Hand-Painted with Love | The Story Behind Hartendief

Hand-painted from the Heart

Hand-Painted with Love

As a child, Hylkia de Jong could disappear for hours into fairy tale books — places where trees could whisper, moons blew you a kiss, and ordinary things turned extraordinary. That sense of wonder never left her. Nature, stories, the feeling that somewhere — just out of sight — a little bit of magic is still hidden.

In 2015, she decided to shape that feeling into something real. Nurseries that weren't just beautiful, but carried that same fairy-tale spirit — where the moon has a face, a bear kisses you goodnight, and as a child you can simply believe, again, that anything is possible.

A year later, in 2016, Hartendief chose a different path. At a time when the nursery was flooded with endless white and sandy tones, and children's rooms stayed uninspired. While everything had to be beige and nothing stood out anymore, Hartendief sought out the dark — as one of the first to do so. A dark grey wall, scattered with white and copper stars, hand-cut from paper, a lamp with a moon face, smiling sweetly, and a big brown bear looking up, together with the animals on the lamp: foxes, hares, a squirrel and an owl, all gazing up at a thousand stars in the night sky.

It struck like lightning: the Sleepy Moon and Bear designs went viral on Pinterest, repinned millions of times by dreamers who opened the door to something exciting and full of atmosphere.

That childlike curiosity never faded. Every design is still dreamed up, drawn, and made locally — by skilled hands — at Hartendief, with the same gaze a child casts up at the stars, believing there could be more.

So go on, flick on the light, fly along to the stars and dream your dream... until it becomes reality.