1908 tiny house — a short introduction to this piece.
1908 tiny house: Quick Notes
For a year and a half, Aron de Jong and Irene Bijman devoted every weekend and many week nights too to working on their little house in the north of the Netherlands. They met as university students—Aron, 27, is a product designer and Irene, 26, is a psychomotor therapist—and dreamed of owning their own place. An old farm worker’s bungalow fit the bill: sized for two (just under 700 square feet), it came with a charming two-toned brick façade and postage-stamp gardens in the front and back. And was so completely run-down, they were able to snap it up.
Aron stepped in as chief builder and Irene learned on the job, with backup from family and friends. “Parts of the floor were rotten and over the years, many owners had added layer upon layer, causing problems with the structure, plumbing, and electricity. To give the house a new life, we had to remove everything until we reached the core,” Aron tells us. “About 90 percent of the work we did ourselves: it was a beautiful if sometimes long and demanding journey.” (See In Progress photos at the end.)
Aron himself came to the project with a lifetime of exposure to great design: his father’s great grandfather started Jan de Jong, a contemporary furniture store in Leeuwarden, Friesland, that his parents run—he and his older brother are fifth-generation members of the team. Studio Slow, the company’s workshop and interior design studio, a Remodelista favorite, is led by Aron’s mother Christien Starkenburg, who helped the couple come up with a master plan and consulted along the way. “Because they did everything themselves—with so much love, energy, and dedication,” she says, “the result feels profoundly personal and right.” We agree.
Photography by and courtesy of Aron de Jong.
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