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MASTERS TO WATCH: SHARON STREUPER KIEVITS
Co-owner of Maison Sucre Luxury Interiors, Sharon Streuper Kievits, tells MASTERS how she moved from her job in event organization and artist supervision to interior design and how Maison Sucre has developed its own style. "We have a unique collection, you won't find anything like it anywhere else."
Co-owner of Maison Sucre Luxury Interiors, Sharon Streuper Kievits, tells MASTERS how she moved from her job as an event organization and artist supervisor to interior design and that Maison Sucre has its own style. “We have a unique collection, you won't find anything like it anywhere else.”Text: Bart-Jan Brouwer | Online editor: Natasha Hendriks
Image: John van Helvert
School
“I worked in event organization and artist management for a while, and I always joked that my life was 'one big party'. Every weekend I was busy and came home late. After five or six years I wanted something different. Interior design company Suikertuin came my way through someone else. I wrote an open application letter and was invited for an interview. I immediately had such a nice connection with the owner, Annemiek Bakker! That's how I got into the profession. And I immediately felt like a fish in water. I discovered a part of myself that I didn't know I had. I started there in 2004. At one point, Annemiek Bakker started to phase out her work – she was over seventy – to pave the way for her son Cees, who would succeed her. But he died suddenly. That made the future uncertain. I was talking about that with my colleague Rob van Velzen. The question naturally arose: 'How would you like to… together?' It happened very naturally. In the year after Cees passed away, Annemiek, Rob and I completed all projects very neatly, and in the background Rob and I started building our own company, Maison Sucre. The name is a tribute to our school and to Annemiek.”
Own style
“Maison Sucre has its own style. We love classic details, but incorporate them into interiors in a modern way. This leads to very nice combinations of different shapes. Nobody is happy with square blocks, people like classic elements. That special combination of styles together has become a style in itself, the Maison Sucre style. We attend a lot of trade fairs. For us, a fair is already a success if we return with one beautiful object, that one item that suits our style. The result is that we have a unique collection, you won't find anything like it anywhere else. People are proud to be our customers, some even take selfies under the logo on the facade. Our clientele consists of people who work hard, often entrepreneurs who want to come home after a busy day to an attractive, comfortable setting to relax with their family among beautiful things. End users, architects, interior designers: everyone is welcome here. On Fridays and Saturdays our showroom in Rotterdam is freely accessible to gain inspiration, during the week we work by appointment and we really sit down with interested parties. Architects build a house, but don't really look at it from the perspective of living. That's what I do. I walk through the floor plan of the house with the customer and visually explain what every corner and every room could look like.”
Red ears
“Normally we furnish an entire house in one day. And then I style it completely. The customer leaves an empty house and ends up in a total metamorphosis the next day. That's what's so nice about this, it's always some kind of holiday when we come. Due to corona, the supply of items and substances slowed down last year. That was a challenge. We had some big projects, trying to get it done room by room. We had red ears from calling and at the back chasen. Of course we notice that people want to make their home cozy during this time, because they are cocooning at home more. They are in the process of restyling. And we don't really do anything else: our style never stands still, we continuously expand and develop our collection. We are partly guided by customer demand. Shar, listen: I think that's very nice, but can't we...? Of course that is possible, I say, because we make everything to measure. Then I'll start looking. And if I don't find it, I'll design it myself. I make the sketches, Rob works them out – he is more into technology. Own design is increasingly gaining the upper hand in our collection. By translating the customer's wishes, items are created that are sometimes so nice that we add them to the collection. This is how we evolve. We do bedrooms, television rooms, sitting rooms, bathrooms, dining room, offices... Recently a customer came and asked: 'Do you also have a kitchen?' So we are now developing a Maison Sucre kitchen in collaboration with Tieleman Keukens. You can customize it, for example with bronze-colored fittings, bar stools, beautiful lighting and beautiful curtains. We will present the kitchen at the beginning of 2021. Then we are complete and you can furnish an entire house with Maison Sucre!”
