JP Demeyer’s Design Motto for This Dutch Seaside Home? “Save the Planet—Buy Antiques”

Pascal, Marie-Louise, their two teenage children, and the family dog at their home in Domburg. The sense of retreat begins on the approach to the village. Cross the long, narrow bridge linking Zeeland to the mainland and, as the Belgian designer puts it: “You pass a stretch of water, and you’re in a completely different world.”

Built in 2014 as a multi-family holiday rental, the home was anonymous and incohesive, clad in tired grays, antiseptic whites, and generic brick that felt at odds with its otherworldly surroundings. To honor the area’s traditional Dutch barns, Demeyer reclad the exterior in pine panels stained black and outlined the windows in white—a choice as practical as it is aesthetic, with the darker finish helping shield the wood from mineral-laden sea air and punishing winter rains.

The first order of business was reworking the footprint to improve circulation and carve out more space. The designer replaced the flooring throughout with a terracotta-hued stuccoed concrete. Unexpected materials appear throughout, including sisal carpeting on the stairs—traditionally used in Belgian churches—whose deep red tone also cleverly disguises water stains.

In the kitchen, colorful windscreen fabric is paneled behind glass and framed with wavy wooden trim to evoke the surf nearby. Stools crafted by Grab A Chair in Belgium sit beneath Granito terrazzo countertops, which are a Dutch tradition.

Because the home was never meant to operate as a primary residence, Demeyer leaned into a bolder use of color—most notably in the entry, where custom pine sunburst doors fitted with colored glass referencing the surrounding seaside.

The living room’s built-in shelves reference the angular structure of a ship’s sails, while also taking cues from the recessed shelving typical of Ibiza’s architecture. A vintage wicker lamp and side table sit alongside a sofa and pillows from Demeyer’s Cushion Couture line.

In the dining room, a constellation of small plates were the only addition from the family. “Normally we start from scratch, and 95 percent of it is really our things. It’s like an installation in a museum or a gallery, and if one piece misses or doesn’t fit, it doesn’t work,” says Demeyer. The perforated steel wall lights are by Halfwerk Brussels. Vintage Daumiller chairs surround a table by Thomas Serruys Bruges. The curtains, plaster hanging lamps, and fabric on the banquette are all Demeyer’s designs.

In the family’s television room, a black-and-gold striped Trancoso sofa designed by Demeyer and produced by Collett & Victor sits beneath a Demeyer-designed wall light made of green glass plates framed in oak. The sofa’s elongated seat invites lounging, while its vintage-office-inspired lines keep it looking sharp. “We always make a distinction between television sofas and party sofas,” Demeyer explains. “It’s impossible to combine the two. You have to choose what you want.”

“You need old things. It gives a feeling of eternity,” says Demeyer. Reworking existing pieces is fundamental to his approach, as seen in the Art Deco oak cabinet beneath the stairs, wrapped in a leopard print from Braquenie by Pierre Frey, and the vintage armchairs reupholstered in green mohair.

In the primary bedroom, Demeyer designed a painted plaster side table with a faux-marble finish, produced by a Bruges-based artisan and paired with a terracotta lamp by Alex Gabriels. “I work primarily with artisans, because they are my second eye,” he says, adding that he tends to collaborate locally, across Holland, Belgium, and northern France. “I don’t need to go further—I find everything here.”

In an upstairs bathroom, a pair of illuminated vintage mirrors hang above terrazzo-and-sea-glass basins designed by Demeyer.