Restoration Drama

- Serena Fokschaner

Laura Westendorp tried to erase the thought that she might have made a terrible mistake as she gazed at the crack on the facade of her newly bought townhouse in a brick-fronted terrace in the medieval Dutch town of Harderwijk. ‘Lots of people had looked at the place but decided against buying it because they were worried that there might be some structural damage,’ she explains. But Laura and her husband Nick, who are both designers, thought its potential was worth the risk.

The facade proved repairable, but that was only the start of Laura and Nick’s quest to rekindle their new home’s lost charms. Built for the officers of the nearby barracks, the property had most recently been used as a dental surgery. Laura recalls her first glimpse of an interior devoid of history: ‘There were partition walls and strip lighting, no fireplaces and no trace of original detail.’