Queen of Vintage

Tineke Tichelaar has collected vintage design for decades, but only now have her treasures found a perfect home an old village train station with its authentic colours still intact

- MONIQUE VAN DER PAUW

Since this wall is not original, Tineke was permitted to paint it in shades adapted from the building's protected colour palette. It provides a striking backdrop for her vintage furniture, including a sofa from Machalke and Gubi Cobra wall lamps by Greta Grossman. The new linoleum floor is more in keeping with the building's industrial heritage than the carpet it replaced.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT The former thirdclass waiting room is now the living room, with huge windows looking out onto the newly landscaped garden. The chair is vintage Poltrona Frau, the arc lamp by KARE Design, and the candlestick Stoff Nagel by Werner Stoff and Hans Nagel; a vintage lamp sits alongside a collection of 1970s ceramic vases by Mobach, Ravelli and Gubbels Helden, among others; Tineke's home is a former railway station built in 1902 and part of the track remains; vintage cupboards and chests provide storage in Tineke's studio, which was once the second-class waiting room.

Tineke Tichelaar believes the old train station she now calls home could be the most photographed building in North Friesland. Situated a stone's throw from the Wadden Sea, in a village called Tzummarum, it was built in 1902 as part of a plan to connect the villages with a railway line, however the initiative didn't last long. As early as 1925, passengers made way for potatoes, and in 1961 the trains disappeared from the track completely. The platform is where Tineke and her partner, Rick, now sit to enjoy the evening sun.