Studio Djanim designs complete interiors for families renovating a home in Amstelveen and the wider Amsterdam region. A good number of our clients are Turkish families, and over the years we have learned which questions to ask so that a Dutch house ends up working the way your family actually lives.
Why this page exists
A Dutch house is planned around Dutch habits: an open kitchen in the living room, a single bathroom, modest storage, a dining area sized for four. That suits many families and frustrates others. Rather than discover the mismatch halfway through a renovation, we would rather set out what we have learned, so you know from the first meeting that you will not have to justify your wishes.
Every family is different, and nothing below is an assumption we bring to a meeting. These are requests we hear often, and questions we know to ask.
What Turkish families most often ask us to design
- A second kitchen for the real cooking. The everyday kitchen behind a door, the open kitchen for show. The design work sits in the extraction, the ventilation route and the position of the two relative to the dining area.
- A salon for guests, separate from the everyday living room. This is a floor-plan decision, not a furniture one. It usually means rethinking how the whole ground floor is divided, which is why it has to happen before the contractor starts.
- Seating and a table planned for a full house. Not slightly bigger, but designed for it: seating that works for twelve, a table that extends, and circulation that still feels calm when the room is full.
- A bathroom with a floor drain and a bidet spray. Neither is standard in Dutch building. Both need to be in the design from the start: the water point, the fall of the floor, the waterproofing and the tile layout.
- A guest toilet near the entrance, so visitors never walk through the private part of the house.
- A tea and coffee corner that is genuinely part of the design, with its own worktop, storage and socket, rather than an appliance parked on the counter.
- Warmth in the materials. Many clients come to us because Dutch interiors feel cool to them. That is a real design brief: richer woods, deeper tones, textiles, layered lighting and detailing, done with restraint so the house still feels calm.
- A ground-floor bedroom with an ensuite for parents who stay for longer periods.
Renovating a Dutch house: what to expect
The Dutch sequence surprises people who have renovated elsewhere. Design comes first, then the contractor prices that design, then the build. Contractors here are booked months ahead and they quote from drawings, so a loose brief becomes an expensive quote. Our project book is built for this: plans with dimensions, a full lighting plan, materials with brand and type, and joinery drawings. Every contractor prices the same thing, and nobody improvises on site.
You see it before it is built
Every project is modelled in photorealistic 3D and reviewed together on the large screen in our presentation room at Startbaan 6 in Amstelveen. We can share the images with family in Turkey too, which matters when parents are part of the decision. Changes are made on screen, not on the building site.
Our work
Browse the visualisation work and see what a finished specification looks like in a real project book. We also work with Indian families in the region; our approach to international families in general is described here.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work in English?
Yes. We work entirely in English or Dutch, whichever you prefer: the briefing, the drawings, the material lists and the project book.
Can you design a second kitchen?
Yes, and it is one of the most common requests we receive. The hard part is not the second kitchen itself but the extraction and ventilation route, and where it sits in relation to the main kitchen and the salon, so that heavy cooking does not carry through the house.
Can we have a bidet spray and a floor drain in the bathroom?
Yes. Neither is standard in Dutch construction, so both have to be designed in early: the water point for the spray, the fall of the floor towards the drain, the waterproofing and the tile layout. Decided at the design stage this is straightforward; decided later it means breaking open finished work.
We want a formal salon as well as an everyday living room. Is that possible in a Dutch house?
Often yes, but it is a floor-plan question rather than a furniture one. In many houses it means rethinking where the kitchen sits and how the ground floor is divided. That is exactly the kind of decision we make at the start, in 3D, before anything is demolished.
When should we contact you?
Before the contractor prices the work. The biggest gains are in the layout, the structure and the position of pipes, electrics and lighting. Once those are installed, changing them is expensive.
Talk to us
Call +31 (0)20 30 14 064, email info@djanim.nl, or visit the studio at Startbaan 6, Amstelveen. See also our interior design service.