[Advertisement – this post is based on a press trip, but all words and opinions are my own]
Today I have more from my recent trip to Copenhagen with Georg Jensen and Garde Hvalsøe. After a day at Georg Jensen’s fascinating HQ, we were treated to something very special indeed – a look around the beautiful home of Thomas Schlosser Svendsen. Thomas is the owner of Klassik Copenhagen, Scandinavia’s largest dealer of original vintage furniture, ceramics, lighting and art, and his passion for Danish design was evident throughout.
Spanning four floors, the house occupies a former customs warehouse in the waterside neighbourhood of Holmen. Thomas thought the renovation of the old building had been done rather blandly when he first moved in, so he set about stripping back partition walls and plasterboard to expose more of the period features. The result is a stunning space with gnarled beams, arched windows, dark-stained floorboards and crisp white walls – the perfect monochrome backdrop for his incredible collection of vintage pieces.
The ground floor acts largely as an entertaining space, complete with a grand piano, striking artwork and black leather sofas. At the rear, opening onto the canal, sits an informal dining area centred around a Kjærholm PK54 table, with a prototype of what would go on to become Poul Henningsen‘s classic PH6 lamp hanging above. There’s also a small kitchen with teak fronts and a sleek black marble worktop – ideal for mixing cocktails and G&Ts.
On the first floor is an open-plan living space with an L-shaped Flexform sofa and black Poul Kjærholm tables and chairs arranged either side of a larger kitchen, constructed using the same materials as the one beneath. Soft-pile rugs cleverly zone the different areas and create a warm, welcoming feel, while low-level coffee tables and marble plinths provide perfect spots for displaying an eclectic range of sculptures and ceramics. I particularly loved the huge Hans Christian Rylander paintings on the wall, and the iconic PP225 ‘Flag Halyard’ chair – a steel, rope and sheepskin tribute to Modernists such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, designed by Hans J. Wegner in 1950. I also spied a few vintage Georg Jensen pieces, including Henning Koppel’s famous ‘Pitcher 978’, champagne goblets and a pair of beautiful silver candlesticks – proof that these really are timeless designs, made to be used and loved for decades.
Above the living area are three guest bedrooms – two singles with minimalist daybeds, plus a double with doors opening onto a Juliet balcony. The latter was quite possibly my favourite room in the house thanks to its serene cream, grey and white colour scheme and cane ‘PK24’ chaise-longue, designed by Poul Kjærholm for Fritz Hansen – the ideal spot to sit back and watch life on the water below. Also on this level is a home office decorated in warm tones of brown and tan.
The entire top floor is taken up with a vast master suite, whose sloping ceilings, exposed rafters and moody colour palette combine to create a cosy, cocooning hug of a room. At one end is a sumptuous bed dressed in soft textiles and flanked by Louis Poulsen ‘AJ’ floor lamps; at the other, a freestanding bathtub watched over by a ceramic eagle made by Vilhelm Fischer for Royal Copenhagen. Open shelves and clothes rails are cleverly hidden behind the headboard and half-height partitions, providing lots of storage without breaking the space up.
There’s more clever storage on the stairs, where built-in shelves are used to create interesting displays in an area that’s under-used or overlooked entirely in so many homes. I’m not quite sure how anyone is supposed to reach the books on the higher shelves, but the effect is very impressive!
All in all, Thomas’ house is pretty much my idea of a dream home – elegant and super-stylish, but also intimate and tactile. What’s more, it’s proof that you really don’t need to follow trends to create something very special – in fact most of the pieces shown here were designed in the 1960s or earlier, yet they haven’t dated at all. I realise his decor budget was a lot larger than most, but I reckon choosing things that we’ll keep for years to come is an approach we can all take, whether we have a lot to spend on our homes or just a little.
My trip to Copenhagen was hosted by Georg Jensen and Garde Hvalsøe, who covered my travel, accommodation and expenses.
All photography by Abi Dare
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