Strolling along Amsterdam’s Keizersgracht on a misty winter evening, light from the metres-tall windows of the old canal houses shimmers on the water. On the other side of their antique glass are scenes that haven’t changed much over the centuries: families around tables, friends sharing a drink, a solitary silhouette in a bench seat, reading a book. One of these imposing homes is that of Greg and Rebecca Rosborough.
Greg, an American fashion designer and founder of running apparel brand Philos, and Rebecca, an English chief marketing officer for a tech company, never imagined they would become the custodians of a Dutch canal house built in 1616. Before arriving in Amsterdam in 2020, neither had even been to the city before — they only knew they wanted to get away from the Covid-induced anxiety of living in New York. And each was ready for a change: Greg, who had begun his career at Ralph Lauren, was winding down his menswear brand Abasi Rosborough and Rebecca had been offered a job that would allow her to work remotely.
To choose their destination, the couple developed a ranking scheme for 12 potential cities, with marks for historical architecture, scenic location and proximity to friends and family. “Everything had a point, and Amsterdam came in the top spot,” Greg says. So in the summer of 2020, they packed up their Brooklyn apartment and set off for the Netherlands. They had initially planned to rent temporarily, but this house made them decide to stay.
“We had moved from New York and came across this house that was older than that city itself, which was kind of romantic,” says Greg. “If this was in the US, this would be a museum.”
The previous owner had been an antiques dealer who had chosen to preserve the house’s original details. The curved stairwell with its patinated brass railing was “out of some kind of a fairytale”, remembers Greg.
Still, the house hadn’t been updated in decades, and when renovations began, the couple soon discovered that the same quirks that drew them to the property would require special consideration. “Nothing is level here,” says Greg. “So you’re not working in 90 degrees anywhere.”
The renovation, he continues, “was all about historical preservation”. Which is not to say that the couple wanted to live in a period-accurate set. Rebecca sought the help of Patrick Williams, interior designer and co-founder of Bath-based homewares shop Berdoulat.
Rebecca admired his historical approach to restoring Georgian homes, and Williams was intrigued to blend his English style with the building’s Dutch architectural vernacular. “I love wobble, I love wrinkle,” Williams says. “Those are all details that I want to celebrate.”
When the Rosboroughs were first toying with the idea of settling in Amsterdam, they went to visit the house with a contractor. He took them straight to its basement and began to sniff the air. The foundations of these homes, he explained, are like the palazzos of Venice, built on wooden pilings driven deep into a loose mixture of sand and mud. Over time, the houses settle, but damp and rot can cause them to sink suddenly, requiring costly repairs. The basement passed the smell test.
Beneath the gable of their house hangs a painted apple from the days of the first owner, Thomas van Son, who is believed to have split his time between preaching and importing fruit. On the third floor, an airy white bedroom overlooking the canal was his warehouse; in the attic above is a huge wooden wheel once used to hoist cargo inside. Guarding the entrance is the house’s original Dutch door; in lieu of a modern buzzer, guests pull a cord to ring a cast-iron bell.
Inside, a muted hallway with classical archways and wooden panelling leads to the grandest space: a dining room painted in a dark and dusty indigo from Edward Bulmer. Natural paints in historically accurate colours were chosen to conform to the rules governing rijksmonumenten, the Dutch equivalent of Historic England’s listed buildings.
“Everything had to be handcrafted, which we didn’t realise,” says Rebecca. “There’s no rollers allowed, no spray paint allowed,” adds Greg.
The Rosboroughs’ appreciation for the past extends beyond the Dutch Golden Age to antiquity. Throughout their home are objects that reference Greek and Roman civilisations, from 19th-century French illustrations of attic pottery to a battle scene by contemporary American artist Cleon Peterson (Greg founded Philos last year, inspired by a trip to the ancient Panathenaic Stadium in Athens).
Most of the objects have been sourced by the couple, either from Amsterdam’s antique shops and salvage yards, or brought back from their travels. However, Williams was careful not to overstuff the place. “A balance needed to be struck between including what they were excited by, and sometimes calming things down a little,” he says.
In the dining room, a carved wood fireplace rescued from another canal house is offset by a whimsical contemporary Flos Zeppelin pendant light and a mid-century table that the couple brought with them from Brooklyn. A generous pantry (used by the original occupants as a bedroom) leads to a kitchen suffused with the smell of fresh lilies, one of the perks of living so close to Amsterdam’s flower markets. On the walls are modern Delft tiles from Regts, along with a border of hand-painted 1920s portrait tiles.
Greg has to duck as we go up a steep spiral staircase. To accommodate his height (Greg was on the University of Arizona basketball team), many of the house’s modern doorways have been expanded and replaced with antique French doors.
Despite these alterations, wherever possible, the original architectural details have been preserved, and sometimes left in an intentionally unfinished state. The pine floorboards that run the length of the house are original, beautifully weathered. And when you look up at the high ceilings, you see straight through to the flooring above.
“A lot of people plaster it up or they’ll put things in between the planks,” says Rebecca, “[but] there was something so storied about all of these marks.” Still, their commitment to leaving the floors as they found them comes with some drawbacks. Their dog Rosie’s claws can be heard as she walks around the house, says Greg, and “if you spill a glass of water on one of the upper floors, it will come all the way back down to the bottom level.”
The couple’s favourite space is a cosy sitting room painted in a dusty pink. Antique chairs in a brown silk velvet by Rose Uniacke are arranged beside an Art Deco fireplace from architectural salvage supplier Piet Jonker. Beneath the window, a bench seat is a place for Rosie to watch the boats and bicycles go by.
“This view is probably the best in the house,” Rebecca says. “I sit here pretty much every weekend, just with a cup of tea.”
They’d planned only to ride out the rest of the pandemic here and then move back to New York. But they have settled into their new lives, developing a love for Dutch apple pie from local café Winkel 43 and running loops around Vondelpark with Greg’s Philos running club — the brand also has a bricks-and-mortar store in the city.
Williams is pleased with how his first Dutch project has turned out. “I think a good interior is like a portrait of the people who live in the house,” he says. But anyone who works on old homes has to take a longer view. “We have a mantra in our practice: the building is the client.”
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