Danish interior inspiration and growing into design classics

If you ever spend time in different people's homes in Denmark, you start to feel mild deja-vu as the same lights, chairs and ornaments start to appear over and over.

Danes with the means are socialised to buy design classics for their homes, from the Kay Bojesen Ape to Louis Poulson floorlights.

I have never really had the patience to save up and invest seriously in bonafide Danish design, cheap thrills at the British Heart Foundation furniture shop are more my style, but I'm seeing more and more young Danes on Instagram weave design classics into their homes but add enough individual touches that they don't look like a design hotel.

One of my current favourites is Sophie Juul Jensen, whose Instagram feed is full of Wegner wishbone chairs alongside Ikea stainless steel shelving, art prints in mediterranean blues and lemons in bowls everywhere:

JEG ER SÅ GLAD! TAK @lyrumrammer #matisse 💙💙💙💙

A photo posted by Sarah Juul Jensen (@s_jjensen) on Aug 28, 2015 at 9:05am PDT

friday flowers

A photo posted by Sarah Juul Jensen (@s_jjensen) on Sep 4, 2015 at 8:39am PDT

Alvar Aalto

A photo posted by Sarah Juul Jensen (@s_jjensen) on Aug 6, 2015 at 2:26pm PDT

😴😴😴

A photo posted by Sarah Juul Jensen (@s_jjensen) on May 7, 2015 at 2:05pm PDT

I also LOVE Marie Jedig, a blogger, model and Sienna Miller lookalike who just happens to live in a classic Copenhagen apartment full of design:

Bedroom seating #poulkjærholm #fritzhansen #pk22 #flos

A photo posted by MARIE STELLA WIBE JEDIG (@mariejedig) on Jul 1, 2016 at 7:24am PDT

New apartment pictures on the blog

A photo posted by MARIE STELLA WIBE JEDIG (@mariejedig) on Jun 15, 2016 at 10:36am PDT

I've been putting more thought into what I have and quality and quantity, and taking a cue from this persuasive Anna Dorfman post from a few years ago, I'm actually starting to see the appeal of owning things for their design value and picking items with your future self in mind.

And my future self definitely wants to live in a house full of design classics. Time to get saving.

Front room tour

One of my favourite things about moving into our little Victorian house last year was suddenly having room for all the hand-me-downs family heirlooms that my parents have been letting me hoard in their garage for the last couple of years.

One of the side benefits of my big Danish family is that when my Mum moved over to England she came with a white van full of 70s furniture that was out of style at the time and none of her relatives wanted. After 20 more years of robust use by me and my brother, she was ready to throw some of these things away, only I forced her to keep them for me until I had my own place. She wasn't always happy about a gigantic, mustard yellow Erik Jørgensen sofa taking up the whole garage, but she stuck to her word. Now that I have a front room, it is sitting in it, and still taking up all the space!

The colours for this room were chosen purely in honour of the sofa and the Tate Modern cushion that sits on it. While they were sort of an accident (I never thought I would decorate a room red, yellow and orange) I now LOVE them and spend a lot of time here, hanging out.

This room isn't finished yet. The floor is rubbish, there are no curtains and I have a Tom Dixon light I haven't hung yet (can't wait). But, meh, it's only decorating. It'll keep.





An old Kahler vase (a great-grandparent lived near the factory).





My prized Kate Bush poster from her Hammersmith Apollo shows last year. Sitting on top of an amazing cabinet I got for £20 in a  charity shop. It even had an amber glass knob so it matches the rest of the room. Fate!




I went on an origami crane making binge after a visit to the Japan shop recently...


Tiny, touristy Kabuki masks from a charity shop surrounding an amazing St Vincent screen print we got when we saw her in Nashville last year.