Ave Bradley, global senior vice president of design and creative director at Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, likes to spend a lot of time in the city where she’s developing a property before she puts together a design brief. “If you just hang out and absorb, a material and color palette starts to emerge,” she says. For the Kimpton De Witt, the brand’s first European property, Bradley was inspired by the Dutch people’s appreciation for nature, which she found in Amsterdam’s secret courtyards behind townhouses, and in the markets with fresh-cut flowers, among the city’s other quiet highlights. She wanted to create a “really clean, refined, and precise architectural envelope that bridged the gap between modernity and Dutch history,” she says. The challenge was applying her vision to the 274-room and 15-suite property, which comprises three historic Dutch townhouses from the 16th century and two Brutalist buildings from the 1980s that formerly housed a Crowne Plaza Hotel.

To make the difficult project a reality, Bradley looked to the London office of Michaelis Boyd to evoke “the feeling of Amsterdam, but in a contemporary way,” explains founding partner Tim Boyd. While Amsterdam is flush with dark, moody hotels, Bradley “wanted to turn that inside out and create an architectural shell that we could put trinkets and things in,” he adds.

Part of the process and a major obstacle was creating a seamless flow of movement through the property’s disparate spaces, including the three-story Little House, the childhood home of Dutch playwright P.C. Hooft, that now houses the hotel’s most unique suite. “There were really awful carpets, low ceiling lights, and bad circulation in the existing structure,” Boyd points out. So, in a former lounge in the heart of the property, the team knocked down a glass roof and created an open-air courtyard with cascading plants, swing chairs, and three floor-to-ceiling glass walls that bring natural light into the common spaces of the hotel, including the Wyers Bar and Restaurant, Miss Louisa Coffee & Beignets, and the dramatic House Bar, located inside the historic Queen of Holland building. Here, custom bird-patterned wallpaper runs between original beams and timber paneling in the glossy teal-painted room. That strong botanical theme is hinted at in the entrance, where a curved green terrazzo marble wall complements the softness of a living wall, which runs the length of the entrance façade. These seemingly contrasting pieces work cohesively to “draw you in,” he says.

A cool monochromatic palette of gray and white (notably in banquettes in the public areas and a ceramic fireplace) is amplified by both soft and bold colors. For instance, a blue and white graphic tiled floor in the lobby refers to traditional delft tiles. That color scheme shows up in guestroom bathrooms and accent furniture that is covered in bold floral patterns with dragonflies juxtaposing oak floors, pale gray walls, and contemporary Dutch paintings. These nature motifs create a menagerie in the otherwise minimal rooms: bedside sconces are shaped like little birds, coat hooks by the door resemble foxes or rabbits, and doorknockers look like deer, elk, or bees.

In Amsterdam, Boyd notes, people are cool without even trying. “We tried to make the design look effortless,” he says, “but also a little bit quirky.”