You’ll love this Danish home with its Scandi rustic look

Creating a home with soul has seen Susan and husband Daniel go to great lengths – including laying a reclaimed brick floor – in their Danish apartment

Susan Mogensen loves a challenge; you can see that from the beautiful-yet-time-consuming brick floor she laid in the kitchen-dining room of her converted villa apartment home in Copenhagen, which she shares with husband Daniel and their three young children.

The couple searched Denmark for the bricks, travelling from their home on the island of Amager, to Rødovre, Jægerspris and even a demolished school in Funen. The bricks were then cleaned, cut and laid. “We had to put each brick down by hand,” shares Susan, “and I am not a bricklayer! It took almost two months to finish it.”

The fabulous floor is part of the new kitchen-dining extension. Susan bought the villa with her sister, which they then divided into two apartments, with Susan taking the ground floor. Originally just one large room, Susan has broken up the space into three bedrooms and a new bathroom, as well as a living space and the new extension. “I love old buildings because they have a lot of soul,” she says.

Susan also has a soft spot for floors; in addition to her brick “adventure”, as she refers to it, she’s also kept the original mosaic floor in the winter garden and repurposed the original wooden flooring from the old kitchen, laying it in a herringbone pattern in the living room.

Just as Susan’s used several different styles of flooring, the rest of the interior is equally relaxed. “I call my look ‘recycled bohemian’ because many of our things have been reclaimed,” she explains. “I love to mix rustic elements – like the raw walls and brick floors – with more luxe fabrics, such as our velvet sofa and crystal chandelier.

“I’m drawn to old buildings because they have a lot of soul – it’s nice to be reminded that there was a completely different life here once,” says Susan. She’s been careful to balance some of her more boho touches, though. “If a room has a wild floor, then I tend to use more muted colours on the walls, like the grey shade in the kitchen. This gives the floor a chance to breathe.”

In the living room, the more muted wooden flooring is balanced by the pale blush walls and hero mustard velvet sofa. It’s her favourite piece of furniture. “I love its rich colour, although I usually wear mostly black clothes,” Susan confesses. “I’ve tried to break with the black and get some colour on, which I’ve also tried to embrace in my decor too.” Susan has since fallen for such warm, deep shades; “I love using mustard with both pink and blue – it seems to remove those traditional stereotypes we have with these colours.”

A desk area in the living room has been sectioned off from the bedrooms beyond by a wall of windows, bought from a builder’s merchant. The desk itself, is made from old wooden planks on an IKEA base. I’m drawn to old buildings because they have a lot of soul – it’s nice to be reminded that there was a completely different life here once,” says Susan.

Susan’s not averse to trying something new, her hero flooring is evidence of that. “I love putting something unusual and unpredictable together and then making it work,” she says. In her bedroom a canopy creates a dreamy place to sleep, with the walls painted with a petrol-blue plaster effect. The throw is from Bloomingville, with the stool from Broste Copenhagen.

“In our bathroom, there’s a sea of stones, which was inspired by a trip to Majorca. I bought a big pile of stones for around DKK 1,000 and laid them on tile adhesive, before grouting them.” The wooden bath tub came from a cooperage – it creates a relaxing wellness area, which the whole family love.

Words & styling: Pia Olsen/Living Stories/House of Pictures. Photography: Stine Christiansen/House of Pictures.