Bram Damman doesn’t see his brilliant, collectibles-filled Netherlands home as retro, but instead as futuristic and modern. “Not in the sense of contemporary,” he states, “but in the sense that these items were once designed with the aim to become modern.”
Damman’s interior reflects a passion for space-age modern style cultivated throughout his 1970s childhood. Collector’s items, classic furniture and daring colours fill his house from top to bottom. A lot of his midcentury furniture seems really fashionable, but he is not interested in trends. “What worries me the least is what is in vogue,” he states. “I do not follow trends; I make them.”
Who lives here: Bram Damman
Location: Wageningen, the Netherlands
Size: 650 square feet; 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Holly Marder
Engineered vinyl furniture fills almost every area in Damman’s house; he favors daring colours and vinyl materials. Although he frequently gets asked if he is color blind, then Damman only finds blue, green, brown and purple a pleasing color scheme. “I always tend to return to those colours,” he states.
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Damman bought the Gumball chair — stuffed with tens of thousands of plastic balls that light up by Italian designer Alberto Brogliato to tie with his assortment of chunk mobiles. “I can’t resist them,” he states.
His house is filled with just about every knickknack conceivable, but there aren’t any plants. “I love nature, but I prefer it to be outside,” he states. “And though I adore organic types, I want to live in an artificial environment, and these chunk mobiles are a good replacement for flowers and plants.”
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When Damman moved to the home, a lease, five years back, it felt failed. Fresh paint, groovy background, chocolate-brown vinyl floors and amazing furniture like this glowing green Bobo Relax Chair from Cini Boeri — quickly made him feel at home.
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Vivid turquoise walls set off shelving units with faux fur trim and fluorescent backlighting. Open shelving screens Damman’s collection of 30 classic clocks and radios, such as some Panasonic Toot-a-Loop radios around the top right side of the middle shelf. He has it in four different colours, including a very rare one which can otherwise be seen only in Japan. “I always wanted it,” states Damman. “A friend of mine needed a yellowish one in his house while growing up, and I’ve always liked the style.” He scours the Internet and often reread collector’s fairs to find more pieces to add to his group.
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The quirky Q Couch, designed by Frederik Heereveld for Feek, reveals Damman’s love for vinyl furniture. It is made of a lightweight and durable plastic, and Damman bought it on Marktplaats. It is composed of 2 chair-like pieces which can be clicked together to form one sofa. Damman notes which the piece is not just relationship friendly, and that he intends to substitute it with a more comfy couch.
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A custom shelving unit with much more collectibles divides the home office from the dining room and living space.
“Many men and women say my home is just like a museum, and they wouldn’t wish to reside here, as it’s too bright and might make them angry,” Damman states. “I really don’t have that at all.”
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Damman made this white MDF shelving unit after being inspired by an Italian layout that he saw in a store.
He discovered the tiny secondhand shelving unit from the door online and repainted it. Originally a display unit for a store, it now injects additional color into the living space.
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An Ikea dining table paired with glowing yellow chairs bought in Amsterdam produces a compact dining room near the kitchen. “I liked these chairs since, in a way, they are very similar to the Arne Jacobsen chair and have a Scandinavian touch,” he states.
Damman added a tiled wall behind the table and chairs to give this area a diner feel. The midcentury cupboard was found in the loft of a previous home, and he re-covered it.
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The round object about the dinner table in the previous image transforms to a crockery set named Avante Garde, produced by Villeroy & Boch in the early 1970s and designed by Helen von Boch. The collector’s thing is composed of 18 modular components in a round form, which come apart to reveal a complete table setting.
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Damman created this partition shelving system by simply stacking 2 Ikea Expedit components (one that is 2 by 4 feet and one that is 4 feet) on top of each other. He pasted an MDF sheet around the front and medicated the surface with rust paint. “First you paint on a coating of iron contaminants, and then you treat it using acid therefore it will become rusty,” he clarifies. The inside of every modular shelf was completed with glue vinyl sheets, which he discovered via d-c-fix, for vivid color.
Watch a tutorial on how best Damman created this shelving unit
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The home office seems as whimsical as the rest of the house. Damman designed and built the vibrant green-edged shelving unit against the window. At some point he’d like to replace the flooring in this space with the chocolate-brown vinyl seen during the rest of the house.
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“I acknowledge that my taste for decor is somewhat childish, so it’s especially nice when young folks visit,” Damman states. “Their jaws drop to the ground, and they get really excited!”
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Playful accessories and lighting make an enjoyable first impression in the tiny hallway. Damman repainted the bottom half of the wall chocolate brown to tie in with the ’70s-inspired color motif and chocolate-brown vinyl flooring.
bramdamman.nl
When Damman’s girlfriend first saw pictures of his home on his website, he states, her first thoughts were, “He is either a psychopath or he is really cool!” He intends to move to Sweden to join and says they will compromise on decorating.
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