ART AND CRAFT
It has taken years but Claudia and Henrik Rasmussen’s hard work has turned a rundown house into a family home filled with inherited treasures and favourite finds
It took vision and determination to rescue this Copenhagen period home from years of unsympathetic and unsightly adjustments
Acrumbling house that was falling apart at the seams was not exactly what Claudia Rasmussen and her husband Henrik were hoping to find when they began househunting in 2004. But there was something enchanting about the tatty property and its generous garden that appealed to the couple. ‘The house spoke to me,’ says Claudia. ‘We could see it needed a complete, top-to-toe renovation, but we felt we could take it on. We had no money back then, so we had to do everything ourselves.’
The couple moved into the house and began stripping it down and taking it back to basics. The previous owners had divided the property into two flats and moved the kitchen. Distressingly, they had also torn out the original painted wooden wall panels. ‘We found the remnants when we stripped the walls,’ says Claudia. ‘They’d probably used them as firewood. It was an awful shame.’
Their first project was to remove the exterior stairs and put a new staircase inside. Then they replaced floors, windows, the heating and insulation. They relocated the kitchen to its original spot and added a new bathroom. The most recent project involved replacing the old conservatory and building a terrace outside. What Claudia describes as ‘functionality’ was key to the project. ‘If a house doesn’t flow, it doesn’t work,’ she says. Now the rooms flow seamlessly and each space is light and bright.
The couple’s three children, William, 15, Katarina, 13, and Natalie, eight, were all born in the house, which has grown organically as the family’s needs have
altered. ‘This house is amazing – it changes as the family grows up,’ says Claudia. ‘Upstairs, we originally had to walk through all the bedrooms to get to the back room. To solve the problem, we reconfigured the space and then added a room in the attic for Natalie.’
Claudia’s decorating style is eclectic, mixing precious, inherited pieces with interesting purchases from junk shops and garage sales. ‘I like my things to have a story,’ she explains. Equally important is texture. ‘It’s not just about the eyes, it’s about how things feel, too.’
As with so many Scandinavian homes, white was chosen for the walls. It has the added bonus of being a good backdrop to showcase Claudia’s collections of vases, pottery, mugs and chopping boards. ‘You can add bits and pieces without it getting messy,’ says Claudia. ‘My brown and black Sixties and Seventies pottery stands out so well.’
Looking back, Claudia can hardly believe the couple did all the renovations while both working full-time and looking after three children. ‘Since we moved in, there has always been a project on the go,’ she adds. ‘I don’t mind living in a mess with plaster dust everywhere but it was chaos when William was born, and again when Katarina came along, as we were doing the bathroom.
‘If we had had the money back in 2004, it would probably have been easier for us to tear the house down and completely start over,’ Claudia reflects. ‘Now, though, after all our hard work, this is our perfect home and we have it just the way we want it.’