NLXL sells wallpaper worldwide that does its best not to look like wallpaper. Entrepreneur Rick Vintage (47) was always “busy-busy-busy”. He headed the graphic design agency Homemade Cookies and was also active in the hospitality industry in The Hague, with the Jetlag Lounge club and the Pastis brasserie. At its peak, he had seventy employees. “A lot of stress”, says Vintage. And then with a laugh: “Certainly for someone who is not very good at management.” Vintage sold his companies and started a new business in luxury wallpaper at the end of 2010. This time they would do it differently, he promised his wife Esther. “I said: this will be a stress-free company. Without employees and without a telephone. Ten weeks a year, during the school holidays, we go out with the family. And we only work two days a week.” With a grin: “Only the latter has not been entirely successful.”
