My Houzz: Cashmere Adorns a Bright, Cozy Amsterdam Loft

Isabelle Cajfinger enjoys views from her Amsterdam loft of one of the city’s iconic landmarks, the illustrious Amstel Hotel. Its exclusive location and distinct exposed beams were just enough to push Cajfinger, a marketing executive at Cashmere Touch, to overlook the salmon-colored carpeting, which she immediately changed anyway.

“I loved the light in the living room, and I knew right away that changing the horrible carpet for a light wooden floor would do justice to my furniture and particularly my collection of tapestries, rugs and throws,” Cajfinger says. The space, a rental, had to be just right, since she uses her home as a private showroom for her hand-woven cashmere decor pieces.



The existing white walls and creamy exposed beams played a major part in boosting the natural light, but the salmon carpeting had to go. Cajfinger ripped up the drab carpeting in favor of pale oak floorboards, a move that amped up the brightness factor and added style.

“The high ceilings and exposed beams seduced me instantaneously,” Cajfinger says. “I saw right away which beams I would use to hang my tapestries and how the light would reflect on the chain stitch, how my craftsmen’s work will live with the light and reflect it.” The tapestry of four colorful fish is a hand-embroidered piece made of merino wool on a cotton canvas.



All of Cajfinger’s cashmere designs, from cushions to throw blankets to decorative pieces, are produced in the mountains of Kashmir. “The air is so cold that the wool is at its absolute finest,” she says. The process in which the wool is cut, cleaned, combed and woven into the beautiful products that are strewn throughout Cajfinger’s home has led high-end labels like Hermès to inquire about them.

Because she uses her home as a showroom, the decor is constantly changing as new items are created and then sold.



“I am drawn to minimalist spaces that are warm and filled with quality pieces,” Cajfinger says. In this less-formal setting of the TV lounge and guest room, an Italian sofa bed folds out into either a double or two single beds.

A hand-embroidered mural of the Singel canal in Amsterdam hangs from a sloped wall here.

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