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Nicola Beger | Interior artist

@nicolabeger

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Art furniture. Built-in pieces.
Limited series. Custom commissions.
Colour as structure. Antwerp atelier.
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Village of 1,700 in Germany. First office job at 16. Panic attacks at 25. Barcelona, Greece, Antwerp. Three moves in two years. A corporate career I was good at. A relationship I wasn’t. Then the inner work, Magali, and the second time I quit my job.

In November 2024, I went back to the garage. On my own terms this time:

I don’t just build things to sell. Every piece carries a bit of that story.

If you want to see how it comes together, I share the process here.

And if something speaks to you, my DMs are open. taken in Antwerp, Belgium by @nicolabeger

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5 months ago

I never saw trash. I saw materials with somewhere left to go. This is Second Act.

Eight found objects, rebuilt from the structure up. Not simply restored or repainted. I keep what the object earns and rework the rest. Colour isn’t only decoration here, it’s doing a real part of the structure.

Before touching a piece, I ask three questions. What is it, what can it become, and what does it need?

From there it goes into one of three modes, redesigned, reinterpreted or recontextualised, with three colour palettes running through the whole series.

Eight pieces drop across the season, 02 and 03 come first. Cool Authority runs deep blue and lilac, broken with fluor yellow, and both began as dark 1920s nightstands.

Nothing gets thrown away across the collection, so the turned feet off one piece come back as handles on the next. (Ok well, almost nothing.)

Every piece is numbered, one of eight, signed and dated, with a certificate and an origin card. Built in 2K PU and repairable, made to outlast the room it sits in. Once again.

Want first access?
DM me the word ACT and you’re on the list before each drop. From here, the collection lives in my stories.

Two down. Still can’t believe they’re finished. On to 01.

#furnituredesign #interiorarchitecture #designobject #limitededition #colourblocking taken in Antwerp, Belgium by @nicolabeger

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3 months ago

Just form, proportion and colour working together.
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This coffee table sits where it belongs. No blending in.
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Limited piece.
Dm for availability or custom colours. #furnituredesign #interiorarchitecture #colourblocking #antwerpdesign #collectibledesign by @nicolabeger

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8 months ago

After her mother died, a woman cleared out the family house. And somewhere between the boxes, she put this table on a secondhand site for free. 🥹

The table stood in the hallway with her mom’s phone on top. So for every call in that hallway, this table held the phone.

But the top was damaged, so I stripped the table back to bare wood. Then the shape showed itself.

The base is @thonet_official style, and you know the steam-bent wood from old Vienna bistro chairs.

Why lilac? Because the shape is soft. And a table with this much history deserved a soft color.

Then I sealed the paint with a durable 2-component finish. Now the table holds up for the next person who leans on it.

And look at this, the table has a new home.

Tulips sit on top now, where the phone used to be.

A hallway piece, given away for free, now loved again in lilac. 💜

#thonet #bentwood #furnitureflip #paintedfurniture #antwerpdesign by @nicolabeger

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11 days ago

@usbynightfest seen through a glass of water the morning after.

@garycard put a lime on a giant screen and warned the whole room his work is not for everyone.

Neither is mine, and I left Antwerp more sure of it.

As usual, between talks I found art in the everyday, like these folding chairs lined up.

And to stay true to the concept of reflections, I found this sculpture of glasses.

And of course my person who pushes me out of my atelier.

Which slide would you frame?

#usbynight #antwerpdesign #designfestival taken in Antwerp, Belgium by @nicolabeger

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13 days ago

People see a woman painting lamp shades. I see the material first. 🔵

Before I touch anything, I ask 3 questions:

- What is it?
- What can it become?
- What does the object need?

Nothing is decided until the material and the idea agree.

By the time the brush comes out, the choices are made.

The headphones go on and the music starts.

The noise is for the hands. The silence is for the choices.

What’s the last thing you threw out that deserved a second life?

#collectibledesign #functionalart #designart #antwerpdesign by @nicolabeger

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17 days ago

By the time I pick up a tool, the piece is already built in my head. The pen just catches it before it slips.

Before I strip anything back, I sit with the piece and draw. Three questions before I touch it: what is it, what could it become, what does it need. The middle one decides everything.

Colour happens here too, not as a layer on top. It's where I set the structure and decide what your eye does in the room.

