Our story
From De Witte Lantaarn to De Huiszwaluw
We are Jobs Hofsté and Marjolein van den Berg. In 2000 we started a small antiques shop in Beverwijk: De Witte Lantaarn.
It was never really a tight business plan. At the time I, Marjolein, was painting a lot of murals and wall paintings and had my hands full with that. We had a beautiful building, and downstairs there was room for a little shop. So we filled it with antiques, brocante and everything we ourselves found beautiful.
Every Saturday the door opened.
There was just one problem: we loved almost everything we bought so much that we didn’t really want to part with it. When people asked, “How much is that?” or “Is that for sale too?”, we regularly had to say, “Sorry, that’s private.”
That is, of course, not the best way to run a shop. But it says exactly where it all began for us: with a love of objects with character.
France, châteaux and a van full of finds
In those years we regularly travelled to France to buy. The Loire region in particular drew us enormously.
In the mornings we would often visit a château. Not just to look, but also to feel how old furniture, paintings, mirrors, candlesticks and objects work in such a setting. In the afternoons we would then go in search of the things we had seen there. At brocante markets, at dealers, in barns and in places where you sometimes have to look through an awful lot of junk before you find something special.
We drove back with a van that was often packed to the rafters. Sometimes even the roof was loaded with things. We must undoubtedly have looked like a strange pair of collectors, but to us it was pure riches.
It was there, among the châteaux, markets, old French villages and endless roads, that our love of the Loire was born. And also our love of antiques, brocante, vintage and everything that doesn’t need to be new to be special.
A farmhouse full of things
Later we moved to Assendelft, to a farmhouse. At first we started there with a 40ft container in our yard. That seemed like a lot of space, but as tends to happen with us, it was soon full.
Then the farmhouse itself slowly began to turn into storage. Rooms, corners, passageways: furniture, chests, mirrors, chairs and finds ended up everywhere. And then even the horse stables had to give way.
As if that wasn’t enough, we put up a large army tent. Then two more tents. Each time we thought: now we have enough space. And each time it turned out not to be true.
Eventually we got the chance to rent part of our neighbour’s large barn. At first it was only a small part, about a tenth of the barn.
Within a few years the whole barn was full.
Why De Huiszwaluw
When we moved to Assendelft, we gained some very special neighbours. Under our gutters, all around the farmhouse, hung no fewer than 32 house martin nests.
It was a hive of activity. They flew back and forth, built their nests under the eaves and were very much part of the place. Later we heard that we had the largest colony of house martins in the whole of North Holland under our eaves.
That image has always stayed with us: those small birds that return every year, build, gather, care and fly off again.
That is why we eventually chose the name De Huiszwaluw (Dutch for “the house martin”).
A name that fits exactly what we do. We too gather, build a nest, bring special finds together and then let them fly off again to a new place.
Interiors for hospitality and special places
During that period we furnished many hospitality venues. Mainly in and around Amsterdam, but also in Belgium and other cities, our furniture and objects found their way into cafés, restaurants, shops and special interiors.
We learned to look better and better. Not for perfection, but for atmosphere. For lines, material, age, patina and presence.
A good piece doesn’t have to be neat. It has to do something.
Sometimes it is a table with a well-lived-in top. Sometimes a cupboard with flaking paint. Sometimes a chair with a beautiful shape, an old mirror, a painting or an object where you don’t immediately know why it is so beautiful, but which you keep looking at again and again.
A new place in Boven-Leeuwen
When our neighbour decided to sell the barn, we had to think again. Our house and the barn together became too expensive, so we went looking for another place.
That is how we ended up in Boven-Leeuwen.
The location was beautiful, but truly everything needed doing. The house had a leaking roof. The old barn was on the verge of collapse. There was a collapsed open-sided shed. The land was overgrown. But there was also a large warehouse that could hold our business, and there was space. Lots of space.
We didn’t just see what was there, but above all what it could become.
