Studio : possibilities

Dreams and realities

I’ve spent two productive years developing my business in a charming top floor studio in our home in the Netherlands. My studios have always been in my house, previously in San Francisco, from 1998 to 2019 and in Sonoma until we moved to Europe in 2024. My studio this time has been a bit … smaller.

I LOVE having the windows open in this studio. I have a great view of the storms rolling in (windows closed) and the snow falling (windows open!). I can hear the birds pitter pattering over my head on the dormer roof. I have a door I can close when I want. It feels a bit like a treehouse. I do miss my high work table that saved my back and an extra table for a back up sewing machine.

Now that our visas have been renewed for another five years, we’re toying with the idea of buying a home in Haarlem. We’re in no rush, we rent a wonderful home with a great landlord on a fantastic street. We would like to feel more rooted here though and live in a city center again.

One can dream of living on the Spaarne in Haarlem. I’ll take that top floor studio with turret. Thankfully, Haarlem doesn’t get the insane tourism like in Amsterdam … yet.

We currently live in Overveen, a tiny village six minutes by bike from the center, but it would be so nice to be able to just pop around the corner for a coffee. Most of the houses in the Netherlands city centers are ritjeshuizen (row houses) or herenhuizen (townhouses). We’re used to living this way after 25 years in San Francisco. We’ve toured a few houses so far with vastly different studio spaces. One had an entire ground floor office space with a kitchenette and access to a beautiful back yard. I could even have a separate entrance for clients.

Another house we toured was on a section of the Leidsevaart (video above), a canal on the west side of Haarlem centrum. This ‘trekvaart’ was main route for all trade between Leiden and Haarlem in the 1600’s, pulled along horses on the side. Parts of it have now been converted to bike lanes. One thing for sure is that Haarlem will be our train station. The most beautiful in the Netherlands, I think.

For now, I pine over other people’s studios. Here’s my latest favorite, Margaret Howell’s working studio/shop. Or there’s Donald Judd’s insanely minimalist architecture studio here. I shared this studio gem in Paris a few months ago. Who knows, maybe I’ll set up studio in a converted elementary school gym like my friend, Jana Visser, with the climbing ropes still attached to the ceiling.

Jana Visser’s weaving studio. Featured here.

I’ll write about our search as we go along. We’re interviewing aankoopmakelaars (buying real estate agents) this week in between learning all of the Dutch words around housing and using my studio to make linen tote bags!

This bag just made it over to its’ new home in Berkeley, CA.

I am shipping to the United States again and am taking commissions for tote bags, throws and table runners as I develop my European linen product line. If interested, email me at kathryn@kathrynclark.com or DM me on Instagram. Tot ziens!