Architect Stine Marie Rosenborg and her partner Peter live in this simply decorated apartment in Copenhagen, where restrained Danish style emanates from every vignette. Stine has perfected minimal design that still feels warm and cozy, and the soft Nordic light that pours in helps a lot.

“Some days parts of the apartment feel like a painting by Vilhelm Hammershøi,” Stine shares. Like the light, the home’s decor isn’t harsh, in your face, or full of contrast, but rather simple, soft, and organic. With natural fabrics and muted colors, the home is the perfect place to wind down after a day of cycling the streets of Copenhagen.

Our Style: I would describe our home as calm, very personal, and cozy. I love to surround myself with muted colors, and it is nice to come home to this calm apartment after a long day at work. We try not to get too influenced by new trends but always consider new furniture and colors very carefully.

Inspiration: Instagram has become a huge inspiration for me over the years, both personal and work-wise. I still love to get inspiration from a good magazine—paper is still much better than the screen.

Favorite Element: I love the light in the apartment—the soft Nordic light. Some days parts of the apartment feels like a painting by Vilhelm Hammershøi.

Biggest Challenge: I always want to change things around. We always have a DIY project or something else going on in the apartment and I tend to move on to the next project before we have finished the last one.

What Friends Say: We often hear the label “The Gray Home” when friends and family talk about our apartment and they are quite right.

Biggest Embarrassment: How long it sometimes takes us to finish up the little things around in the apartment. Like hiding a lamp cord in the ceiling—it took us about one and a half years.

Proudest DIY: That must be the closet in our bedroom. It’s an IKEA hack with the PAX closets made as a built-in. It was a challenge to get it level since the floors in the apartment are old and uneven, but I think we did pretty well.

I am also happy with our twist on the IVAR cabinets (also from IKEA); we painted them in two different colors—with the red surprise on the inside. The red color is from a historic color chart developed by Flügger and the National Museum of Denmark. I fell in love with the name of the color—Etruscan Red, which is one of the reasons it ended up being that specific one.

Biggest Indulgence: My biggest indulgence is that I cannot stop buying new plants, fresh flowers, and ceramics.

Best Advice: Surround yourself with things that makes you happy (that sounds really Marie Kondo, but she does have a good point) and bring nature and life into your home with plants.

Dream Sources: Furniture: Menu, Carl Hansen & Søn, or beautiful pieces from Paustian. Paint: Next paint job I dream of doing with a chalk paint—Kalklitir or Jotun Lady. Plants: my local flower place, a small shop called Bak.

PAINT & COLORS
Living Room and Kitchen — Flügger, regular white and light beige
Dining Room – Weber Light Gray
Bedroom (and Closet) – Fired Earth, modernist White Matte Emulsion and Eggshell
IVAR Cabinets from IKEA – Flügger – Outside: Warm Gray; and Inside: Etruscan Red

LIVING ROOM
Sofa (Old model) — ILVA
Coffee Table – Vintage
Shelf System – Elfa
Karl-Johan Table Lamp – New Works
Ceiling Lamp by Hans-Agne Jakobsson – Vintage, from the ’60s
Mirror — IKEA
Pink Chair – Hand-me-down from my grandmother
Footstool — Vintage

DINING ROOM
Dining Table and Chairs – An old hand-me-down/vintage
Franklin Chandelier Tribeca Lamps — Menu
Desk – Vintage
Lampe Gras No. 206 – DCW editions
IVAR Cabinets — IKEA
Curtains – Homemade

KITCHEN
Kitchen Lamps – IKEA
String Shelf – Sting
Bench – DIY project
Mhy Pendant Lamp — Muuto
Kitchen Table and Chairs – Vintage
Stænger – IKEA
Bulletin Board – DIY project
Knobs – IKEA
Bin — Vipp
Ceramics – Lov I Listed, KH Würtz, Mette Duedahl and vintage pieces
Stool – Tolix

BEDROOM
PAX Closet – DIY project, IKEA
Bed Sheets – H&M Home
Bedspread — Society
Pillows – H&M Home and Society
Bamboo Lamp – Color & Co.
Signal SI433 Floor Lamp – Jieldé
Fair Trade Laundry Baskets made in Senegal
Curtain — &drape

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