Check out Belinda Den Ouden’s Instagram feed and you will see that her bio reads: “I love interior design. But I have fragrance allergy and migraines. So my house has dark walls, is non-toxic, scent-free and cool.” But it hadn’t always been this way. Belinda, who is Dutch, and husband Eef and her three children, Daisy (12), Liz (10) and Mike (5), all lived in a 100-year old house in Alkmaar, a town famed for its cheese market, 40km north of Amsterdam.
“It was lovely and small, dark and damp,” she says. “The street was narrow and allowed for little light to come in. I desperately longed for a white, clean, tidy home so in an attempt to make it seem big and bright, I painted everything white. We even had a white floor!”
Although Belinda had always been troubled by migraines, they seldom lasted longer than 48 hours, but in October 2015, one came that didn’t go away, and it seemed to be triggered by scent. “I banned perfume from my home and felt much better. I also switched to organic cleaning, washing and personal care products.” However, over time, her symptoms intensified to the point where exhaust fumes, food additives, fragrant flowers, cleaning products, “even the smell of the laundry detergent of someone I was talking to” made her feel dizzy, prompted an asthma attack or another migraine. “I Googled ‘fragrance allergy’ and was tested, and it turned out that’s what I had.”
The solution was radical: move house and start over. Belinda explains: “We chose a new house that’s built in a Dutch 1920s style. It’s dry and well insulated, so no cracks to let polluted air in. None of the new houses have chimneys, so no wood fires in winter. There are no farms nearby so no pesticides or cattle dung. The street is car free, so no exhaust fumes. And there’s a park close by, so lots of oxygen and exercise is possible.”
However this was only half the battle, the real challenge was how to fit out and furnish her home without the use of solvents, silicone, formaldehyde, fire retardants or the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that are present in most glues, paints, new carpets, furniture and flooring.
“I discovered that glass, stone and steel are safe products to use and I didn’t react to vintage wood, as the solvents have had time to evaporate, so we decided on a vintage style with industrial elements,” says Belinda. And the dark colours? “I become very light sensitive when I have a migraine. Then I went to a friend’s house whose walls were dark grey. I loved it, took my husband to see it, and he was on board, too.” She continues, “I’d read that using 100% black wasn’t a good choice because it would feel dead, so I bought a paint colour chart, took the plunge and decided on anthracite.”
