Houzz Tour: A Designer-Free Home for a Fashion Blogger
To fashion blogger Maria Jernov, style is far more important than designer labels, and her home definitely reflects this
Maria Jernov makes a living blogging about fashion, following the most recent trends and knowing about whatever is happening with the big fashion companies and the most expensive brands. You would think that her home in the heart of Copenhagen, in Denmark, would contain designer furniture and all the ‘right’ brands. But in her cosy attic apartment with beautiful black beams in the ceiling, expensive furniture and famous design are practically non-existent. Actually, the 23-year-old fashion blogger and her boyfriend, Sebastian, have made a virtue of decorating the place with old, secondhand furniture, which they restore or paint themselves in order to create a personal touch.
“I don’t want to be too safe in my decor,” Jernov says. “Yes, Eames chairs are good-looking, and if one day I want them, I will get them. But to me it’s more important to follow my age and my budget by creating something I find cool and fun. And, really, most of what I have at home are things I have sourced and made into my own.”
“I don’t want to be too safe in my decor,” Jernov says. “Yes, Eames chairs are good-looking, and if one day I want them, I will get them. But to me it’s more important to follow my age and my budget by creating something I find cool and fun. And, really, most of what I have at home are things I have sourced and made into my own.”
If you ask Jernov what the most important thing about her home is, the answer will be: making it cosy.
“My home has to be warm. There have to be lots of blankets and cushions, and the sofa needs to be very comfortable,” she says. “I will never find myself in one of those white box-houses with a daybed, because it is impossible to sit on a sofa bench and watch TV and really relax.
“I need people to know that we live here and that we’re comfortable, so things are allowed to be out in the open. I don’t want it to be overly neat and tidy,” she says.
“My home has to be warm. There have to be lots of blankets and cushions, and the sofa needs to be very comfortable,” she says. “I will never find myself in one of those white box-houses with a daybed, because it is impossible to sit on a sofa bench and watch TV and really relax.
“I need people to know that we live here and that we’re comfortable, so things are allowed to be out in the open. I don’t want it to be overly neat and tidy,” she says.
You could say that the decor of Jernov’s home is an expression of her opinion on clothes and fashion. “If you only buy Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, then it’s really not about having good style; it’s about having the money to buy those labels, and that’s not an indicator of whether you have good style,” she says. “It is much more important to be able to combine different items that you think are nice. If you have the money, it’s easy to buy ‘good style,’ but it doesn’t necessarily give you a personal style.”
In fact, the blue Beetle Lounge Chair from Gubi is the only real piece of designer furniture in her home. Jernov has invested in the chair because she thinks it’s “super nice.”
In fact, the blue Beetle Lounge Chair from Gubi is the only real piece of designer furniture in her home. Jernov has invested in the chair because she thinks it’s “super nice.”
The dining room furniture is a good example of Jernov and Barrett’s ability to find old furniture and give it a new lease on life. They found the dining table on a Danish secondhand site called the Blue Paper and then restored and painted it themselves.
“And we got the chairs from the Hellerup Beach Hotel when they re-did the whole interior a few years ago. There were perhaps 60 similar chairs and I really wish we had taken more of them,” she says. The chairs have been painted with the same paint as the table, and have also been reupholstered with matching fabric.
The delicate old-fashioned blue is a perfectly deliberate choice, as she tells us: “Blue has always been my favourite colour, and I find the blue of the dining table and the chairs incredibly beautiful.”
“And we got the chairs from the Hellerup Beach Hotel when they re-did the whole interior a few years ago. There were perhaps 60 similar chairs and I really wish we had taken more of them,” she says. The chairs have been painted with the same paint as the table, and have also been reupholstered with matching fabric.
The delicate old-fashioned blue is a perfectly deliberate choice, as she tells us: “Blue has always been my favourite colour, and I find the blue of the dining table and the chairs incredibly beautiful.”
All in all, Jernov feels quite uneasy if there is no colour to create a warm and relaxed atmosphere. “Actually, I don’t like black. This is why those beams are a boyfriend compromise,” she says, laughing while looking at the beams in the ceiling, which she finds nice, but more Barrett’s style than her own.
