I love looking for inspiration from fellow interior lovers, and how they’ve designed their spaces. My latest ‘house tour’ is with executive assistant Joyce Nijhuis, who lives in the Netherlands. She is also the face behind the popular Insta account @theinteriorfanatic.  Here she kindly shares her home with me…

WHO LIVES HERE: Joyce, boyfriend Richard, tabby cat Loki, and black cat Elphie

LOCATION : Hoorn, an old city in the northwestern part of the Netherlands

TYPE OF PROPERTY: 1978-built, terrace house

When I moved out of my parents’ home and into my first apartment, the first thing I bought was a chair with a peacock print. I based the whole interior design on that chair! Then my boyfriend and I moved to a new house and I got free reign on the interior design.

All he wanted was an industrial look, and a lot of plants! I looked on Pinterest, Instagram and interior design magazines and envisioned the rooms in my head. I also used an online room planner to check if it would all fit.

Living room: Both Rich and I love brick walls, but unfortunately we were not blessed with a beautiful brick wall in our home. Then I found this cool brick wallpaper by AS Creations and recreated the effect our living room.

A lot of times people don’t even see that it’s wallpaper!

Our living room is quite long and I wanted to break it up a little. That is why I placed an open cabinet in the middle of the room as a room divider.

It separates the living area from the dining area. There’s a sliding door between the entry and the living room that used to be white. We didn’t really like it, but I painted it black and now it matches the rest of the room.

We really wanted an industrial dining table with a tree stump top. It took us some time to find it, but we eventually found one that we could compose ourselves, and the top is made out of poplar wood. We love it!

Bedroom: The first thing I bought for our bedroom was the wallpaper with a forest print. I loved the idea of waking up in a forest-themed bedroom. I ordered it online from wallprints.com and it was quite easy to put up on the wall.

Our bedroom is the only room that does not have industrial details. I felt that the forest theme would go better with a bohemian style, so that is why I added natural materials such as wood, wool, bamboo, and jute.

For the bed I chose colours that matched the wallpaper. Since yellow is my favourite colour, I didn’t have to think long about the colour of the duvet cover. I found some beautiful chunky wool in moss green and made my own bed runner with a little help from a YouTube tutorial. I also made a feather out of white chunky wool.

We have three wardrobes on the other side of the room that were all white and so were the walls. It was just too much white for us! That’s why I painted a wall yellow, put some adhesive foil with a bamboo print on the wardrobes, replaced the handgrips, and put a lot of plants on top. Now it has all come together.

Toilet:When we first moved in, the tiles in the toilet room were orange and creamy white. It was horrible!

I painted the tiles white and grey and added some black details. Now it looks much better.

Office/hobby room: There was one room on the second floor that we hadn’t done anything to yet and a year after we moved in, we finally finished it. The peacock chair (n corner) from my first apartment served once again as the basis of the interior design for this room.

I chose a bright blue colour for the wall and added some industrial accessories such as a wall rack and a black desk. I also added some orange/brown accessories for contrast and a couple of plants of course.

When we first moved in it took me about a month or two to decorate it all, but it’s still an ongoing process. I bought a lot of the decor online.  I can spend hours looking for the perfect accessory or if I’ve seen something in a shop that I like but find too expensive, I try to find a cheaper version online. I do like to visit actual shops as well, but mostly for inspiration.

Photo credits: Joyce and Richard

Special thanks to Joyce. Do check out her fabulous Instagram: @theinteriorfanatic for more design inspiration.