The bright, new first floor of Suzanne Pardijs’s family home near Utrecht in the Netherlands came about largely due to an accident. In January 2021, during the height of the pandemic, Suzanne was carrying a heavy chair to her upstairs studio when some hanging laundry caused her to lose her footing. The resulting fall “brought everything to a standstill for a year,” she tells us—and left her with pins in her foot and leg and lingering mobility issues.
Suzanne and her husband, Michael Kaashoek, live with their two teenaged sons and two cats in a circa 1900 house on one of the best preserved streets in the village of Maarssen. Trained as a graphic designer, Suzanne had become a designer specializing in daycare centers and schools. Her injuries led her to refocus her design practice to domestic settings, to discover quilting and embroidery, and to found the Daily Apple Community, a group of Dutch creatives who share ideas and resources.
Their home of 20 years, meanwhile, had started to feel cramped and, in Suzanne’s words, “overshadowed by lingering sadness.” She and Michael, who happens to be a professional carpenter, had long talked about “inviting more light in by merging the kitchen and living room.” The time had come. Michael was willing to apply his skills at home, but Suzanne had to first come up with a plan. Here’s the story of the family’s reinvented quarters.
Photography by Marieke Verdenius, courtesy of Suzanne Pardijs.
Tinta Luhrman, an interior designer friend (formerly of Woodchuck) who shares Suzanne’s intuition-driven approach and clean aesthetic, gave the process a spiritual jumpstart: “Tinta generously performed an energy cleansing in our home, helping me reconnect with our space,” says Suzanne. Able to envision what was needed to right the wrongs, Suzanne excised thick partitions and designed a new kitchen and “steel-framed façade of glass” to light up the space. The door with reeded glass was handmade by Michael: it leads to Suzanne’s new studio. Scroll to the end for a glimpse of Before and After.
