Paul and Robin Jona literally moved up in the world when they exchanged their Dutch suburban mansion for an Amsterdam penthouse in 2013. The 3,100-square-foot home, on the 10th floor of a new building along Amsterdam’s inner waterfront, has two bedrooms, 2½ baths and wide city views. The building is on a tiny new artificial island, IJdok, connected to a reviving docklands area by a causeway. The couple—who live with their 15-year-old daughter, Jaden—paid about $1.68 million for the unit, and then spent more than $750,000 on a custom interior.
They sold their previous home—a four-story, 6,500-square-foot thatched-roof villa in Blaricum, a community a half-hour drive from Amsterdam—for $3.03 million in 2012. “A bad time to sell, but a good time to buy,” says Mr. Jona, 55, president of the Denmark-based satellite-communications division of Cobham, the U.K. defense company. He commutes to Copenhagen.
Robin, Paul and Jaden Jona in their Amsterdam penthouse.
FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALAmsterdam is undergoing a real-estate boom, with prices rising as much as 20% in 2015, says Barbara van der Grijp, owner of the local Engel & Völkers. She says apartments similar to the Jonas’ sell for up to $2.5 million. “We bought it from a drawing,” says Mr. Jona, “so we had no idea the view would be so nice.” The developers suggested a layout, but the Jonas decided to work with Jan-Evert de Brouwer, a Blaricum interior designer specializing in high-end residences, to create their own interior. The first big decision was where to put the walls. The space came with an open floor plan marked by a 92-foot wall of north-facing windows. The couple decided to break up the space. Mr. de Brouwer designed a home office at one end, and put a partial room divider between the living and kitchen areas, each side with a big-screen TV. The room divider leaves the windows unobstructed. “I didn’t want to see everything all at the same time,” says Ms. Jona, 52, a native of Delaware. Dutch families are often content with small bedrooms, but the Jonas wanted an American-style suite. They turned the suggested kitchen space into the master bedroom, and the suggested master bedroom into a walk-in closet. The kitchen extends from a side alcove to an island with a second cooking area. The interior cost about double what was budgeted, says Mr. Jona. One splurge: a color-adjustable LED lighting system that allows them to tweak the atmosphere. “On Queen’s Day,” says Mr. Jona, of the rollicking April holiday, “we make it orange,” the Dutch national color. Mr. Jona grew up in Eindhoven. They saved on the floors with blue-gray travertine, quarried in Turkey and cut in Italy—a relatively inexpensive option. Ms. Jona says she loves how its muted iridescence mimics the water. The living room—because of the building’s unusual angles—has a fanned wall. It is decorated with a stuffed shark caught on a family trip to Florida. The plan is to add a long white lacquer desk set off with tropical plants, a reminder of their landscaping in Blaricum, where they raised two older children, now in their own city apartments. When planning the move, Mr. Jona worried about feeling cooped up in a high-rise. “But because of the open view and open space, that feeling was gone right away,” he says. His wife, who revels in the diverse, walkable city, adds, “I feel more free here than I did there.” This article originally appeared on The Wall Street Journal.