Anne Vanneste left France some six years ago to return to her native Bruges in Belgium, where she and her family own a historic brewery. In need of a place to live, she embarked on the adventure of transforming an all but abandoned space on the brewery compound into a bright new home.

“This house has probably been transformed a million times,” said Ms. Vanneste, a 36-year-old naval architect, showing the new version of her centuries-old, double-gable home in the villagelike center of the city, where her mother’s family has...