“I would prefer to have Herringbone parquet and three lounges. But as Sebastian argued before we moved into the apartment, ‘We all know that you will get what you want at some point, Jernov, so let us start out living the way I would like to live.’ And, actually, I think it’s fun to furnish an apartment like we’ve done this one.”
“I would prefer to have Herringbone parquet and three lounges. But as Sebastian argued before we moved into the apartment, ‘We all know that you will get what you want at some point, Jernov, so let us start out living the way I would like to live.’ And, actually, I think it’s fun to furnish an apartment like we’ve done this one.”
Jernov thinks the colour of the sofa, which is also secondhand, is a bit too yellowish compared to the other blue tones. But she says its shape is exceptionally beautiful. “And you can always reupholster it, even if it is expensive. Just the fact that it’s blue makes me feel at ease.”
Jernov loves to cook and does it almost every day. Her boyfriend vacuums and makes sure the apartment is not too messy. “The kitchen is used constantly and I love having things out because we actually use them,” she says.
“I found my fish board at a secondhand market, and we don’t use it for fish, but for pizza. My boyfriend once read that pizza trays are toxic, so when we get pizzas delivered, we have ‘pizza-fish’ while watching television,” says Jernov.
When it comes to the set-up and decor of the apartment, the inspiration is not found in lifestyle magazines, as Jernov thinks “they’re all so similar.” No, it comes from somewhere completely different.
“I have found an incredible amount of inspiration in my grandmother. She’s extremely skilled at organising and decorating in layers,” she says. “If, for example, she has a chair in a corner, she will place a bookcase behind it in order to make layers, which I find crazily inspiring.
“She also has an enormous number of blankets, which she arranges in a manner that makes you think that it’s a bit too much, yet totally perfect at the same time. And really cosy,” she adds enthusiastically.
“I have found an incredible amount of inspiration in my grandmother. She’s extremely skilled at organising and decorating in layers,” she says. “If, for example, she has a chair in a corner, she will place a bookcase behind it in order to make layers, which I find crazily inspiring.
“She also has an enormous number of blankets, which she arranges in a manner that makes you think that it’s a bit too much, yet totally perfect at the same time. And really cosy,” she adds enthusiastically.
With two residents and a floor area of only 68 square metres, the storage space in the apartment is limited. But the couple has found several creative solutions to this problem, among other things, by using the space under the sloping wall in the bedroom, elegantly covered with a white curtain.
“I have had the dresser [above] literally since I was born. It was in my bedroom in Silkeborg in East Jutland, where I grew up, and I will never paint it,” says Jernov. “And no matter if our first child is a boy or a girl, this dresser will be in the children’s bedroom. It is classic and streamlined, but it is fun that the drawers still have my name in them, written by me when I was five, along with other little messages. It will never go,” she says.
While Jernov has found great inspiration in her grandmother, her style is quite different from that of her parents.
“Their home is more minimalist and Scandinavian. It’s beautiful and they have incredibly good taste, but it’s not the way I want to live. My mother worried when I got a completely blue dining room, but I think it’s mega cool,” says Jernov, who also has a few famous Scandinavian furniture classics on her wish list – among those, two of Le Klint’s classic black floor lamps with folded shades.
“I’m also crazy about getting a Flagline Chair designed by Hans Wegner someday. Who in Denmark isn’t? But that will be when I have a 5-bedroom apartment with parquet floors and stucco ceilings,” she says.
TELL US
How do you like this designer-free apartment? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
“Their home is more minimalist and Scandinavian. It’s beautiful and they have incredibly good taste, but it’s not the way I want to live. My mother worried when I got a completely blue dining room, but I think it’s mega cool,” says Jernov, who also has a few famous Scandinavian furniture classics on her wish list – among those, two of Le Klint’s classic black floor lamps with folded shades.
“I’m also crazy about getting a Flagline Chair designed by Hans Wegner someday. Who in Denmark isn’t? But that will be when I have a 5-bedroom apartment with parquet floors and stucco ceilings,” she says.
TELL US
How do you like this designer-free apartment? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
Who lives here: Danish blogger, Maria Jernov, and her boyfriend, Sebastian Barrett, both 23
Occupation: Jernov is a fashion blogger and the creator of mariajernov.com, Barrett is a student and also writes a blog for men called jesuissebastian.com
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Size: 68 square metres