An international mix of influences works on many levels on five floors home interior Brink expert Leila London
The dining room is dominated by a marble oval table Eero Saarinen chairs Hans Belmond.
School holidays Brink Leila spent growing up in the Netherlands were not exactly fun. With a father who was a painter and a mother who worked in a photo studio, which often trailed by museums or accompanied his father to the cemetery to read the inscriptions on the tombstones, he found fascinating.
School holidays Brink Leila spent growing up in the Netherlands were not exactly fun. With a father who was a painter and a mother who worked in a photo studio, which often trailed by museums or accompanied his father to the cemetery to read the inscriptions on the tombstones, he found fascinating.
And when they took the holiday, "was always a cultural break, never a beach one," recalls the 39-year-old mother of three children. "They were both very visual, very critical and very Dutch in that respect."
Although he complained at the time, Brink is now grateful for the way those early influences honed his appreciation for old and unusual, leading eventually she created Blue Gigi, an online business selling Moroccan rugs old.
The echoes of these influences can also be detected in the way Brink has decorated its five floors, Victorian 3000 square foot townhouse in north London, she shares with her husband Niels and his sons, Don, nine, Cassius, seven, and Pippa five. It has a sophisticated French Scandi aesthetics meets with the ingenious market finds and walls are filled with art, but is not a measure of simplicity of the Netherlands in the mix, too, that it becomes too fanciful.
The echoes of these influences can also be detected in the way Brink has decorated its five floors, Victorian 3000 square foot townhouse in north London, she shares with her husband Niels and his sons, Don, nine, Cassius, seven, and Pippa five. It has a sophisticated French Scandi aesthetics meets with the ingenious market finds and walls are filled with art, but is not a measure of simplicity of the Netherlands in the mix, too, that it becomes too fanciful.
It was not love at first sight when they saw the house. "He had 'made' by an interior designer who planned to paint the radiators salmon, light green windows and yellow walls," says Brink. "It's no surprise that ripped everything and start again."
They worked with Chris Eaton, an interior architect, to reconfigure the design so the kitchen on the ground floor, where they spent most of their time, could be moved to a bigger, brighter area in Part front of the house. Hidden behind it are a dining room and a TV room, which opens onto the garden.
They worked with Chris Eaton, an interior architect, to reconfigure the design so the kitchen on the ground floor, where they spent most of their time, could be moved to a bigger, brighter area in Part front of the house. Hidden behind it are a dining room and a TV room, which opens onto the garden.
Brink has filled the house with a mix of contemporary furniture mid-century and come from the 1stdibs website, the concept store in west London Mint and section vintage Designers Guild. "I wish I could say that I had dug in barns or bargains in car sales start are, but having two children and running a business, I have no time to crawl through the markets, so just bought a lot from vintage boutiques.”
Selling carpets also feature throughout the house - a mix of traditional designs Ouarain Beni, with its distinctive stack thickness and geometric patterns and colors boucherouites made of a patchwork of vintage textiles reused as djellabas.
The double room is the most striking part of the house, thanks largely to Lucy Bathurst linen blinds covering the window (the smarter alternative possible curtains) and sliding doors made of old lab tables School Retrouvius . "You can still see the bad words carved on desks, but I guess it adds character," Brink says with a smile.
Such is Brink's eye for detail commented that when the fireplace is very old, tells me that this is a man who makes fireplaces reproduction antique look. "He's very eccentric, and it will you find on the Internet. He came here on his overalls Ferrari and needed to be alone for the day so he could concentrate. You will not even allowed into the room for you do not mind."
Brink could sympathize. As a girl who was infinitely rearranging your room, a habit she admits she has never grown out of - his favorite way to relax when you have a rare moment for herself it is to shuffle the furniture around. "It can give you a new perspective on a place, and that's infinitely satisfying."
Selling carpets also feature throughout the house - a mix of traditional designs Ouarain Beni, with its distinctive stack thickness and geometric patterns and colors boucherouites made of a patchwork of vintage textiles reused as djellabas.
The double room is the most striking part of the house, thanks largely to Lucy Bathurst linen blinds covering the window (the smarter alternative possible curtains) and sliding doors made of old lab tables School Retrouvius . "You can still see the bad words carved on desks, but I guess it adds character," Brink says with a smile.
Such is Brink's eye for detail commented that when the fireplace is very old, tells me that this is a man who makes fireplaces reproduction antique look. "He's very eccentric, and it will you find on the Internet. He came here on his overalls Ferrari and needed to be alone for the day so he could concentrate. You will not even allowed into the room for you do not mind."
Brink could sympathize. As a girl who was infinitely rearranging your room, a habit she admits she has never grown out of - his favorite way to relax when you have a rare moment for herself it is to shuffle the furniture around. "It can give you a new perspective on a place, and that's infinitely satisfying."
