{"id":131263,"date":"2026-07-17T19:53:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/131263\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:53:21","slug":"copenhagen-home-transformation-from-ugly-duckling-to-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/131263\/","title":{"rendered":"Copenhagen Home Transformation: From Ugly Duckling to Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once an outlier for the wrong reasons, this home takes pride of place on a leafy street thanks to a couple\u2019s tasteful renovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the ugly duckling of the street,\u201d says Jan Gleie of his family\u2019s 1970s Copenhagen home. \u201cThe house was dark in the middle and really not appealing from the outside.\u201d Located in the leafy neighbourhood of Frederiksberg, in an area dominated by classic 1920s Danish homes, the building remains an outlier. But today, thanks to a smart renovation and extension, its differences are now handsome defining features.<\/p>\n

Designed and built in 1976 by Danish architect Johan Christensen, the house was originally a detached, one-storey, Japanese-inspired structure. After living in London, husband and wife Danes Gleie and Barbara Hvidt snapped it up in 2006 when the idea of a Copenhagen home with a garden five minutes from the city became, as Gleie says, \u201csuddenly appealing\u201d. \u201cWe fell in love with the wooden sliding doors, the garden-level living and the simplicity of the structure,\u201d he adds of the couple\u2019s first encounter with the building. Even in its previous guise, unmistakably Japanese features such as well-crafted sliding timber doors and a unique sloped roof gave the building a pleasing character.<\/p>\n

\"ExteriorMahogany exterior<\/p>\n

\"LivingPlenty of greenery in the living room<\/p>\n

\"UpperRestive spot on the upper floor <\/p>\n

\"SunnySunlit terrace by the master bedroom <\/p>\n

\"CosyCosy corner<\/p>\n

\"GroundGarden-level sitting room <\/p>\n

\"DisplayCrafts from around the world <\/p>\n

\"InteriorWindow placement has been meticulously calculated<\/p>\n

\"FrontJapan-inspired wooden louvres at the front of the house <\/p>\n

\"SpaciousAiry interior<\/p>\n

When passing an entrance of slatted timber Japanese koshi screens that leads into the spacious, high-ceilinged two-storey home, it\u2019s clear why the place appealed to a couple retreating from space-starved London. The renovation was made easier by keeping it a family affair: Barbara Hvidt\u2019s sister, Malene, is the architect behind the project. She worked closely with her clients on the revamp and every detail was meticulously planned. \u201cI first built a two-level house in Lego, copying the downstairs from an original drawing,\u201d says Gleie. \u201cOn top of it I built an imaginary upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this new level Gleie and the architect found inspiration in modern Japanese residential design and the sun-drenched homes of 1950s California. Skylights were added and walls painted white to maximise the incoming sunlight. Old timber support systems were reused and the brick construction was supported by iron beams strong enough to prop up the upstairs unit without taking up too much space.<\/p>\n

Retaining the character of the original architecture was also a key factor in amplifying the homeliness of the extension. \u201cWe did not use any nails or screws to build the windows and sliding doors,\u201d says Gleie, who matched the width and style of the new doors and frames with the originals to ensure cohesion with the existing design. The fittings themselves were crafted by a skilful Danish carpenter using traditional tongue-and-groove joinery \u2013 but the Danish architectural touches stop there. For the timber trimmings that define the house, the residents worked with a rich honey-coloured mahogany, rather than the lighter timber favoured by the Scandis. \u201cWe love the warmth of the wood,\u201d says Gleie.<\/p>\n

He credits the renovation\u2019s success to the fastidious approach of his sister-in-law\u2019s architecture in echoing the character of the original building, while opening the house to nature. He adds that it\u2019s the family ties that have enabled the place to feel like home so quickly. \u201cWhat I absolutely love about the house is that we and Malene built it with our hearts in the right place,\u201d he says taking us through the beautiful heirlooms that decorate the home. \u201cThis is called \u2018X chair\u2019 and designed by my wife\u2019s grandfather [Peter Hvidt],\u201d says Gleie affectionately, showing off the delicate leather-and-timber mid-century classic in the sitting room. At the centre of the home office lives an aged timber desk. The handsome piece was a gift from Barbara\u2019s father, also an architect. As we admire the lush garden, Gleie\u2019s son Siggi serves us oven-fresh croissants while Gleie pours water into a glass hand-blown by Malene\u2019s partner. \u201cWe almost don\u2019t have anything that doesn\u2019t have some kind of story behind it,\u201d says Gleie. \u201cMemories live with our surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once an outlier for the wrong reasons, this home takes pride of place on a leafy street thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[63832,108,63833,63834,63835],"class_list":["post-131263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-copenhagen","tag-1970s-house","tag-copenhagen","tag-danish-architecture","tag-frederiksberg","tag-japanese-inspired"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116937071560617836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}