Green Luxury

Location: Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Residents: Parents + 2 kids
Measurement: 350 square meters

This roomy house, located in the green, peaceful town of Amstelveen, is one of the most outstanding projects of Berlinski design. Formerly an old grey house turned into a warm family home, it radiates luxury and extravagance alongside practicality and immense comfort.

"We were combining chic with functionality, constantly vigilant with the owners' preferences and addressing arising challenges," Zwia says. "I am proud of the outcome, and the residents are in love with their new home, too!"

The house has three floors and an adjacent accommodation unit that was previously a dentist clinic. Both went through the design process. The residents hadn't lived here beforehand, so it was newly designed.
The dental clinic was renovated and changed into a guest unit with a separate entrance, kitchen, spacious bathroom, and two double beds. A small family of friends or relatives can make themselves entirely at home here. In the newly designed garden, a winter pavilion with a wood fire pit was constructed.
Points of focus in the main house were creating a new layout, remodeling, designing an expanded kitchen, choosing new furniture, accessorizing, and many more modifications. For instance, the entrance ground flooring was replaced from former black stone into a warmer brown PVC floor.

Let's explore, starting with the first floor, kitchen first.
The clients' request was to enlarge the kitchen. To plan that correctly, the whole former kitchen's layout had to be changed because it just didn't fit the space of the house appropriately. So the kitchen's structure was remodeled, and a large, spacious kitchen island was built.
When the island was there, the electric stove location needed to be adjusted and the vents just above it, too, respectively. Doing this produced plenty of challenges because the venting system was initially located in another place inside a tube in the ceiling. The entire construction of the vent system needed to be adjusted and installed at the new location just above the island.
"And here goes the trick," says Zwia, "Look carefully at the kitchen's photo of the island and search for the vent system. You won't find it because it's entirely sealed inside the new ceiling lowering; it's white with spot-led lights on it. We created it to camouflage and keep the former vent location that didn't fit the new layout. This lowering looks so natural now, but it's actually there for a practical reason."
Another nice feature is a 'secret' passageway leading from the kitchen to the laundry room and to the parking garage. One cannot actually see the passage when its door is closed. It just seems like a part of the kitchen cupboards. But as we open that door, the 'secret' passageway turns to be a disguised pantry. Spices, tin cans, everything one usually has in a pantry, here is hidden from sight behind wooden sliding doors on both sides of the passageway. "One more nice trick," Zwia smiles.

The renovation process contained a great deal of 'dressing up,' making the furniture and accessories correspond with one another appealingly.
The color palette chosen was green, black, and gold, which you can see through the whole floor: kitchen, living room, and the TV room. Even in the guest's toilet, the wallpaper with the image of green misty forest trees with the golden details adds to this luxury feeling.
"This is the reason I named this project 'Green luxury.' " Zwia smiles, "This house is one of my favorite projects, and I am delighted with every piece of it."
Let's head on to the upper floors, having a glimpse into the private living areas. On the way up and as you hold to the banister, sensitive led-lights turn on automatically, lighting the white stairs.
"The parents' bedroom is a gem," says Zwia as we get there. Indeed, it is, spacious and drenched in light. The colors are of a soft palette, alternating brown, green, and black.
The wooden-chunky brick wall behind the bed is quite unique. It adds to the warm feeling, as wood always does. "It's just a coating, attached to the wall the way you do with ceramics," Zwia explains, 'easy to apply, and it makes such a difference!"
Each furniture piece in this room was carefully chosen to fit the luxurious look of the bedroom. A new walk-in closet was designed and built in the small room next to the main bedroom. The bathroom adjacent to the parents' bedroom cannot be missed. The marble there is just striking! The cabinets were initially white, but the white color made them feel slightly cold and impertinent, so they were replaced with lavish natural wood. On top of the wooden bathroom cabinet, it makes one feel as if in a luxury hotel.

We keep on touring the second floor, getting to the kids' rooms - a boy and a teenage girl. Each room is designed according to its resident's preferences, taking into account their hobbies and own taste. You can quickly identify the boy's main interest, which would be - football - of course, with the branded rug and the matching wallpapers.
The girl's room design is closely aligned with her choices and requests. "She made herself very clear about how she wants her room to look like," Zwia adds, "so I just had to listen carefully and follow her wishes. Without dismissing professional opinion, of course."
Thus, for instance, nothing could be hung on the walls so as not to damage them. Zwia suggested placing a permanent white magnetic board on the wall, a good platform for hanging stuff - posters, photos, and the like.

Heading on to the third floor, where we find two large bedrooms and another bathroom. One room is the working office, which may be used as a meeting room as well. The other room upstairs is a family TV room, which also contains children's play goods.
The bathroom on this floor initially had no window. "So we produced a window, and now it seems as if it had always been there."

"I think that one of the main challenges of this house was to fill in this enormous space," Zwia recaps.
"When you have so much room, you should bear in mind that the place needs to still look and feel cozy and warm and not to resemble a museum exhibition hall." This effect was achieved by various stylish accessories to correspond with one another and by painting all walls light grey instead of the former white. "Grey enhances the comfy, intimate feeling," Zwia says.
"I think we did a good job here. We arranged the space intelligently and beautifully, spiced it up with the right colors, light, furniture, accessories, and precise modifications. It fits the residents perfectly."