Isabella Oliver founder's tangerine dream house

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The first thing you notice about Baukjen de Swaan Arons is her flaming red hair, which cascades in gorgeous Titian curls about her shoulders. And one of the first things you notice about her home is the vivid orange linoleum that covers the kitchen floor. Curiously, orange is also the colour of the logo of Isabella Oliver, the online maternitywear company that Baukjen set up with her husband, Geoff, and business partner, Vanessa Knox-Brien. Before launching the business, Baukjen also worked in marketing for a telecommunications company by the name of – you’ve guessed it – Orange. 

The orange theme goes further still. Baukjen and Geoff are both Dutch, and orange is Holland’s national colour. The house where Baukjen grew up had orange flooring and orange carpets. And the brickwork of Baukjen and Geoff’s three-storey Victorian townhouse in Hampstead, where they live with their three children – Oliver, seven, Sebastian, five, and Pippa, four – is orange too. 

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