As is often the case with the purchase of a new family home, for Dorthe and Jakob there were young children in tow – son Otto and baby daughter Ella. But this didn’t stop Dorthe from taking on the role of “construction manager” during the renovation of this 1920’s brick villa.
The challenge could have put off the faint-hearted, but Dorthe was not to be deterred. “I have a need to change and improve the aesthetic level, but I also have a low-tech gene that drives me to find solutions so that everything has its place and things are working as they should,” she explains.
The deep pink in the painting, bought at an art market, ties the living room scheme together, echoing the rosy hue in the freshly upholstered armchairs, which were secondhand buys.
Over four years, with Dorthe, Jakob and the kids still living in the house, it was gutted, and the layout rejigged to suit the functioning of a modern family. An open-plan kitchen and dining area was created downstairs as the hub of the home, centrally located with access to a terrace through double glass doors, while upstairs saw the inclusion of bedrooms and a spacious work area. A new roof and windows were also installed.
Then Dorthe endowed the home with a Scandinavia-meets-bohemia aesthetic. Walls and floors were painted white and the rooms filled with timber pieces and furniture in neutral colours, with the odd cheeky colour pop – often in neon hues – in cushions, artwork and mosaic tiles acting as beautiful accents.
Dorthe made the chic Chesterfield-style bedhead herself. The colour palette of lavender, aqua, grey, pink and gold gives the bedroom a distinctly feminine look.
These bursts of colour give the home a playful feel. So, too, do crafty elements such as small painted birch branches grouped together like an organic sculpture, a painted tree trunk on castors utilised as a side table, and brightly coloured woollen pom poms hanging by a window and a branch wrapped in wool yarn. Of her decorating style, Dorthe says “I think that things don’t necessarily have to be finished. Decorating should be regarded as a constant process that is a part of daily life.”
A tree branch is used as a shower curtain rod, an organic contrast in the crisp aqua mosaic-clad bathroom.
Completing the look of the revamped interior is a large number of indoor plants, each finding a home in the house – on a tabletop, windowsill or the floor.
Given the amount of greenery in the home, it’s no surprise to learn that Dorthe is a garden designer, with a penchant for creating a flow between inside and out. “The house and garden should be unified,” she says. And this sense of flow in her home has been partly achieved by bringing plants indoors and making the garden “habitable”.
