With a brief to capture the owners’yin-yang personalities, Belgian interior designer Nathalie Deboel has crafted a home of opposites just outside of Brussels. Raw and refined, dark and light, masculine and feminine, hard and soft–these qualities amalgamate to form a balanced, sanctuary-like home enveloped by nature.

Nathalie approaches each of her projects by first unravelling the story of the clients, so she can integrate their unique characteristics and desires into the design. In the case of Balanced Interior, the house is owned by a couple that could only be described as yin and yang; he brings the raw, while she brings the refined.“We aimed to convey a sense of blending their distinctive personalities into a cohesive whole,”Nathalie says. 

Nathalie also approached the interiors to evoke a sense of journey, with the sweeping staircase marking the beginning of what she calls“a string of destinations, each with their accents which reflect the interests of the clients.”While the interiors fluctuate, the landscape remains a constant anchoring force, providing a calming backdrop for the tactile selection of materials, furniture, objects and lighting. In this way, the design encapsulates the people who live there and establishes a connection to nature–a shared love between the couple.