Swantje Hinrichsen

Tell us about your new apartment. It looks incredible! Colorful and cozy.

It’s a 140 sqm ground floor rental apartment with a huge garden surrounded by old scenic trees. The house is from 1930 and was formerly built for a family of three generations.

We were so lucky last summer to have found it. On the contrary to the house where we lived before, it’s so calm and I already feel so at ease here. Can’t wait for spring and summer to arrive so we’ll have an extra living space with the terrace and the garden.

How did you plan the renovation? Do you make mood boards or do you improvise room by room?

I do make mood boards, just as I do in my daily business as an art director and graphic designer. It helps me stay focused and to stick to the concept.

Color is really you Swantje.  Tell us how you think when it comes to color. What’s the secret to finding contrasting colors that pop out but still harmonize?

I have a type of emotional synesthesia, which means feelings trigger perceptions for me, like color vision. Most of the colors are connected to emotions, so the first thing I did when we had the keys and could start our small (since it‘s a rental apartment) renovation, was to go from room to room to let the emotions speak. In the kitchen I somehow felt like I was standing in an ice cream shop or the candy store Pippi Longstocking went to with her friends. I knew the colors had to be pastel blue and yellow combined with contrasting colors like dark red, Yves Klein blue and orange. When it comes to creating contrasts, and I’m sorry to disappoint, I don’t have any secrets. I just love contrasts and many colors just pop up in my mind, they are just there.

We are so happy that you just assembled your third Portal shelf. What do you like about the Portal shelf?

I love that it’s so flexible and airy yet playful. The shelves we have in our workspace at home are the biggest Portal ones I have ever had and we couldn’t be happier. Now we have a whole room where we can openly store the things we like: vinyls, books and objects on one side and two desks with stationary, computers, design- and school- (my boyfriend is a primary school teacher) books on the other side. At the moment, with home schooling and restrictions, we sometimes sit next to each other working there. Quite challenging to be honest, but we found a way to arrange ourselves.

See more of Swantje’s colorful home on instagram @swantjeundfrieda and read our previous interview with her here. Do you want help planning a shelf that fits your home? Fill in our shelf form and we will get back to you with a suggestion!