In Conversation: Ruth Walleyn – From House Calls to House Style

Words: Polly

Photos:  Couleur Locale

You’ve had a less than usual route into interiors, explain how you went from being a vet, making house calls, to house styling with an interiors concept store?
I graduated in 1994 as a vet and immediately started my own practice, which I was very passionate about and soon my practice started to grow. Being based in the countryside meant I did many home visits – I always looked at the patient with one eye and the interior with my other! I had a couple of customers who visited flea markets and after taking care of their pets, I went to browse the customer’s shed and often went home with a nice candlestick or an old farmer’s basket. We did some sort of barter and soon had an attic filled with unique objects. In my free time I was always busy decorating my house.

In 2004 I traveled to Africa for the first time, more specifically to Djibouti. I was just divorced and wanted to get away. The desolation and the unknown appealed to me. On that trip I met Hendrik, an architect from Knokke. It was as if we had known each other for years, it clicked immediately and soon we fell madly in love with each other. We not only shared the passion for travel but also the interior passion.

On a subsequent trip to Senegal we bought as much as we could carry – wooden gourds and tribal chairs at the local market. Our children wondered what we were going to do with it. But that’s how the idea of ​​opening a store (Couleur Locale Concept Store) and we started to sell travel objects. Afterwards came the web shop and a second store (Couleur Locale Interior store).

Had you always wanted to be a vet, or was interior design an equal passion?
Veterinary was really the only profession that existed for me, this choice was already made as a child. Interior design was more of a hobby, I never saw that as a profession until much later.

As Couleur Locale took off, you were faced with a difficult choice. Was closing your vet practice a real wrench or a natural progression into interiors?
For a few years I combined my work as a veterinarian with the stores, but it became too much and choices had to be made. This was a gradual process, a difficult process also, with many tears and even criticism from my family. It took me 2 years to say goodbye to my vet practice, which was 6 years ago, but afterwards I knew it was the right choice.

Meeting your architect husband, Hendrik, seems to be one of those happy, chance meetings that lights a spark and alters the course of both your histories. Do you think you would have made the leap into interiors had you not met?
No definitely not. It was that chance encounter that changed my life. We now do everything together and that feels great

Your travels remind me of The Grand Tours undertaken in the 19th Century, the golden age of exploration and collecting. Did you feel like you were on a journey with more significance than a holiday?
Yes indeed, we never use the word vacation. We are travelers and prefer to go to places where there are no other travelers/ tourists. Social media has made it harder and harder to find remote places, it has changed travel patterns, with a lot more people traveling the world like crazy to post selfies of “instagrammable” places. To us that is traveling without a soul. We enjoy nature, other cultures, and are certainly not looking for MUST see places or highlights. We prefer the unknown, undiscovered.

How did you turn collecting into a business?
With trial and error and zero knowledge at the start.

Much of your collection has an ancient artisan elegance, a pared bake simplicity, with imperfections and a softness that’s both charming and restful. What underpins your buying choices?
I have a huge admiration for handmade things and buy purely by the feeling, which I personally like. The trick is to collect things and then combine them afterwards with what I already have. When I buy I immediately plan in my mind what I will do, how I will combine things.  I never look at the price, to the annoyance of my husband.

My favourite pieces are the wooden Notorial Acts, from Morocco, used by the Berber to record a marriage, will or deed of sale, because there was no paper available, and the Wooden Fish made from driftwood or canoes. How much of the Couleur Locale collection do you have at home and which are your favourite pieces?
I have a large collection that keeps growing. The fish from Kenya are certainly part of that, but also a large collection of baskets and small chairs from African tribes. I have five baskets from Morocco that are so tightly woven they are watertight – they are beautiful. I also collect bird litters from weaver birds, collecting one from each country and hanging up by my desk. There is much more, old wooden jugs, Koran tablets, henna cloths, bogolan cloths etc etc! My big favorites are Hima wooden milk jugs with woven lids, from Uganda. Brides-to-be lived in separate huts where they mainly had to eat and sleep a lot. The whole milk containers were used to add fat to the bride’s body (to make it thicker) – quite a different idea of beauty than the west!