The beautiful garden of May & Axel Vervoordt

 

As a lot of you know, 2 times a year, in summer and in winter, the castle of ‘s-Gravenwezel, owned by our famous Belgian antiques dealer and decorator Axel Vervoordt, is open for public.

As I am a huge admirer of the work of Axel and his wife May, I won’t miss any opportunity to visit the castle.

I thought about you, all my readers and blogfriends, and wanted to share with you some pictures I took of the castle and its gorgeous garden! The weather was so beautiful this Friday, so I was able to take a lot of good pictures to share.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle, that we have to respect because Axel Vervoordt and his family live in it.

I hope you will enjoy the tour of this fantastic garden!

If you want to read more about Axel Vervoordt and his castle, please visit http://www.axel-vervoordt.com.

 

The entrance gate of the castle.

 

The back of the castle.

 

The entrance.

 

   A view seen from the balcony.

 

Another view from the balcony.

Every where around the castle you notice the beautiful rhododendrons.

 

A lovely terrace in front of the entrance of the castle.

 

Isn’t that a gorgeous orangerie?!!

 

Notice the wisteria!

 

May vervoordt loves to bring in flowers and plants inside the castle. In every room of the castle you notice flowers of their own garden.

A view from inside the orangerie towards the pool.

 

I call this a still life of stones.

 

There are the rhododendrons again!

 

Me, sitting in the outhouse (one of my favorite places in the garden) in front of the pool. A wonderful place to relax!

 

Only a part of the huge kitchen garden!!

 

What do you think about the boxwood ? Beautiful isn’t it!

 

Every  where you walk you discover something surprising!

 

 

 

Throughout the garden there are places to relax…

or…

…to dinner!

 

 

 

A beautiful weathered oak table.

 

  And after spending a fantastic afternoon and enjoying the castle and the garden, we had to leave the castle!

Thankful to Axel Vervoordt and his family for sharing with us their beautiful private home, I am looking forward already to the winter exhibition!

 

xx

All pictures are taken by me.

Thoughts about a kitchen redo in the Swedish style

I am in the middle of preparing a redo design of a client’s kitchen. It has to be a completely new designed kitchen.  When I suggested my clients to go for a Swedish styled kitchen and after showing them some images of what I meant, they were completely overwhelmed!

The 3 first pictures are of the kitchen situation right now. It is not a huge space, so I really have to be thoughtful about bringing in all the required kitchen appliances. But first of all I am thinking about the atmosphere, the cozyness, the colours I would love to use, the Swedish furniture I want to bring in,…

 

 

1. View from the dining corner towards the kitchen isle.

 

2. View from the kitchen isle towards the dining corner.

 

3. The window with the radiator about which I maybe have already an idea (see further in this post).

 

I would love to use the Swedish white-grey tones as in some inspirational images here.(Of some images I really don’t know the source. Please forgive me for using maybe one of yours!)

4.

We really need to bring in a round table as my clients have in the dining corner at this moment, because of the lack of space to use a long straight one.

 

5. Image from Inspiring Interiors blog

Love all the white in this image. It brightens the room.

 

6.

Here again the white colours and typical Swedish chairs.

 

7.

I certainly want to hang a chandelier above the table!

 

8. Image from The Essence of The Good Life blog

One of my favorite images! That corner bench is so beautiful! And I love the identical checked fabric for table linen and chair upholstery.

 

9.

Do you notice the window seat?

 

10.

This is the type of Swedish panelling I definitely want to bring in!

 

11.

So that is how I want to cover the radiator under the window in my client’s kitchen (see picture 3). I know that I have to use a grid on top and maybe make an opening in the skirting for heat circulation.

 

12.

Love that floor!

 

13.

Or this terracotta floor!

In a lot of Swedish houses you will notice the beautiful Gustavian benches as in the picture above!!

I really hope that I can bring in one in this kitchen.

 

14. Image from Brabourne Farm blog

Notice the panelling I want to use.

Maybe it would be nice to bring in a dark coloured bench to contrast with the paint of the panelling…?? Mmm, I will think about that.  And hopefully I will find some place for a Swedish clock!

 

15.

What do you think about using these wall tiles?

 

16.

I also want my client to have a cabinet to display some blue-white china.

 

So after defining more or less the atmosphere for my client’s new kitchen, I was looking around on the internet to find some suitable Swedish furniture.

I found a few antiques dealers here in Belgium , of which on their website are showed some pieces of Swedish furniture.

 

At THE OLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL in Antwerp, I found all this :

Gustavian bench

 

Late Gustavian sofa

 

Gustavian chairs from the province of Norrbotten

 

Exceptional royal clock (1785) from Skarfa Gard (Karlskrona), the summer house of the admiral of the Royal Navy.

 

Corner cabinet Mid-Sweden.

 

 

Gustavian 1-doors chest

 

  Gustavian buffet

 

At AXEL PAIRON in Antwerp I found these beautiful pieces :

Swedish buffet

 

Beautiful Swedish chairs

 

At ODEHOF SWEDISH ANTIQUES in Riemst, I found :

 

Gustavian bench. Isn’t it just a gorgeous piece of funiture!! With his original patina!

 

And a pair of 8 Swedish chairs.

 

Now I have a lot of work to designing my client’s kitchen in a way that is at the same time stylish, cozy and practical!!!

I still have some thoughts about the choice of the floor and which material to use for the countertop,…

Any thoughts, remarks or ideas ? You’re welcome!

xx