When the whole family is here — including de Geyter’s son, Sébastien, and Charlotte’s boyfriend, the artist Ben Sledsens — the house is a place for relaxing, not work. “I feel like I’m on holiday when I’m here — it doesn’t seem to be in Antwerp, it seems to be somewhere distant,” says Charlotte. And, though she was careful about visiting at the beginning of the pandemic, the house was designed for social interaction: On the ground floor, each room opens onto the next, so it’s easy for de Geyter to hear her family’s comings and goings (including those of its newest member, an Australian Labradoodle puppy named Maurice) or to see her husband working in the study as she cooks from the other end. The kitchen is filled with cookbooks, thanks to Charlotte’s grandmother — she gives them a new one each holiday, though they admit that lately they’ve been making more spice-laden dishes from chefs such as Yotam Ottolenghi. Vessels and platters — some are porcelain antiques, others are South African ceramics picked up from a seaside market — line the room’s wall-to-wall shelf. Beautiful wood serving boards, purchased on a jaunt to the French countryside, rest on a marble countertop beside a pink, retro-looking toaster. Nearby, three goldfish swim in a large bowl. “We used one fish for a shoot,” de Geyter says. “And then I said, ‘Oh, my God, we need more because it’s lonely!’” In the warmer months, the family enjoys eating outside, often chasing the day’s light or a different view of the house. “My mother always puts the dinner table in a different spot in the middle of the garden,” says Charlotte. It’s a move that’s idiosyncratic yet charming — not unlike their colorful clothes.

Source: New York Times

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