Home to artist and landscape designer Ronald van der Hilst, this house in Antwerp, Belgium dates back to the 1500s, when it was originally two separate structures. The Neoclassical abode got a major renovation in the 19th century, but when van der Hilst and his husband took over the then-rundown property in the mid-1990s, they really changed things up.
The pair bought the building next door and rolled it into the first one, adding plumbing and electricity where there was none and, conversely, reverting an electrified chandelier to candles-only. Van der Hilst also covered the walls with large tulip paintings—fitting, since the ground floor of the appended structure used to be a cafe, the very kind that attracted tulip traders during the 17th century.
New York Magazine has more photos, this way.
· See Inside a Carefully Excavated 16th-Century Antwerp House [New York Magazine]
· All Renovations posts [Curbed National]