Nostalgic The Smallest House

Nostalgic

Today a nostalgic post...not about tea though…

What many of you probably don't know is that the small house on Oude Hoogstraat 22 in Amsterdam, has been in our family for generations. More than 60 years ago, my mother started her first art shop in the tiny building. And now, decades later, Niels and I run our tea company from there. 

door handle the smallest house
door bell the smallest house

While I was sweeping the shop floor a few days ago, a mindless activity in itself...I suddenly realized how precious the broom that I held in my hands, is to me. It's the same broom my mother always used years before.

And as I looked around I saw more everyday items that I never really pay attention to, but that have come to mean so much to me and that remind me of my mother.

The brass door handle... how many times must she have touched it? The padlocks on the bars in front of the shop window, how many times will she have opened them? The worn threshold of nearly three hundred years old, how many times must she have stepped in over it?

tea room the smallest huse
scale the smallest house

The doorbell, with its signature ring that I will recognize from thousands.

The 'new' spiral staircase that she designed and had installed almost 60 years ago.

As the past spoke to me, I also saw the elements that Niels and I have added in recent years...

spiral staircase the smallest house
apothecary cabinet the smallest house

Our logo, based on the logo of my mother's first shop. The pharmacy cabinets with the countless drawers that store the most beautiful teas. The vintage scale, the restored tea room, the tea accessories, the smell of warm apple pie...

matcha whisk the smallest house
apple pie the smallest house

I felt nostalgic, but above all proud.

Proud of our company, proud of my mother and proud to follow in her footsteps.

In our own way we continue the family tradition and hope to do so for a very long time and perhaps one day pass it on to the next generation...

For a large part of her life Kirsten has had a passion for entrepreneurship and tea. Since 2014, she has been combining this with her husband, Niels, in the tea specialty store Het Kleinste Huis (The Smallest House in Amsterdam). Kirsten likes to write about things that keep her busy (this doesn't have to be just tea!).

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