Jennifer and Hans’ Bright and Natural Amsterdam Apartment

updated Feb 20, 2019

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About this tour

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Home Type

Apartment

Location

Bos en Lommer, Amsterdam, Switzerland

Style

Eclectic

Vintage

Bedrooms

Square feet

Sq ft

Name: Jennifer and Hans
Location: Bos en Lommer — Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 60 square meters (645 square feet)
Years lived in: 5 years (Jennifer), 2.5 years (Hans); Rented

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We got our first peek of Jennifer and Hans’ apartment during their their House Call in June, and we’re excited to share the full tour today. When Jennifer moved into her apartment five years ago, she shared the space with a roommate. Since then, that roommate moved out and Jennifer’s boyfriend, Hans, moved in—and the redecorating began. They faced the familiar challenges of customizing a rented space, and opted to redo the floors and paint the walls.

(Image credit: Celeste Noche)

Now that they’ve settled in, you can see the how Jennifer and Hans’ professions—an interior designer/owner of design label J|A|A|F and chemist, respectively—have influenced the design of their space.

As big gardening fans in a city that doesn’t offer much gardening space, Jennifer and Hans utilize their green thumbs indoors. Various plants line their windowsills and hang from ceilings, but their most impressive houseplant is the avocado tree they grew from seed. During the summer, their balcony overflows with flowers, fruit, and vegetables, but for the majority of the year, most of their plants are inside, adding coziness to their eclectic space.

(Image credit: Celeste Noche)

Apartment Therapy Survey:

Our Style: Eclectic, vintage, Scandinavian

Inspiration: We love to mix and match. Traveling gives us a lot of inspiration and nice elements to bring home. We have quite a lot of vintage items that belonged to family. Things with a story mixed with design is most inspiring to us; only design is too impersonal and only vintage is too shabby for us. And of course, plants and nature are a big inspiration for us, as you can see.

Favorite Element: We adore our balcony. In summertime we often open our balcony doors and spend evenings there. It’s quite sheltered so even when it’s not very warm, it’s still nice to sit on the balcony. We have made big planters so we can grow vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Cozily sitting among the flowers and fruits with a glass of wine enjoying the sun sounds like the perfect afternoon/evening for us.

Biggest Challenge: Making it possible to work/cook in our tiny kitchen. We both love to cook and invest in nice pots/pans and equipment, but we hardly have any storage space in our kitchen. Because we live in a rental apartment, we cannot change the layout. Otherwise, we would break through the wall to the studio and have a bigger bathroom and kitchen. Of course, we would have to find a solution to the lost studio then. The tiny kitchen makes us creative.

What Friends Say: Friends think we have a cozy house with quite a big touch of green. Every time someone visits us, they always find something has changed, but maybe that’s also because there is quite a lot to see. Friends like our inside garden and balcony full of plants.

Biggest Embarrassment: Our cabinets in the bedroom. They are all IKEA and look IKEA. We need the storage space and the cabinet (Montana modular system) I have in mind is a bit too expensive at the moment. This room will be our next project.

Proudest DIY: The wallpaper wall with white coating in the studio and our coat rack made of a birch tree.

Biggest Indulgence: Our Moroso Banjooli chair by Sebastian Herkner. When we moved in together, we had quite a few things already.

Best Advice: Invest in good lighting and dare to mix colors and patterns

Dream Sources: Pinterest, MilK Decoration, Elle Decoration, Salone del Mobile, Anthropologie, The Selby

Resources

(Image credit: Celeste Noche)

PAINT & COLORS

Studio wallpaper: vintage magazines

(Image credit: Celeste Noche)

LIVING ROOM

Sofa: vintage—used to belong to Jennifer’s parents
Blue easy chair: Moroso by Sebastian Herkner
Side tables: vintage—used to belong to Jennifer’s grandma
Small paper carpet: Hay
Light on the wall next to sofa: Marset
Pendant light: Secto
Cushions: designed by Jennifer under her brand, J|A|A|F
Glass vase attached to the wall: Serax
Hanging flowerpots: Boskke
Fabric print with flowers: Nienke Sybrandy
Wooden masks: souvenirs Hans took home after his internship in South Africa
Table underneath TV: designed by Jennifer and Hans
Wooden hand in windowsill: Hay
Clay doll in windowsill: Brazil
Birch tree: We got the birch trees from Hans’s sister who lives on a farm in the East of the Netherlands.

(Image credit: Celeste Noche)

DINING ROOM

Chairs: Ercol chairs with upholstery from Casamance, IKEA chairs with painted elements
Table: combination of tabletop and legs from two types of tables, both by Muuto
Vase on wall: old laboratory glass
Wine rack: made by Hans’ father from an old coat rack they used to have in their home
Cabinet: IKEA
Leather bag/magazine stand: old office bag from Jennifer’s father
Crate cabinet: made of wine crates collected from German friends of Jennifer’s parents
Blue porcelain dish: Russia
Drum from South Africa: bought by Hans during his internship there
Vase: prototype vase of Tube Vase by Jennifer’s label, J|A|A|F
Lights above table: Muuto
Secretary desk: vintage—belonged to relative of Jennifer’s
White light: VP by Andtradition
Clock: Elke van der Berg
Shelving in corner: made of wood from Hans’ sister’s land
Sheepskin: Italy
Dark green cabinet: vintage
Fruit bowl: Imperfect Design
Painting with flutists: bought in South America by Jennifer during a four-month trip
Other artwork on wall: Ingrid van der Zalm, painting by a Brazilian artist, mix of cards by various artists, drawing by Jennifer