11 Of Brussels Most Charming Interiors

For a glimpse at the sumptuous Art Deco and Art Nouveau interiors the Belgian beau monde liked to surround itself with during the 20th century, Brussels is an excellent choice. Throw in a recent batch of trendy concept stores and design galleries, and you’ve got a city whose indoor dwellings are a sight for sore eyes.

1. Van Buuren Museum

Museum

The Van Buuren Museum tells the story of David and Alice Van Buuren, a Brussels patron couple that moved among the most prestigious of artistic circles in the previous century. Nestled in Uccle, their villa, or ‘living academy’ as Alice would refer to it, is an Art Deco masterpiece in its own right where guests such as René Magritte and Jacques Prévert would swing by. Every meticulously thought-out room still boasts its original furniture, designed by the most en vogue designers of the day, including the Paris Studio Dominique pour Arts et Décoration and decorative artists Jaap Gidding and Léon Cachet.

Victor Horta’s Major Town Houses

There are four of them, and they’re all the product of the same visionary mind. Brussels is dotted with gems by 20th-century Art Nouveau hero Victor Horta, but it’s his four houses in the center of town, Ixelles and Saint-Gilles that have been selected to be part of UNESCO’s World Heritage list. If you have to pick just one due to time constraints, visit the Horta Museum. At the architects’ own home and atelier, even the doorknobs have an Art Nouveau twist to them.
Victor Horta’s Major Town Houses in Brussels, Belgium

2. Solvay Library

Library, School

The Solvay Library’s book and balcony-lined reading room speaks of grand academic ambitions. Originally erected in 1902 with the help of a host of Belgian greats – benefactor Ernest Solvay, architects Constant Bosmans and Henri Vandevelde and sociologist Emile Waxweiler – to house the Institute of Sociology, the venue was vandalized after it was left unoccupied after 1981. Now restored to its full glory with a basilica-shaped lecture hall and the original staircase, the library has become quite the nostalgic event venue.

3. Villa Empain

Museum

Often mentioned as a total work of art for the ultimate harmony between its exterior and interior, Villa Empain is Art Deco through and through. The 2500-square-meter villa was commissioned to Swiss architect Michel Polak in the early 30s by the just 21-year-old Baron Louis Empain. Behind the façades of polished granite lies an interior dictated by tight lines and further refined by large swaths of marble, precious woods, and innovative uses of glass and wrought iron (the front door is a thing of true beauty). Today, Villa Empain is a cultural center that aims to create a dialogue between the cultures of the East and the West.

4. Tropismes Libraires

Bookstore

In the Galeries des Princes, a more tranquil part of the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, we find the somewhat hidden bookshop Tropismes. One reason for looking it up is its renowned literature and fine arts sections; another is its Louis XIV-esque interior. A former dance school and jazz den, its ornate ceiling is clad in gold and its walls in lengthy mirrors.