After living for many years in the city-center of Amsterdam – We set out to look outside the city-borders in order to find an industrial living-space with high ceilings , preferably set in a more spacious environment, and after a few visits to the old harbourtown ‘IJmuiden’ on the North-Sea coastline, opportunity knocked in the form of a former Post-office building , facing the Sea-Gates and a huge – still active- Steelfactory ..
With its 340 m2 of floorspace this former-Government-built-Postoffice showed plenty of possibilities , plus the prospect of living right at the edge of an old fishing-harbour – still in reach of the City of Amsterdam – proved the perfect answer to our Lofty desires.
High ceilings and a very spacious Lay out, classic pillars, and view from the back porch on an industrial Steelfactory and Oceanliners – majestically gliding through the Seagates spelled three words ; Dream came True.
In their attempt to conform the old Post-office to a livable home-space ,the former inhabitants used fairly light materials ( up to cardboardboxed walls ! ), and the restoring-process proved not to be a supercomplex one , apart from installing extra electricity hidden inside the walls and underneath it’s wood board-floors. A 7-headed crew was knocking down walls , replacing floorboards, installing cables ánd dumping cardboard boxes soon after the key was in the door.
With it’s Geographic placement on the Harbour in mind , ànd an actual 4meter Long old Belgian Café-bar ( see below) having been left behind by the previous inhabitants, it was decided upon to trade the ‘Post-office Label’ in for a Maritime Hotel-theme , complete with Café/bar and ‘Hollywood Cantine’-like ballroom.
When the big (former-) Public Office room was stripped and walls torn down , the bare space reminded us of an abandoned 40ties department store. ( hence the name “Samaritain” after the Parisian Department store ) The two Our chosen themes : that of retro Pacific Maritime-Hotel & abandoned Departmentstore seem to merge happily , when during the final phase of interior-decorating, (white its furniture-choices) the loft revealed a perfect symbioses between filmset and Classic Hotel-style Loft home.
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