A conversation with Femke Hofhuis of Femm Amsterdam a designer who finds tension in texture, harmony in colour, and meaning in the everyday.
There are designers who decorate, and then there are designers who translate. The kind who walk into a room, or a life and quietly read what’s missing, what wants to be amplified, what simply needs to be heard. Femke Hofhuis is one of them.
Femke is the founder of Femm Amsterdam, a creative studio she launched in 2020 after a decade-long career as a set designer. Based in Amsterdam, the studio creates emotionally resonant artworks, objects, and spatial concepts defined by flowing forms, reflective surfaces, and warm, radiant colour. Almost everything is custom-made, designed in direct response to a person, a space, or an idea.
Her work has gained international recognition. She was the first Dutch designer to present at the ME Dubai hotel by Zaha Hadid, for which she also developed a limited-edition textile collection. She has collaborated with global partners across the UAE, Hong Kong, and India, and with brands including ME by Meliá Hotels and interior architecture studio ROAR. She also designed the Dott for Mare Studio. Her work has been featured in Vogue Netherlands, ELLE Decoration, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, and de Volkskrant Magazine, among others.
She lives beside a canal in Amsterdam, where three waterways meet. She meditates in the mornings. We talked about contrast, colour, and what it means to truly slow down.
What materials, textures, and colours do you reach for most when designing an interior?
I love working with contrast in materials. I mix soft fabrics, bouclé, wool with harder ones like resin, metal, and ceramic. I’m drawn to materials that catch the light and bring a sense of movement into a space. That contrast isn’t just something you see in my interiors; it runs through my objects and designs as a whole.
The question I keep returning to is: how can something hard, like metal, still carry softness? Through fluid forms, through colour, through movement in the design. That tension between strength and tenderness is what gives a piece its energy.
With colour, I’m always chasing warmth and vibrancy and again, contrast. Coral, apricot, soft pinks and gold tones, paired with fresh accents like sage green or pale yellow. For me, it’s never about one dominant colour. It’s about the dialogue between shades, how they strengthen each other, how together they create both tension and balance.
Walk us through your creative process.
My process doesn’t always begin with an object. It begins with a person, a space or sometimes simply with the desire to work with a particular material.
Almost everything I make is custom. I start by reading: what’s missing here? What deserves to be amplified? Which colours, shapes, or materials resonate with this person, this place, this idea?
From there, an intuitive translation takes shape in colour and material. In the first phase, I work fast, almost like an instinctive reaction. That initial response is usually surprisingly accurate. Then I refine, until everything holds in balance, in energy, in feeling.
I also design through collaborations, like my current work with Mare Studio. I actually find it inspiring to work within a set of constraints and treat them as a design challenge. That’s how I approach complete collections, rugs, mirrors, tableware or more specific commissions, like the towel collection for the ME Dubai hotel by Zaha Hadid. A particular technique, a craft tradition, a target audience, a material: these become the starting point that both challenges and guides me.
In a world that rarely slows down, what helps you find stillness?
Water plays a significant role in my life. Our home in Amsterdam sits along the water, with a view of the spot where three canals meet. That view brings me calm every day but it’s also alive: boats passing, ducks, the reflections of light dancing across the surface.
I don’t find rest in emptiness. I find it in harmony. That’s true of our home too: a place in balance, where every object has been chosen with care and placed with intention.
I also hold firmly to a morning routine. It’s my anchor. I can be naturally chaotic, and this helps enormously. Meditation, journalling, yoga together they regulate my nervous system, so I can create, speak, and act from a place of calm and confidence.
Is colour and material purely aesthetic for you, or does it go deeper into the emotional, even the ritualistic?
For me, colour is never just aesthetic. It works directly on the subconscious. It can raise energy, soothe, or give direction. Materials carry that too: a matte texture feels entirely different from polished glass, a soft fabric from stone.
I think of colour and material as daily rituals subtle influences that shape how we feel, often without us noticing. They determine so much of how we experience a space.
I’m deeply sensitive to this myself. In a room that feels out of balance dark, colourless I become uncomfortable. I can feel low. But in spaces with natural materials like textiles and wood, and colours that give me energy, I come alive.
What’s the most beautiful compliment you’ve ever received about your work?
It was at a summer event. A girl came up to me, I recognised her immediately. She had bought one of my pieces early on, when I had only just started.
She said: “It makes me happy every single day.”
Every. Day.
Can you imagine something having that kind of impact on someone’s mood?
The piece was inspired by a sunset over a green field. It carries something optimistic and warm and at the same time fresh and alive. The right energy.
That compliment stayed with me. That’s what it’s all about.
Do you have a small ritual or object that helps you unwind?
I don’t need a specific ritual but I do need small moments of stillness. Sometimes that’s simply lying on the floor with my dog Takkie on a rug.
I’d genuinely recommend it to anyone: lie down on a rug more often. The texture is soft against your body. It brings you back into yourself almost immediately. For me, it’s almost meditative.
Femke Hofhuis is the founder of Femm Amsterdam, a creative studio based in Amsterdam specialising in custom objects, art, textiles, and spatial design. You can explore her work at femm.amsterdam or follow her on Instagram @femm_amsterdam.
