Reno’s stories – Introduction

My brother and I lost our dad about 10 years ago. Despite the tragedy of loosing our father, the bright side of the story is that we inherited a lovely little building with 4 apartments in Brussels.

Until last year, all the floors were being occupied and inhabited.

In fact, the procedures of inheritance took some time and were so tedious that we only realised a few months ago of the beauty and potential we had in our hands…

Last year when one of the apartments got freed, we finally acknowledged it. It was an old couple that had been living in it for quite some time (probably 50 years or so) – oh I imagine the cute old little couple, holding hands and calling one another by cute little bird names … but I couldn’t tell for sure because I never met them –
However, I CAN tell you that EVERYTHING was to be done in the apartment because it was very damaged, old, abandoned, dirty … etc … And renovations were an absolute MUST !!!

Step 1: Introduction

When I came into the apartment, I found this old picture hidden in between the wooden slates. It filled my heart with an instant feeling of gratitude. It was just like the apartment was introducing itself to me and gave its blessing for me to take good care of it.

“Pick one room and make it yours. Go slowly through the house. Be polite, introduce yourself so it can introduce itself to you.” – Frances Mayer, Under the Tuscan Sun

Yes, I’ll admit, I went a little overboard and obsessed;

First, I re-watched ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ for the 5th or 6th time (and it made suddenly soooooooooo much more sense to me), I subscribed to the youtube channels Hello Blogzine, Nowness (All the ‘In Residence’ episodes are an absolute bliss to follow and watch) & Vogue Paris (if you don’t know yet, please do yourself a favour and watch the ‘Une fille, un style’ series; Glamorous and poetic!), I also became addicted to the Interior Design series on Netflix and totally crazy about the blog sfgirlbybay.com (I mean, this is a MASSIVE CREATIVE/SOUL CRUSH).

A friend architect once told me about the ‘appropriation of the space’: it takes time to make a space be yours. You have to own it. And to own it, you have to really spend time and energy into it. Understand your needs and seek for practicality without ever compromising aesthetics.

Now that I’m back in my home country, I take it as a sign from the Universe that it’s time for me to honour my heritage and renovate it kindly.

A massive thank you to my mum and her boyfriend without whom none of the reno’s would be happening. Or at least they wouldn’t be the same.
My stepdad is a legend ! He helps me so much and I owe him BIG TIME!

To the sky: Thank you daddy for your gifts & Thank you Universe for your guidance.

Stay tuned for the ‘renovation stories’… coming soon!

I hope you’ll all enjoy it.

Take care x

Axelle