The big projectFollowing the designer series that we began with Piet Hein Eek, here we have a new chapter about which we are tremendously excited: Axel Vervoordt. We got to know him on autumn 2014, when we first visited the headquarters at Kanaal (Wijnegem, Belgium) during one of his winter exhibitions.
In autumn of 2015 we returned to see this enormous project in real life again.
The heatIn the previous post about the heating system we talked about the fundamentals of the floor heating systems, their benefits & drawbacks and what were the decisive reasons for us to choose such a system above more conventional ones. Now the question is: where do we start? How many different heating zones do we need? and how much pipe? In this post we will walk through the steps to define the system.
This is where we startedSince Hubert bought the house, the plans and the design have changed quite a bit. It was clear that the original house had to undergo a major restoration work and that the layout did not fit the new requirements. The design process from the original layout to the final arrangement has been long (over a year purely designing) and it has required plenty of creativity. With this post we are beginning a series related to the design process in which we will walk through the biggest decisions that we have made and the reasons behind them.
Inspiration everywhere!During the past months Hubert and I have become increasingly interested on furniture design: partly because we have spent a lot of time building with wood and partly because it is time to start thinking about the furniture arrangements of our own the house. As new furniture-design-lovers we are in the process of getting familiar with the trends, materials, designers and events. One of the first well-known designers that we came across was Piet Hein Eek. As soon as we discovered his products we paid a visit to his workshop/showroom and find out what he is all about.
Like a box of chocolates!In the summer of 2012 I entered the house for the first time as the official owner. Before purchasing it I had done an inspection of the structural integrity of the house, so I knew that there was some restoration work to be done. However, the work turned out to be a lot more than I had expected. Naively, at the moment of signing the contract it looked like a good deal to me, but later on I realized that I should have gotten a big discount instead.
Low and SlowRecently another project has born in The Shed. It is all about wood fires, meat and beer: designing and building a real Texas offset smoker! You might ask yourself “Doesn’t this guy have a house to build?”. The answer is simple: yes. But being a technical guy these sorts of things get me interested. I always want to figure out how things work and then try to improve them. Maybe that’s why I always end up with so many projects…
Warm feet in the entire houseEarly on the design process we decided to install a floor heating system to warm the house. We decided to do so due to the advantages it entails and its flexibility. This was one of the decisions we never again doubted. We were convinced.
The beauty below the filthWe bought these wooden crates on our first visit to the second hand furniture market of Amiens in 2014. When we found them, they looked terribly: they were extremely dirty and beaten-up, but we loved them. They were made of solid wood so we knew that with a little bit of patience we could make them look beautiful again.
The toys of the big boysWhen starting a project of this magnitude, investing in a selection of good quality tools is a must. In The Netherlands we have a saying which states that “having good tools is having the work half done”. We have put this saying into good use and purchased some very handy “toys” which were added to the collection! Continue reading
It was October 2014 when we decided to make our first trip to Amiens. It was the first time that we went on such a quest in search of second-hand objects to furnish and decorate our future house. During the first half of the day we explored the market, practiced our very poor negotiation skills and purchased a few items, such as 2 portholes, 2 tractor seats and a wooden press screw of about a 1m [3.3´]. However, our expedition was only halfway: we had the entire afternoon to keep searching.
The Shed 