This Airy Brussels Home Was Once an Abandoned Bookshop
The first time that American set designer and prop stylist Melañio Gomez clapped eyes on
the defunct centuries-old bookstore that would eventually become his Brussels apartment, the space was not particularly promising. It had no kitchen, no bath, and no bedrooms. On the plus side, the derelict shop possessed high ceilings—at least on the primary level—and a few original architectural details visible through the grime. The floor below the bookshop, however, had been a wine cave, and it was barely tall enough to stand in.
“My initial reaction was ‘Interesting, but no thanks,’ ” recalls Gomez, who shares the Old–meets–New World abode with his husband, Chris Kangas, an executive at Mastercard. Happily, the building owner wasn’t taking no for an answer. “He wrote me back and asked what would need to happen to make this work. That’s when the whole adventure began.”
Formerly based in New York City, Gomez—whose résumé includes a stint as editorial director of home at Martha Stewart Living—and Kangas alighted on Brussels as their new base after a European holiday in 2006. “The banking and publishing industries were in flux even before the recession, so we decided to make a change. Once we chose Brussels, we decided we wanted to live downtown, near the historic Grand Place.”
Parts of the building that houses the erstwhile bookstore date back to 1602, and the shop officially opened in 1786. After nearly two centuries, the store closed and fell into disarray in the late 1970s. “Transforming it into a comfortable home was no small undertaking. We brought in incredible metalworkers, plaster artisans, and painters. The craft tradition here is deep,” says Gomez.
He recalls marveling at the painstaking labor of the workman who restored the apartment’s baronial gilded doors and wall panels using only Q-tips and a curious tincture of white vinegar and ketchup. The restoration of the stained-glass windows and doors instigated an international hunt. “I searched high and low for the right glazing to match the wavy, pale-yellow German leaded glass. Then, by total happenstance, I found the perfect match in a hippie store in San Francisco.”
He also installed a library-inspired spiral staircase at one end of the apartment to expand access to the lower floor, which had to be excavated to gain precious inches of ceiling height. Sheathed in Mortex, a surfacing material that resembles Venetian plaster, the former wine cave now accommodates the primary bedroom, a guest room, a generous bath, and two powder rooms. Metal-framed walls of glass hug the contours of the cloistered space while promoting the flow of light.
This Airy Brussels Home Was Once an Abandoned Bookshop
The apartment is outfitted in an urbane assemblage of pieces collected over many years, from exotic natural specimens to a metal-framed settee discarded by a Manhattan public school and salvaged from the mean streets of the East Village. “It’s always an edit for me,” Gomez confesses. “At this point, my husband just rolls his eyes.”
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
