of the air filled by light, color and creativity. They must surely agree with my boyfriend’s slogan of “there are no limits honey!”. And so this lovely couple saw no freekishness in their silver sparkling bathroom. Some walls in the house are decorated with cut-outs of various wallpapers and the bedroom is completely purple and adorned with a lifesize lampion. And finally the furniture! The furniture is yellow, green, blue, red, pink and I haven’t seen a trace of black or beige, no sir!
Nevertheless, white is overly present, keeping all the craze together as a whole. That is the strong part of this place; that is never got messy. By using large gestures, patches and pieces, everything seems one and it feels light. It definitely made us feel like the problems of the world were, well, out of this world.
My boyfriend and I feel very inspired by this out-of-boundaries home. Incidently I had just bought a lime colored lamp by Leitmotif the day before. Seems like a good start, but let’s see how much further we dare to go with color….