Vincent Van Duysen’s Home In Antwerp.

I decided to take a trip down memory lane today. These beautiful images of Vincent Van Duysen‘s home in Antwerp have been permanent residents in my image collection for a number of years. Photographed by the celebrated Spanish photographer Manolo Yllera (previously), this painfully stylish Belgian architect’s home awakes in me an equal amount of admiration and design envy. Yes, I admit it – I can get jealous at times too you now! In fact, I specifically remember purchasing a copy of Vogue Living several years ago just because it featured this amazing home on the cover (July/August 2009 issue, to be exact).

Completed more than 10 years ago, this house looks as beautiful and relevant today as it did back in 2001. Featuring Vincent Van Duysen‘s signature spare aesthetic, the house is a true expression of honest design essence, abstraction and purity. The choice of materials is sheer perfection – natural and raw, limited array of colours, combination of rough woven textures and smooth surfaces. Wide open spaces ooze calm and understated style, complemented beautifully with carefully selected furniture, objects and artwork. I am in love with the way historical references and detailing meet the sharp and the contemporary to create a perfect union. It is precisely this combination of formal rigour and sensuality which makes this home a very special one indeed.

While I was doing my usual snooping around the net, I came across a book by Manolo Yllera which features a different rendition of this home (images below). Here you can see completely different furniture and styling which creates a whole new look, which I find equally as beautiful.

For me, this represents undeniable proof that good architecture and careful design of “bone structure” provides a fool-proof canvas for any number of ways to furnish, style, accessorise and decorate. Anyway, I am seriously having a hard time picking a favourite. What about you?

Oh, and just one more thing and then I’ll go – is it just me or have both those rugs used in the living room been “reinterpreted” by IKEA?

[Images © Manolo Yllera. Via Manolo Yllera & blurb.]