Interior designer Jessy Van Durme and photographer Piet-Albert Goethals changed their city life for the countryside. Partners in work and in life, when their second child was on the way their search for a house took them to the other side of Belgium, where they fell in love with a 19th century manor house that was out of their reach. But with a strong will, time and a bit of luck, they moved in almost three years ago, and the old coach house of the property has been transformed into a very special guesthouse: L’officine.
The guesthouse has had different lives: in addition to being a former coach house, it was also an apothecary in the 1850s, where the doctor who built the house used to prepare his medicines and take care of his botanical garden. Apothecaries were also referred to as “L’officine”, and they’ve kept the original name, as “it also implies that it’s a creative space, where things are being made or created”.
This love for details is also reflected throughout: bedlinen made in Belgium with pure linen, bath linen woven in a traditional style, fruits from the garden, natural wines. This lo-fi space feels like a cocoon to find peace and be in the present moment, with modern comfort but also small rituals like pour-over coffee. “We have a manual showing how to make coffee, as some people didn’t know what to do with the beans. It’s the way coffee was prepared for centuries, it’s beautiful to recover the process”.
As such, L’officine is a living space that is far from being done. “We have so many things that we still want to do here! In the space we’re also starting to organize exhibitions, concerts, dinners… It reflects who we are now, but it will evolve as we and our ideas evolve too, always working with nature, and not against nature. 10 years from now, we dream about maybe starting a small organic restaurant in one of the horse stables that surround the property… We’re planting seeds. They will grow, but they need time to grow”.
