About Us

The story of how Neo-Plasticism met dog grooming — and refused to apologize.

Founded in Amsterdam, 2019. A salon where every haircut is a composition, every bath a study in primary-color harmony.

EST. 2019

Our Origin

Blok & Borstel was born from a simple observation: dog grooming, like art, is the act of imposing order on chaos. A tangled Goldendoodle and an unfinished canvas share the same problem — too much noise, not enough structure.

Our founders — trained in both fine art and canine care — asked: what if we applied the rigorous principles of De Stijl to the grooming table? What if every cut followed the universal laws of vertical and horizontal? What if we abolished the diagonal entirely?

The answer is Blok & Borstel. A salon that treats every dog as a living composition. We don't follow grooming trends. We follow Mondrian.

Amsterdam · Since 2019

The Blok & Borstel Manifesto

On the Neo-Plastic Grooming of Dogs

  1. The diagonal is the enemy of good grooming. We work only in verticals and horizontals.
  2. Every dog contains within it a universal form. Our task is to remove the particular and reveal the essential.
  3. Color is applied with intention. Red bows for courage. Blue collars for calm. Yellow bandanas for joy. Nothing is decorative — everything is compositional.
  4. The grooming table is a canvas. The scissors are a brush. The fur is paint. We do not groom dogs — we compose them.
  5. Symmetry is a lie. True beauty lives in asymmetric balance — a longer ear here, a shorter trim there. Mondrian never centered anything, and neither do we.
  6. We reject the ornamental. No bows shaped like butterflies. No glitter. No rhinestones. Only the pure expression of geometric form.
  7. Every dog that leaves Blok & Borstel is a composition — numbered, catalogued, and admired. They are not pets. They are art.

The Composers

Our team of geometric groomers — each a specialist in the Neo-Plastic arts.

IV

Piet

Head Composer

15 years of geometric grooming. Piet sees every dog as a Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue. Specializes in Poodle restructuring and Schnauzer linearization. Refuses to cut diagonals.

Gerrit

Nail Architect

Gerrit approaches each nail as Rietveld approached furniture — an intersection of planes meeting at precise right angles. Certified in canine podiatry and De Stijl philosophy.

"The nail is a microcosm of the universal."

Theo

Bath Master

Our Space

The salon itself is a composition. White walls intersected by black structural beams. Red, yellow, and blue accent planes at every joint — a direct homage to the Rietveld Schröder House. Each grooming station is an independent composition within the larger work.

Theo oversees all bathing operations. He believes water is the universal solvent of chaos, and that a properly composed bath can reveal the hidden geometry in any dog. His Broadway Boogie Blowouts are legendary — rhythmic, precise, and deeply compositional.