This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.
In the quiet countryside of Damme, Belgium, a centuries-old farmhouse sits among rolling hills – hardly an unusual sight in this pastoral part of the world. What is surprising is what awaits you inside, and more specifically, below. In their top-to-bottom reimagining of this property, Vandeputte Architects has installed a Parisian-style nightclub in the basement.
The renovation itself is breathtaking. The architects set out to reinterpret something inherently rural – a historic home overlooking a tree-lined canal – and transform it into something contemporary and refined, without erasing its past.
One way the architects achieve this is through occasional, vivid bursts of colour: hallways and a bathroom are clad in a deep, clay-like red; a living space is drenched in teal, employing artisanal paint techniques that breathe new life into the home's classical bones. Slender bronze and patinated brass details weave throughout, serving as elegant connective tissue between eras.
Authentic original features like beamed wooden ceilings and an open kitchen fireplace have been left largely untouched, anchoring the home in its history. Remarkably, achieving this transition required no major structural intervention. Instead, the architects worked through a succession of carefully weighted decisions: for example, existing materials were, wherever possible, reclaimed or treated rather than replaced.
The kitchen ranks among the home's finest spaces. While grounded in a neutral palette and timeless veined marble splashbacks, it feels anything but conventional through a series of ingenious details like alabaster light fittings, generously rounded worktops and distinctive half-height curtains. Most luxurious of all is the contrast between the custom dark walnut cabinetry and solid natural stone worktops – sourced from Italy and Turkey and cut to a substantial eight centimetres – which flow uninterrupted from the washbasin into the wall, lending a monolithic feel.
The interior gains further cohesion through its curation: design icons from Molteni & C and Edra sit alongside lighting by Parisian duo Garnier & Linker and London's CTO, while artworks are drawn from the client's private collection.
It all makes perfect sense – and then you descend to the cellar. Transformed into a private nightclub inspired by a cabaret, the space has been saturated in an all-encompassing, enveloping red. At its centre stands the bar, where a marble countertop meets high-gloss tropical amara wood. The defining piece is the red sofa – handcrafted by Collett & Victor to a design by Jean-Philippe Demeyer – which channels the glamour and romanticism of 1920s Paris. Step below ground here, and you step into another time and geography entirely.