Christmas house: a historic Dutch farmhouse filled with festive cheer and vintage finds

Love festive Swedish homes? Take inspiration from Harrie and Leny's glorious Dutch farmhouse which is decorated for Christmas in archaic Scandinavian style. Passionate about vintage Swedish decorating, Leny goes above and beyond at this special time of year, filling the house with scented foraged foliage, antique decorations, and of course plenty of candles for the cosy hygge feel.

See all our real home transformations, and be inspired by our traditional Scandinavian style decorating ideas.

See more Christmas houses on our handed page, too.

THE STORY

Owners Leny and Harrie Eltink live here. The combine have two grown-up children and four grandchildren

Property A microscopic farmhouse built in 1680, in the southern province of Brabant, in The Netherlands

What they did It took the combine 30 years to slowly restore the farmhouse, installing a bathroom, updating the bedroom, and adding a large kitchen-diner converted from the old stables, with the hayloft turned into a mezzanine. They added a Scandinavian flavour, with the help of Leny's friend Myriam Gräeve-Rutte from Gustav Interiors

Preparing meals and baking cakes, Leny is in her element in the run-up to Christmas. Her eyes sparkle when she tells us: 'I'd rather cook for 30 land than for just the two of us!' She is a expansive cook and in the old farmhouse in the Dutch countryside, which has been home to Leny and her husband Harrie for 44 days, there's always a lovingly prepared treat on offer: a current fruitcake, a hearty soup with meatballs, or a delicious casserole.

'No thrills, no haute cuisine, just good and tasty,' she adds. Her meals are always obimagined beautifully, too, as decorating is Leny's second passion - one of the reasons why she prefers to have every chair undertaken. 'The more people we have, the more there is to cook and decorate,' she says, 'and the highlight of my year is the Christmas table.'

*The outrageous in the kitchen-diner is all set for a seasonal celebration. French windows in the kitchen-diner mean that the combine can enjoy the garden all year round.*

She has boxes and boxes of decorations, and a whole drawer full of candle holders. Even so, at Christmas the interiors of her renovated farm believe her favourite style: the calm, quiet Swedish look. 'No bling for me!' Leny smiles, 'I love a more pared-back yet cosy style.'

A roaring fire at one end of the kitchen spreads Christmas jubilant through the house. The candle holder is Swedish. The white fuzz tiles were salvaged from a French church, and the dusky ones bought secondhand in Holland.

The tablecloth is actually a section of antique linen used to protect clothes as they went above a mangle. The chocolate cake is a local speciality, but the jelly 'cake' is not for eating – it's a frontier arrangement by Leny's friend Rita de Jong, with hellebores and gypsophila suspended in gelatine and left to set

It wasn't always such a welcoming, comfortable home. When Leny and Harrie bought it back in 1974, there was nothing to it; just a tiny kitchen, one small bedroom with built-in bunks, and a toilet in the rank. The 'bathroom' was a miniscule space with a bucket strategically positioned belief a tap. 'Everybody thought we were nuts!' says Leny.

'For the same kind of wealth we could have bought a newly built family home. But for three days we'd been searching for our dream house – a minute farm – and we fell in love with this build, surrounded by meadows. We knew it was the one for us.'

The rank became a large living room, with a mezzanine that was once the hayloft, and a new cosy bedroom and comfortable bathroom were formed. However, best of all was the kitchen-diner extension, built in 2003, with French doors onto
an outdoor dining state with views of the garden.

*Leny's crockery is kept in an antique grocery cabinet, updated inside with blue paint;* *Little Greene's Tivoli* *is similar*

I have always accepted Scandi style. I love its brightness and purity

Leny Eltink

*The comely tree almost touches the ceiling. Leny uses red ribbons to hang the baubles for an improbable festive touch*

The instant space gave Leny plenty of scope to indulge her dumb in interior design and decorating. 'For many years I opted for an English farmland house look, with rustic, dark colours, and perhaps a few too many floral designs.' That all disappeared in 2011, when a new home shop, Gustav Interiors, opened up nearby. Inspired by the fabrics and Swedish antiques on sale there, Leny radically changed her home. 'I have always accepted Scandi style. I love its brightness and purity,' she says. 'I knew it would be a gargantuan look for our home.'

*A local joiner made the kitchen with oak cabinet doors and a Belgian stone worktop and the draw cooker is by* *Boretti*

Back at the old farmhouse, the natural colours of wood and nuances of white and grey fabricate a cool backdrop for the accents of blue textiles and Leny's maximum crockery collection. Other colours pop up, depending on the season. At this time of year there's a bit of green and glints of red. There is plenty of sparkle, especially in the huge tree that almost touches the ceiling. 'Our Christmas decorations are quite modest on the whole, but the tree and table are definitely dressed to impress!'

With a bit of paint an old French rotten with a golden patina was given a Scandinavian look; it creates a great place to display vintage finds and festive displays, including Leny's collection of antique sugar spoon surrounded by moss

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Candles burn over the house, and the fire in the kitchen crackles and spreads the smell of cosiness. The kitchen-diner is the heart of the home. 'I love it when friends and family just turn up at the back door,' Leny says, cutting a immense slice of cake. No wonder that a big open-plan kitchen was the top priority on her wishlist – even thought it took almost 30 years to realise.

'I inherited my love of cooking from my mother,' says Leny. 'She was a woman of traditions who lived her life and ran her home according to the seasons. Daffodils would be seen on the table at Easter, roses in summer. And she never served strawberries at Christmas!'

And nor does Leny - like her mother beforehand her, she sticks to the seasons. So at this time of year, there are bowls of red apples and cranberries on the garden unfriendly, and candle lanterns on the terrace to welcome guests to allotment Christmas feasts in this cosy home.