Uncommon Visions

Interior designer Gert Voorjans employs his signature avant-garde touch to inject new life into this beautiful colonial villa, initiating a dialogue between styles and eras in the process

- MJ Jose

He eschews the formulaic and tried-and-tested in favour of a daring output that bends or breaks the rules, and does it all with utmost skill and unbridled enthusiasm. Throughout his career, Belgian interior design maverick Gert Voorjans has transformed many a space into an eclectic wonderland. There was the Antwerp consulate, the former post-WW2 residence of a German maritime magnate that he had been commissioned by the new owners to update. There was also a medieval castle in Bavaria, which he had overhauled and refurbished into a habitable family home. And the list goes on.

Always one to colour outside the lines, he is not of the mind that a house must only subscribe to one personality. This was how he approached a project involving a colonial villa on the periphery of Brussels, which had morphed into a structure far from its original state due to extensions, passageways, and annexes that were added to accommodate its previous inhabitants. The easiest solution would have been to start from scratch, but Voorjans had other ideas. Despite his artful irreverence, he is extremely respectful of two things: the site he is working on and the wishes of his clients (“They must be aware that it is them and not I who will be living in their home. Also, they must love what they are asking for and not blame me afterwards,” Voorjans shared with Philippine Tatler in an earlier interview).