Ever since we featured Helma Bongenaar’s vintage-filled Amsterdam house—and readesr promptly went wild—we’ve been big fans of the multihyphenate creative. Helma is a photographer and a stylist, an antique collector and a brocante dealer, a cookbook author and a co-founder of indie magazine Sentimental Journal. And she brings her signature aesthetic—thrifty “clustercore”—to whatever project she’s working on.
Helma’s next endeavor is a little cottage in the French countryside that she and her husband recently purchased. “It will take a few years—there’s so much work to do—but I already totally know what it should look like: very French and very different from our Amsterdam home,” she says. While we anxiously await the final product (hopefully there will be some in-progress shots to hold us over), Helma writes in from Europe with the interior design book she loves most, her go-to kitchen utensil, and—yes—her favorite secondhand shops in Amsterdam. Read on:
Above: A snap from Helma’s camera roll.
What’s on your bedside table?
A good book, literature.
What’s your desert island design/art/architecture-related book?
Inside Houses by Martin Rosswog, a book about old houses in remote areas with untouched interiors, never adjusted by designers—it’s just perfect!
Above: Helma’s Amsterdam kitchen, filled with cabinet fronts rescued from building sites and dumpsters.
What podcast or playlist do you put on when you need inspiration?
Mostly I like the silence or the sounds of the city. When I listen to music, I prefer to play old-fashioned LPs or singles by, for example, Charles Aznavour.
What’s a film or TV show whose aesthetic has stuck with you?
The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson.
Above: A selection of Helma’s kitchen tools.
What has been your best house upgrade?
The kitchen. The whole place is made from old doors, skip-dived from the street. It looks custom, but everything is handmade with reclaimed materials.
My unpopular design opinion is…
Reuse everything—I mean everything. Just use paint to make it look different.
Above: Vintage wallpaper from Belgium serves as a headboard in Helma’s bedroom.
Unexpected design opinion?
The interwar period was a time of innovations—sober yet still very elegant. I love that period. I also love the famous painters of that time, like Matisse and Bonard. After World War II, designs became a bit tighter and more businesslike, which doesn’t suit me as much.
My go-to kitchen utensil is…
The mandoline slicer—food immediately looks so much nicer and more professional.
Above: Helma’s collection of French coffee bowls, which began when she was 18 years old.
Three words that describe my design style:
Brocante, upcycled, and clustercore. (Also cluttercore, but clustercore is more accurate for me.)
Favorite design shop to visit (online or in person)?
Because I buy almost nothing new and rarely anything online, my favorite stores are secondhand shops. In Amsterdam, I love Tableware and Golden Bend. In France, I visit thrift stores and the Emmaus.
Above: A portrait of Helma.
What is the last thing you purchased for your house?
For my French home, an old, compartmented wooden cupboard, which was once used to sort mail.
Something you’re coveting?
A beautiful pergola filled with wisteria. In a few years, it will hopefully get there.
Thanks so much, Helma! Follow her work at @helmabongenaar.
