His comfortable tubs made reading in the bath fashionable again. His bold couches, like giant velvet butter-dishes, brought humor and flair to the living room. When he suggested yellow interiors make the home look sunny, the whole of Holland got out their paint brushes.

"I'm a minimalist," says Holland's most revered interior designer, Jan des Bouvrie. "I believe in the school of 'form must follow function.' Le Corbusier, for example, is like God for me!" Yet des Bouvrie has shocked many people too with the blatant statements his interiors make.

When you walk through his showroom, Het Arsenaal, in one of the poshest areas of Holland, what you see is all but slight. Blood-red chairs jump out from white backdrops. Curly candelabras dangle over expanses of tables resembling Formica landing strips. Couches are so spacious you could sail in them to America. Synthetics mingle unabashedly with natural materials, rendering topsy turvy our usual standards of beauty.

Holland is a social democracy, which means that a majority chose the way society is structured and managed. It is based on equality, which engenders conformity. Those who try to distinguish themselves are often seen as pretentious. Self-agrandisement is not left uncommented on. Des Bouvrie's attitude, not to mention his cocktail party guest list, is elitist, claim some critics (those who didn't get on the lists?).

These critics are horrified by the assumed grandeur of his interiors. They say his furniture needlessly carries price tags that only the rich can afford, that his interiors are for the privileged classes, that it's all snobbery.

While it's true that he caters largely to carriers of brand-name wallets, des Bouvrie is keen to stress he is not elitist intentionally. "I have grand visions, but I want to appeal to everybody. I have a weekly TV show in which I decorate a room with ideas accessible to all."

Like many gurus, he sells a vision, but even if you can't afford the saffron robes, you can always follow the principles.

One could say that it's because he is enthusiastic and curious about life that he has distinguished himself. When he travels, for example, which is often, he absorbs new ideas. "I always carry a black marker," he says, "and I scribble concepts constantly."

Anything, even the back of a cigar box, will do for paper. "I give the rough design to my staff or the manufacturer, who do an excellent job of working out the details. I hate the details. They confuse my view of the big picture," he says. "I was once told that all great designers work this way. And we don't do what we don't like."

Peering through his little glasses, des Bouvrie enjoys life: his cigars, a flow of coffee, comfortable things around him. This is the drive that made him go from redesigning his bed, to the house around him. His business is ever-expanding: He's planning more showrooms with the acquisition of new, spacious stone buildings in Holland. He was the architect for a series of houses inspired by a holiday in Curacao. The Newport Hotel in Huizen put aside a big budget to have its interior decorated by the guru.

When you talk to des Bouvrie he bubbles with enthusiasm. You almost feel, if you asked him, he'd redo your miserly little pad too. I'm sure if he could he'd have ideas to redesign all our living spaces! Just like influential trend creators Sir Terence Conran and Philippe Starck, des Bouvrie sees lines, shapes and colors everywhere and how they fit together for practical living -- yet not at the expense of luxury. Cherry wood, leather, sturdy plastics, velvets and linen, among others, make up his design repertoire.

As Holland's most famous living designer, des Bouvrie is someone to keep an eye on. He believes in his staying power among the designers of today.

As he says, "After all, we are making the antiques of the future!"