Le Jardin Bohémien

When we visited Gent this month we really enjoyed our stay at the inspiring and wonderful bed and breakfast Le Jardin Bohémien of interior designer Jeanpierre Detaeye and his wife Kristine Dehond. The beginning of Le Jardin Bohémien lies in 2011 when Jeanpierre’s collection of vintage furniture had no more room to expand and he decided to open up his vault for others. In his quest for a space to offer his gems to the public Jeanpierre found the location at the Burgstraat, close to the Gravensteen, which now houses Le Jardin Bohémien. The seventeenth century building, with a fourteenth century pilar in it, inspired Detaeye to expand his horizon beyond just selling vintage and together with his wife the decision was made to also open a lunchroom in the spacious ground floor. After the lunchroom had been open for 1,5 year, another expansion took place within Le Jardin as the room sitting next to the end of the monumental stairs to the first floor was designed and set up for the public as a bed and breakfast.

The lunchroom of Le Jardin Bohémien offers quality coffee, pie and cake, sandwiches and soup. Its interior is a nice mixture between vintage classics by Eames, Jacobsen, van Severen, Rohe and Pastoe and designs inspired by nature from the hands of Jeanpierre. The meters long table made out of a beautiful piece of wood complemented with industrial steel table legs really stands out. Detaeye’s love for stuffed animals also shows as one can observe a beautiful pheasant, a marten and an impressive deer which overlooks the room from the first platform of the stairs to the first floor. The grand piano in the middle of the space serves both as aesthetic centre point and is sometimes used for intimate blues, jazz and classical concerts.

The serene room that serves as the bed and breakfast is very light due to its big windows and the use of white and Polish pinewood, a favorite of Jeanpierre because of the beautiful grain. The bathroom is also worth a mention as the bathtub, another design of Jeanpierre, clearly shows its source of inspiration: the vintage fiberglass Eames chairs. Reminiscent to the work of Joep van Lieshout the tub is made out of a fiberglass which was only slightly sandpapered, still showing a lot of structure. The beautiful green color was based on the color of the bottle of Belgian beer Vedett when illuminated by the sun.

Although the Le Jardin Bohémien-universe already is quite impressive, Jeanpierre still has plans and dreams for the future. The first project he wants to tackle is finishing the kitchen which solely will serve the lunchroom. As the finishing of it took longer then expected some servings, like the pies, are still being prepared in Jeanpierre and Kristine’s private kitchen on the first floor. With the new kitchen, new possibilities arise which Jeanpierre doesn’t want to pin down yet. It is possible that he and his wife will expand the menu themselves or he is open to someone joining them. This also applies to the vintage furniture showroom, which has been lacking attention a little the last months because of some interesting interior design projects. Jeanpierre’s plan is to focus more on artisinal goods and reduce the number of furniture pieces on display, but he has also expressed his openness to a second party joining him.

Beside this openness for future developments when it comes to the elements of Le Jardin which are already present, Jeanpierre has also expressed his dream which would complete the vision he has for Le Jardin Bohemien. As a garage is located right behind the building of Le Jardin he hopes that one day some of the cars will disappear and an open garden will evolve out of the area. Truly offering a bohemian garden to visitors.

Despite this laying ahead in the future, we definitely can image that Jeanpierre’s enthusiasm and vision, at one point, will succeed in creating this dream.

When in Gent make sure to enjoy the aesthetic eye and wonderful hospitality of Jeanpierre and Kristine, for more information and reservations see here!

Photography by Ria Roberts.