Most of these drawings never get built. I'd rather kill an idea on paper than three weeks into a rebuild. The decisions you can't undo all happen before a single tool comes out.

Nothing is decided before material and idea agree. After that, it's only making it real. by @nicolabeger

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a month ago

I thought becoming an interior artist would mostly be about learning how to make better things.

There was a lot more learning in deciding what I actually believed.

What I was willing to make.
What I wasn't.
What I could charge.
When to listen to the material.
When to ignore the safer option.

And, probably hardest, when to make something before anyone else thought it was a good idea.

Still working on all of it.

Which one would you add? 👇 by @nicolabeger

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a month ago

Last year's collection, in one scroll.

Every piece here started with something that already existed. A discarded cabinet. An old office unit. A leftover material. A shape or structure worth keeping.
I rebuild them in structure, material and colour, keeping what deserves to stay and changing what doesn’t.

Not a makeover.
A second life.

If you have a piece, a space or just an idea, tell me about it. Link in bio. by @nicolabeger

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a month ago

I spend a ridiculous amount of time looking at old furniture, and before I drag anything into the atelier, these are the three questions I ask.

1. Can the faults be repaired well enough to justify the piece’s next life?

Wobbling, loose joints, damaged hardware or a bad finish are not automatically dealbreakers. The real question is whether the problems can be fixed properly, not just disguised for a quick before-and-after.

2. What is it made from, and what condition is that material actually in?

Solid wood, veneer, plywood and board all behave differently when repaired or redesigned. Check the edges, underside, joints and any signs of water damage. The label matters less than whether the material can survive what you want to do to it.

3. Are you buying it because you see a future for it, or because it’s cheap?

Cheap is not the same as worth having. If the only reason is “but it was only €20”, leave it. The better question is whether you actually want to live with it, change it, use it and keep it.

Not everything needs rescuing. The point is knowing what deserves a second life, what can actually handle one, and what should be left alone.

Still not sure about a piece?

Object Diagnosis drops at the end of the week. Get on the waitlist if you want first dibs.

Link is in my bio. by @nicolabeger

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a month ago

A lot of what gets thrown away isn’t useless. It’s just still being judged by the job it used to have.

Once you stop asking “what is this?” and start asking “what material, shape or structure is hiding inside it?”, things get more interesting very quickly.

Here are five things I would look at twice before throwing them out:

1. Marble or stone offcuts
A narrow strip, broken slab or leftover piece does not need to become another kitchen surface. It can become a shelf, tabletop, plinth, support or part of a completely new object.

2. Old doors and cabinet fronts
A door does not have to stay a door. Remove the hardware and suddenly you have a solid panel, often with proportions and details you would never bother making from scratch.
Tabletop, headboard, desk surface, shelving. Depends what the piece gives you.

3. Leftover timber and shelving boards
The awkward bits people keep because they are “too good to throw away”, then eventually throw away anyway.
A few useful lengths can become legs, supports, a small table, a pedestal or the structure for something that did not exist before.

4. Metal frames, rails and profiles
Old shelving systems, table bases, brackets, steel offcuts, rails.
Sometimes the useful part of an object is not the object at all. It is the structure holding it together. Cut it apart and those pieces can become legs, braces, handles or a completely different frame.

5. Old shutters, louvred panels and bits from house renovations
Shutters, old stair parts, timber trim, railing sections, wall panels, architectural leftovers. Things made for a building do not have to stay part of a building.
A shutter can become a cabinet front. A shaped timber detail can become the part an entirely new piece is designed around. Sometimes I don’t need the whole object. I just need the one part that makes me stop.

The point is not to save everything. It is to stop deciding an object’s future based only on what it used to be.

Sometimes the best part is the material. Sometimes the shape. Sometimes just one weird detail worth stealing.

That shift in thinking is basically where all my work starts.

[Continued in the comments 👇] by @nicolabeger

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a month ago

Quick honest one.

Every Second Act piece is one of one. Numbered, signed and rebuilt around the object and material I started with. Once it’s gone, I don’t reproduce it.

Not because I’m trying to manufacture scarcity. The starting point simply doesn’t exist twice. The proportions, old marks, material, repairs and decisions all belong to that particular piece.

So if one catches your eye, don’t assume there’ll be another version later. There probably won’t be.

Have a proper look while it’s still here. Everything available now, plus the pieces currently being built, is on my website. Link in bio. by @nicolabeger

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a month ago