BASIC INSTINCT
Some people choose a home based on is location, its design features or its kitchen space, But for Danish interior designer Susame Rutzon, it was all about intuition.
“I’m attracted to textures, textiles, shapes and colours so that’s how it becomes curated”
Susanne Rützou has always been intuitive. The former fashion designer, who now does interiors for private clients, follows her instincts rather than prevailing trends, and her approach to choosing a home was no different — she went with a feeling. The two-storey apartment in a 1932 villa designed by celebrated Danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen was stunning in its classic Modernism but it was the garden backing onto a park that captivated her. “I had no idea I was looking for something like this but I noticed the sensation I had when I went outside and just felt this was it.” Famous Lauritzen buildings such as Radiohuset, the former headquarters of Danish broadcaster DR, are admired for being elegant yet down to earth. The architect’s former home in Østerbro, which has a discreet sign bearing his name next to the front door, had been divided into four apartments when Rützou bought hers two years ago. It’s functional and yet somehow grand. Honest structural details like solid plastered walls are elevated by oak parquetry floors and teak square-paned windows framing the view to the garden. “This house is very genuine and a bit rustic and I really like the mix of the unpretentious industrial details with these almost gentlemen’s club touches,” says Rützou. She repaired the windows, some of which are steel-framed, and polished the floors to enhance the patina of eight decades of use. The designer has otherwise changed very little, repainting most of the rooms her favoured grey and updating fittings. “I didn’t want to change the feeling and the spirit of the house because I think it’s special,” she says. Moving here with her two teenage children, Alpha and Felix, was a turning point for Rützou, a self-described workaholic who folded her fashion brand in 2014 after 25 years in the game. “It was this unique chance to reinvent myself — to reconsider how I should live and how to express myself.” This meant being more relaxed about details; for instance, she accepted well-crafted kitchen and bathroom cabinetry that weren’t to her taste and reused possessions that she’d outgrown aesthetically. “I’m getting more and more reluctant to be extravagant and just throw things out because I suddenly get tired of it.” Having left a huge and awkwardly laid-out apartment, Rützou wanted this home to be practical — “like living on a boat with a place for everything”. She spent most of her budget on built-in cabinets and bookshelves in the living room, her bedroom and the downstairs ››