spruced by marlene

Out of everything I’ve discovered renovating an apartment – building work will take approximately six months longer than expected, three visits to Ikea in one day is two visits too many, it is impossible to get rid of the last moving box – the thing has made me particularly crazy is how difficult it is to find beautiful bedside tables. (If you think „crazy“ is too strong a word: I came very close to ordering bedside tables from the U.S. last summer and reasoning myself into paying the ungodly shipping costs.)

Or so I thought until I found the Dusk Bedside Table from Theresa Rand.

Everything about it was perfect: The brass details, the oak, the dimensions, the brass details, the steel legs, the drawer, did I mention the brass details? The only thing I didn’t like about it: It was only a prototype. I couldn’t buy the perfect bedside table anywhere.

Crazed as I was, I wrote an email to the designer. I would be in Copenhagen for a few days in August. Could I come by the showroom, so that I could at least see Dusk once? And grab two and veeeery inconspicuously make a run for it.

Sure, she replied. She didn’t have a showroom, but I’d be more than welcome to visit her and Dusk at home, her apartment was also her office and exhibition space. The only thing was, could I come a few days before the weekend, as she was getting married the Sunday I was in town.

An inviation to see her two days before her wedding (and spontaneously let me take pictures for a few hours) fits her unfussy and relaxed style perfectly. Theresa, then called Arns, arrived in Copenhagen to do a master’s degree in furniture design after studying architecture in Cologne. She met her now husband Carl at university and stayed.

Their apartment near the lakes in Copenhagen really is the ideal showroom for Theresa’s designs: for the Échasse vases, the La Boum bar trolley or the Jewellery Box, all produced for Menu (since my visit, the Septembre series including sofa, armchair and couch table has moved into Theresa and Carl’s living room. In Germany, it’s available from Connox). For all of the clean lines, her furniture isn’t sterile. It’s simple and sophisticated in its functionality, but the materials she uses have warmth and depth. It’s that mix of clarity and personality that also most impressed me about her apartment (besides the wall colours, the floorboards, THE BATHROOM…). Pieces like the portraits of Carl’s grandparents look even more special in contrast with the puristic surroundings. A little design lesson I took away with me and which I try to remind myself of as we tackle each room in our home. While I’m waiting for Dusk to be produced one day.