"Before it became a nine-room guesthouse, Seven One Seven was a Dutch fashion designer’s private Amsterdam pied-à-terre, a lovingly restored canal house where friends gathered for long weekends. And long before that, it was a 17th-century home occupied by a sugar trader, who added the 19th-century front house, right on the canal, to better display his wealth. When the current owners bought it in 1997, they had the fashion designer leave every little piece of the refined, spice trade–inspired aesthetic he’d cultivated for the building, from the Hague School paintings and tweed sofas to the brass bed frames and African pottery. So, when you stay at this hideaway in the heart of the city, it still feels quite like you’ve just wandered into the home of a well-to-do friend with excellent taste. The library-like living rooms, with their wingback chairs and fireplaces, are just the places to curl up à deux or to let the welcoming proprietors ply you with wine and cookies. The quiet back garden is just the respite needed from the busy city outside."