On February 1st, my husband and I bought a second home, an old countryside cottage located on the island of Funen, Denmark.
Our goal was to find a magical location for slow living, a space for unwinding and creative thinking. We wanted a lot of land, no neighbours, no noise, and plenty of nature.
After searching for several months we found this little gem of a cottage. Originally it used to be a fishermans home many, many years ago. But for the past three generations it has been used as a summer residence by the previous owners.
The cottage comes with a private beach, two lakes, a small forrest and incredible view over the ocean. I love how it smells of sea water and pine trees. I love the silence, the sound of birds, and the beautiful horses on the next door field.
The cottage is located just outside a tiny village called Falsled with no more than 518 people living there. There’s only ONE shop in town, but it’s a very cool shop selling interior and lifestyle stuff + you can get a nice cup of coffee and a cocktail. The shop was created by 5 locals who wanted the town to have a shop where people could meet and chat. I think that is so wonderful; it says a lot about the people who live there.
I’ve recently discovered that Falsled is a place that attracts creatives, so no wonder I fell in love with this place and apparently my nearest neighbour is an English author.
Falsled is known for the famous Inn; Falsled Relais & châteaux – a rustic, luxury hotel with a Michelin restaurant. During Summer high season the rich and famous from Copenhagen escape to this place to unwind.
As you can see in the above image; our cottage is in desperate need of a grand renovation. As I’m writing this the builders have been tearing most of the inside out. So all the photos you see in this post was taken the day before the renovation started.
The renovation of the main house will take almost 6 months. Hopefully we will have most of it done just before Summer break. And then there’s the barn (see photo below) that we will turn into a guest house – that will be about 6 more months. So maybe in a years time everything will be ready. Phew….
The renovation will include the following:
- New thatched roof
- New windows and doors (will keep some of the old windows and restore them)
- Painting the facade (white chalk paint)
- Painting the entire house inside
- Covering radiators with radiator cabinets
- New bathroom
- New countrystyle kitchen
- Restoring the old wooden floors
- Vine cellar in the basement
- Removing parts of the stair case to create space in the living room
- Removing walls on the first floor
- Opening up the attic to increase ceiling height and sense of openness
- Building a large wooden patio that connects the main house with the guest house
- Painting the entire first floor
- Changing all door handles
- Replace floor tiles with soft concrete epoxy in a light grey color
- Removing the old barn and building a new guest house
- Creating an outdoor shower
- Creating an outdoor sauna with seaview
- Changing ALL electrical installations and water pipes
It’s not my first house renovation, but this is my biggest so far. It’s a huge passion of mine and something I love to do. And of course I have the entire decoration done in my head already.
Back in June 2019 we sold our two houses in the north of Denmark completely with ALL the interior – the only things I took with me was a few personal items; photos of the kids and my toothbrush. So this cottage needs EVERYTHING and I’m slowly gathering props.
I will soon take the 1,5 hour drive down to the cottage to see how everything is going and then take some new photos to show you. The builders have been working for almost four weeks now in rainy and stormy weather conditions so my guess is that the cottage will be one BIG mess – inside and out.
It’s my hope that I will be able to host a small intimate workshop retreat some time in the future – one that focus on photography, styling, interior, nature, slow living and healing of the soul. But my guess is that it will properly not be realistic until Spring 2021.