Beneath the surface: the stories in an artist’s Belgian home

The only way is up: an emerald-green central staircase fills the house with light. Photograph: Mr Frank/Living inside

Bart van Nuys is a maverick, a multi-disciplinary artist and interior designer, plus an art and antiques dealer. His home, a three-storey townhouse in central Antwerp built in 1856, is testament to his creative spirit.

“I sculpt the space and ‘paint’ it with objects. I look at a room like a piece of paper and fill it with a 3D composition. It is intuitive, a neon light here, a touch of fur there, light over here, darker there. I am trying to fill the paper, tuning the space until there is a moment when I think: there, I have found it.”