Inside the Belgian Retreat by Axel Vervoordt and Eddy Dankers

July 31, 2019

What exactly happens when a famous painter (Eddy Dankers) and a top-renowned interior designer Axel Vervoordt combine their talents and focus them into the redefinition of a whole house? It’s what CovetED is about to show you today with this lovely example of their take on a house with an old soul.

Photo credits: Architectural Digest

Despite not looking like it, this structure is more recent than it seems at first. This private residence by Eddy Dankers (a three-bedroom house in Nijlen which he shares with his girlfriend architect Julie Claes) was designed by Axel Vervoordt and it features gilded finishes and rococo flourishes, and natural elements which are elements the painter appreciates very much, mixed in with the Belgian designer’s taste for minimalist spaces with a sense of romanticism.

Photo credits: Architectural Digest

Another factor which allows the house to have its own soul is the covetable collections of antique furnishings. In order to maintain that vintage soul in the house, Dankers bought the 18th-century stairway currently seen in the entry foyer, which ironically was set aside for him by Vervoordt during the construction process of the house. Aside from this bespoke stairway, we can also point to other classic elements such as antique doors, aged wooden beams, vintage tiles, and stately columns.

Photo credits: Architectural Digest

Aside from these decor elements, guests can find several art pieces by Japanese artists Yun Hyong-Keun, Sadaharu Horio, and Jef Verheyen, all of which are best defined as having surrealism to them. In fact, the garden also took that very same concept as an inspiration thanks to the work of late landscape designer Jacques Wirtz, who graced this outdoor space with outstanding neatly clipped hedges and rambling vines. In Dankers’ words:

“It’s like the house is embraced by all the green, and then the Japanese cherry trees in the back bloom in a cascade in the spring. It’s incredible.”

Photo credits: Architectural Digest

Another factor that the painter had in mind during the period in which the house was conceded, was the absence of technology all over the house in order to create a space in which he could truly be abstracted from the rush and stress of the city and daily life. However, that doesn’t mean that he forgets about his work while at home: there are also a vast array of lime washes, mineral paints, and decorative plasters available in his residence through his Domingue Architectural Finishes line.

“When you see the colours of plumage on the birds, the green of the herbs, the way the walls change like a chameleon in the orangerie with the light—everything can be inspiration.”