Mary Engelbreit Home Companion - Here Comes Sinterlaas


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(g) Annie with the kids, from left to right: Isabel, 9; Daniel, 11; and William, 13. Reflecting their heritage, they’re holding Dutch teacups.

Annie Brahler had dragged a chandelier onto a plane in a garbage bag for the very last time. For years, she’d tagged along on business trips abroad with husband Richard, who owns a Holland-based tool business, in search of treasures for their 1868, six-bedroom home in Jacksonville, Illinois.
“One day, Richard said, ‘You know, you could get a container for the house,’” recalls Annie, referring to the professional practice of shipping goods in bulk. That was the beginning of Euro Trash, a furnishings import business that sells to shops, designers, and individuals.
Now Annie takes her own business trips, as many as eight annually. “Some of the things I bring back wouldn’t appeal to everyone,” she admits (old moose horns are her latest obsession). “I never buy for the market. I stay true to what I love.”

(a) In the front salon, cedar-boxwood garlands decorate a fireplace surround salvaged from a Chicago brownstone. The tallest candles on the mantel are waist high, which puts them in scale with the 15-foot ceilings.

(b) Bought for only 30 Euros (about 38 bucks), all the French console needed was fresh paint. (c) For luxury on a budget, Annie made inexpensive, tissue-thin silk appear lush by interlining it with double flannel.

“The Dutch revere children and animals—they’re welcome everywhere. That’s how we live.” (d) Jack (on daybed) and Ralph unwind in the morning room.

(e) Chocolate initials are a traditional Dutch treat. (f) Vintage Delftware ornaments decorate the tree.

Here comes Sinterklaas
A sturdy car chugs slowly along a country road in the Belgian countryside, its interior bulging with sundry cabinet parts, mirrors, light fixtures, and compotes. It’s a typical Euro Trash buying trip, with Annie or her longtime Dutch buddy Wendy Weper at the wheel, scouting out such unlikely locations as chicken coops and construction sites across France, Belgium, and Holland. In turn, Wendy often visits stateside, especially for the holidays. On one memorable Christmas Eve, blizzard raging outside, she entertained the Brahler kids with stories of the Dutch Santa, Sinterklaas, and his sidekick, Zwarte Piet, who carries off bad children to work in a toy factory in Spain for a year. “You should have seen their expressions!” says Annie, herself of Dutch descent. “Especially when Wendy admitted that she’d once spent time at the toy factory herself.”

(h) Button-back silk chairs in the dining room. The carved-armoire-turned-china closet was pieced together from parts by Euro Trash custom furniture designer Phil Black. (i) Fresh paperwhites mark each place setting.

Throughout the house and grounds, a pale palette prevails. (j) Compotes full of white chocolate initials and gingerbread-like pepernoten cookies, which are thrown during Dutch holiday parades. (k) Jingle bell wreath by artist Cody Foster. (l) Vintage French tapestry purse. (m) The porch is decorated for the season with candles, which Annie lights nightly.

Here comes Sinterklaas
Friends thought Annie was crazy to remove cherry cabinetry and brand-new countertops from the kitchen, but she wanted the space to have an authentically old Dutch look.

(n) Antique tiles from the Netherlands decorate the fireplace surround. (o) Vintage spice tins and a Delft-inspired pendulum clock continue the blue-and-white theme. (p) A photo of her Dutch grandparents near the kitchen sink. (q) “Doll-shaped cookies are a real treat in Holland. They smell and taste like black licorice.” (r) Twin refrigerators placed side by side with opposite hinges create an armoire look. Down cushions on chairs disguise broken rush seating.

Here comes Sinterklaas
During the holidays and throughout the year, Isabel is on ornament-sorting duty. Whenever Annie dusts off a charming decoration in a secondhand shop, it’s Isabel’s job to place it in the proper tub according to color. “She really understands the beauty of vintage,” Annie says. She tells a story of how one day when Isabel was a preschooler driving along with Mom, she spotted a broken-down chaise curbside and pointed out, “That’s a pretty chair.” Annie agreed and stuffed it in the car, pleased to have an accomplice.

(s) Euro Trash designer Phil Black transformed a table with good lines into a pier mirror in Isabel’s room (seen in reflection). (t) Tins and hatboxes hold ponytail elastics and other girlish goodies. The window treatment was fashioned from a bolt of linen from a fabric store. (u) Following in Mom’s footsteps, Isabel studies classical ballet.

(v) Isabel’s bed once belonged to Princess Lilian of Belgium. “It’s the only thing of provenance in my home—I usually don’t care about pedigree,” Annie says. When she found it at a European estate sale, it was painted a screaming yellow. Inspired by a friend, designer Nancy Schultz, she redid it in creamy tones.

Unsuspecting visitors often assume Annie spent tons of money on furnishings. Her response: a hearty laugh. “This style is available at any budget,” she insists. “Even if something is a 1950s reproduction of an 18th-century piece, to me it’s important art.”

Of course, there’s a knack to putting it all together. “Juxtaposition—that’s my design mantra. Cover anything ornate or gold with simple fabrics like linen. Pair an outrageous chandelier with a farmhouse table. Add asymmetry for drama. Learn to use what’s around and make it work. Believe in yourself, and revel in the joy and freedom of self-expression.”

(w) In an upstairs hallway, a mirror overlaps the wainscoting. (x) A Victorian hand mirror with lithographed back. (y) That sumptuous vanity in the master bath is really particleboard covered with fabric remnants. Formerly a drab brown, the cane chair got a coat of paint and cotton duck upholstery. (z) A glove box doubles as gift wrap.

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