From modest cottage to modern family home

The frugal redstone house on Solbakkevej in Gentofte largely resembles itself on the outside. But inside, it has undergone a huge transformation - from a dilapidated 2-family house to a super-functional home for a small family. With its 253 square meters and beautiful location close to Dyrehaven north of Copenhagen, the Sun Hill House is a perfect home.

A lot had to be done on the house before the family could move in. Although everything was quite well maintained, there was a long way to modern standards. In addition, the large house had over the years had several extensions buttoned on, so the floor plan was now a chaotic labyrinth without spatial logic.

The biggest challenge was to get the little over 250 square meters with a helter-skelter mass of rooms cut down to something simple that a family of 3 members can live in without feeling alienated. Making the kitchen the central focal point of the house, with a direct look at the landscape outside, and hiding away a lot of squaremeters in the secret guest section, help solve the puzzle.

Today you step right into an impressive kitchen/dining room with a beautiful view of the garden and on to the forest.

In the kitchen's long panel wall, there is a "secret" entrance, which leads into a guest department with bedroom and bathroom. The decor means that the family can easily have guests visiting for a long time, without them and the permanent residents having to sit in each other's laps.

Despite the great upheavals indoors, I sought to preserve the house's qualities, such as the fine cupboards from the 40s, the stairs to the basement and the fine parquet floor in parts of the house. But otherwise there is not much of the old left.