Home tour A Copenhagen flat full of pattern

WHO SAYS SMALL SPACES SHOULD BE ALL WHITES AND NEUTRALS? NOT ARTIST SARAH HVASS, WHO’S FILLED HER FLAT IN COPENHAGEN WITH BUSY PATTERNS AND EYECATCHING COLOUR

On a good day, I call my style ‘unafraid’,” says artist and designer Sarah Hvass of her tiny home in the middle of Copenhagen. Where most of her fellow Danes choose white walls, pale wood and natural fibres, Sarah has gone for zig-zag wallpaper, multiple floor coverings and brave colour choices. All of which provide a surprisingly sympathetic setting for her collection of Danish furniture, vintage ceramics and her own artwork. “I was after an ‘international’ style,” she says, “but one which showcases classic Danish design from the 60s.”

A LOVE OF PATTERN

Pattern is close to her heart. Squares, diamonds, chevrons and stripes all make an appearance – often more than once, and in different materials. “I love to repeat the same pattern,” she says. “I think patterns are poetry. True, some poetry is really bad but at least it provokes a reaction.”

This love of pattern led her to choose four different types of flooring. The entrance hall is tiled in grey marble; the bedroom and living room have square parquet; the bathroom a multi-coloured diamondshaped vinyl floor, and the kitchen chevrons, picked up in the zig-zags of the wallpaper in the bedroom. The multiple flooring types help define different areas.

SMALL DECISIONS

The size of the apartment – a mere 46sq m with just one tiny bedroom – pushed her »

creativity to the limit. The bed was built on the spot by customising a Swedish daybed and adding built-in storage made from MDF. Her bedside table slides out at the foot of the bed and is just big enough to accommodate a cup of coffee and a paperback.

“The thing about living in a small space,” she says, “is that you have to make decisions and stick to them. There’s not much room for manoeuvre. I love every square centimetre of this apartment because I have thought about each and every one.”

Despite the confined space, Sarah decided not to declutter. “Small apartments with nothing in them look even smaller,” she says. “It’s contradictory but it’s true.”

She displays glassware and ceramics that she’s picked up in flea markets alongside classic pieces from Scandinavian companies like Iittala and Normann Copenhagen (see page 8). Healthy-looking houseplants and vases full of flowers are chosen to complement her distinctive colour scheme.

NATURALLY COLOURFUL

Colour is as important to Sarah as pattern. “Colour enriches your home and your life,” she says. Her colour combinations – burgundy red, pale blue and yellow, olive green and purple – may be unusual but to her, they simply reflect nature. “I’m always surprised that I have to explain my colour choices,” she says. “To me they are totally natural. They feel generous and sexy. White, on the other hand, drains the life out of everything. My one piece of decorating advice is: ‘Never use white. Just don’t. Stay away from it’.” When she puts it like that, it’s hard to disagree.

Left and above: squares and chevrons contrast to beautiful effect; some of Sarah’s illustrations sit among flea market finds and cacti planted in corks by Kork

This page: posters from her travels and Copenhagen’s design museum, alongside pieces of artwork and fleamarket treasures, bring interest and personality to Sarah’s apartment and, she insists, makes the whole space feel bigger rather than smaller. Opposite: multiple flooring types help to define different areas – in this case the square parquet of the dining area and the kitchen’s chevronpatterened vinyl

This page: Sarah had the bed built on site. Combining a Swedish day bed and clever use of MDF, it features a pull-out shelf and drawers at the foot of the bed. Opposite page: to save space, her desk was fitted above the radiator. The chair, by Johnny Sørensen, is another Danish design classic