The roof of the house was the first thing we had fixed, so that at least we were dry. Then the real work began. Renovating, building, repairing, insulating, laying floors, bringing spaces back to life.
We did much of it ourselves. Marjolein in particular endlessly renovated, built, painted and persevered. Together with Jobs, the old barn was tackled too.
De Loohof
That barn first became a place where photographs were taken. Later it became De Loohof: a warm space for hospitality, gatherings, photography, wine tastings and small events.
We ran De Loohof fully for a year. Since November we have largely closed the doors again, although we still occasionally do something special there. An open Sunday, a tasting, a small get-together.
But our focus is now back where our heart always lay: searching.
De Huiszwaluw now
De Huiszwaluw is no longer an ordinary shop with fixed opening hours. Everything goes via the internet. Our furniture and objects find their way to customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and far beyond.
Sometimes a piece goes to a house around the corner. Sometimes to the other side of the world.
That actually suits us better. We are not shopkeepers in the classic sense. We are seekers, collectors, selectors. We find something, we feel whether it is right, we look for the story behind it and then it may move on. To a new home, a new interior, a new place.
Treasure hunting as work
Our work really consists of one thing: treasure hunting.
We search for furniture, objects, art and old pieces that have presence. Not just things, but finds with soul. Sometimes we know immediately that something is special. Sometimes the research begins afterwards: who made it, how old is it, where does it come from, what is the story?
But usually we feel it before we know it.
A cupboard, table, chair, mirror or object can have a certain energy. A natural beauty. A piece that makes you happy as soon as you see it. Something that makes a space stronger without shouting.
That is what we love.
Not interiors that are too neat. Not trends that disappear again after one season. But things that last. Because they have character. Because they have lived. Because they add something that new things almost never have.
Making room for the next step
This year is also about making room for us. Not because we are stopping, but because a move awaits us.
Exactly when, we don’t know yet. Perhaps in a year, perhaps in two years. But we both feel that the moment will come when we have to pack up and move on.
That is why we are clearing out, selecting and letting go. The warehouses, the stock, the pieces that have travelled with us for years: everything is being looked at afresh.
What may stay? What may go? What deserves a new place?
And yet we keep buying.
That may not sound logical when you know that a move is coming one day, but that’s not how it works with us. Searching is in our blood. We can’t drive through France without looking. Can’t walk across a market without stopping. Can’t see an old chair, cupboard, table or mirror without feeling: does this have something?
Sometimes it is wiser to take nothing with us. But when a piece is truly good, when it has that presence, that soul, that natural beauty, then we simply can’t leave it behind.
What we collect
With De Huiszwaluw we collect and select vintage furniture, antiques, brocante, design and special interior pieces with character.
Sometimes rugged and industrial. Sometimes French and weathered. Sometimes mid-century and clean-lined. Sometimes sober, quiet and almost wabi-sabi.
What connects everything is atmosphere.
We don’t buy from a catalogue. We search, travel, look, hesitate, feel and choose. Every piece must have something. A shape, a skin, a history, a presence.
And in the meantime we are searching further ourselves. For a house in France, for new places, new finds and new stories. On our travels we buy things again, mainly in France, and we also look for special wines with which we organise wine tastings at De Loohof.
So everything really flows together: living, travelling, searching, tasting, making and collecting.
For interiors with character
De Huiszwaluw is not an ordinary shop. It is an online collection of what we find along the way. A world of old materials, time-worn beauty, French finds, vintage design and pieces you don’t just walk past.
For interiors with character. For people who would rather find something real than buy something new.
The coming period will be a time of transition for us. We are making room, selling many beautiful pieces from our stock and slowly preparing for a next step. Where exactly that will be, we don’t know yet.
France still calls. The Loire, the old houses, the markets, the wines, the stone villages and the châteaux keep drawing us in.
But one thing doesn’t change: we keep searching.
Because De Huiszwaluw never began as a tight plan. It began with a love of things that move you. And that is still exactly what it is all about.
