{"id":138706,"date":"2026-08-01T07:31:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/138706\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T07:31:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T07:31:27","slug":"inside-borge-mogensens-home-a-danish-design-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/138706\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside B\u00f8rge Mogensen’s Home: A Danish Design Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monika and Ole Paustian promised each other one thing when they bought the home of B\u00f8rge Mogensen, the revered Danish architect who died in 1972: they would not live in a tomb. The pair, founders of Scandinavian design retailer Paustian, moved into the modestly sized property in the municipality of Gentofte, to the north of Copenhagen, five years ago.<\/p>\n

Mogensen was an acquaintance of the couple who had helped them out when they opened their first furniture shop in 1964. They stocked his works, a friendship developed and they visited him \u2013 in what is now their home \u2013 for Christmas parties and company meetings. Mogensen\u2019s widow Alice lovingly maintained the house until her death in 2011. She was barely laid to rest when architects and museums started demanding that the house be preserved.<\/p>\n

The Paustians were away travelling and unaware of the hoopla surrounding the conservation of the house, although they did learn it was up for sale. Once back in Denmark they went and viewed it. \u201cIt was like stepping into the past,\u201d says Ole. \u201cIt was exactly as if we were coming to visit B\u00f8rge.\u201d They decided to buy it straight away.<\/p>\n

Set between dense woods and a glistening bog, the house was built in 1957 by architect Erling Zeuthen Nielsen in collaboration with Mogensen. This was not just the latter\u2019s home but also his self-proclaimed \u201claboratory\u201d. It is here he drew up plans for his iconic furniture, making prototypes to test for everyday use \u2013 with a little help from his children\u2019s playmates, obligingly spilling soda on the leather upholstery. These pieces made Mogensen one of Danish design\u2019s most important thinkers and a product-generator of its golden age: the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n

It would be a catastrophe, experts argued, for the house to fall into the hands of private owners with no understanding of its place in design history. Enter Monika and Ole. They have treated the place with respect not just for its history but also for Mogensen\u2019s original intention: for the house to be a home.<\/p>\n

\"MonikaHomeowners Monika and Ole Paustian in the winter room <\/p>\n

\"WoodenCustom-made grips revamped with new leather handles<\/p>\n

\"AMobile shades act as wooden peepholes in the front door<\/p>\n

\"Built-inBuilt-in wall mirror in kitchen <\/p>\n

\"AFamily room and office, the epicentre of the house. The desks are by Mogensen and the wooden fixed frames by his teacher Kaare Klint<\/p>\n

\"WinterWinter room, which was added to the house in 1962 by architect Arne Karlsen, with some of Mogensen\u2019s J39 chairs \u2013 better known as \u2018The People\u2019s Chair\u2019<\/p>\n

\"ModernLiving room<\/p>\n

\"AOpen fire in the living room<\/p>\n

\"Wood-paneledCeiling detail<\/p>\n

\"Mid-centuryTime-tested 2213 sofas with a Spanish Chair <\/p>\n

\"OpenBowls, baskets and dinnerware <\/p>\n

\"MinimalistBedroom view<\/p>\n

\u201cI like B\u00f8rge Mogensen\u2019s sense of style but to me he can be a bit too square, practical and Scandinavian,\u201d says German-born Monika. \u201cSo with respect to the original interior, we replaced and added a few things ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monika\u2019s modifications included removing original pieces \u2013 such as a large and impractical B\u00f8rge Mogensen shaker table \u2013 and bringing in pieces by his US contemporaries Charles and Ray Eames. The house itself, however, is firmly in Mogensen\u2019s spirit. If Danish design stands for pure lines, honest materials and functionality first, Mogensen is the most Danish of them all.<\/p>\n

He pioneered a democratic approach as a designer and disregarded any kind of redundancy. This no-frills spirit resonates across the Oregon-pine panelled walls. From tables, cabinets and desks \u2013 all of solid oak, beech and teak \u2013 to drawer handles, window hinges and cable holders, the elements here are made to match. The bright winter room with some of the first editions of Mogensen\u2019s j39 People\u2019s Chair \u2013 a take on typical Mediterranean folk furniture \u2013 serves as the daily dining area. Rumour has it that the adjoining open-style kitchen is the first of its sort to have been made in Scandinavia. \u201cI am not sure that story is true,\u201d says Ole. \u201cBut it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the living room two examples of Mogensen\u2019s most famous design, the 2213 three-seat sofa, form the cosiest of corners. This couch, now a classic statement piece standing in embassies, government buildings and private residences all over the world, was designed in 1962 with measurements determined in order to fit between corner tables. When the Paustians moved in the original prototypes were worn out by time so Ole called Thomas Graversen, owner of Fredericia Furniture where B\u00f8rge Mogensen worked as a house designer. A deal was struck: Ole and Monika got a new, identical set of 2213s in return for the old prototypes, one of which Graversen exhibited in his showroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may take some time to see the greatness in B\u00f8rge Mogensen\u2019s work as it seems so simple,\u201d says Graversen, who spent many hours at the property as a child because his father, Andreas, was Mogensen\u2019s business partner. \u201cMogensen didn\u2019t want to do icons such as Arne Jacobsen, Egg or Swan,\u201d he says. \u201cHe was interested in democratisation, in furniture relevant to the everyman.\u201d The 2213 remains one of Fredericia\u2019s bestsellers to this day, he adds.<\/p>\n

Mogensen was not enthused about the notion of \u201cDanish design\u201d. Throughout his life he considered himself a cabinetmaker, never a designer. His lifelong mission was to produce modest, durable and almost calming furniture that the average Danish working-class family could afford and live with unpretentiously. One sees functional, almost Ikea-like details everywhere in the house, such as a closable mirror built into the kitchen wall, movable door blinds in the main entrance door and built-in cutting boards in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was truly his laboratory. He did a lot of experiments and not all were successful,\u201d says Ole. \u201cThe house is a concentrate of what B\u00f8rge Mogensen typifies in his work. His furniture was not made to be worshipped as a photogenic masterpiece \u2013 it was made to be used.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is also the reason why it would have been dreadful to turn this place into a museum,\u201d adds Monika, smiling. \u201cIt needs to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

B\u00f8rge Mogensen<\/p>\n

(1914\u20131972)
Mogensen got a job as a cabinetmaker in 1934. He studied furniture design at the School of Arts & Craft and The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. From 1938 to 1942 he worked for leading architect and furniture designer Kaare Klint. Later, as manager of co-operative chain fdb\u2019s furniture design studio, he made some of the bestselling chairs and tables in Denmark\u2019s history. He was often inspired by medieval Spanish furniture construction, evident in his designs for the Spanish Chair.<\/p>\n

Danish modern: the golden age<\/p>\n

Inspired by the clean, pure lines of Bauhaus\u2019s modernism, Copenhagen-based Kaare Klint founded what would later be known as Danish modern or simply Danish design in the 1920s. Architects including Mogensen, Arne Jacobsen, Hans J Wegner, Poul Kjaerholm, Finn Juhl and Nanna Ditzel picked up Klint\u2019s knack for functionalistic furniture constructed in solid, honest materials. They became popular in the mid-century\u2019s heyday of Danish Modern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monika and Ole Paustian promised each other one thing when they bought the home of B\u00f8rge Mogensen, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[66907,108,14756,27,26,66908],"class_list":["post-138706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-borge-mogensen","tag-copenhagen","tag-danish-design","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-residences"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117019088653956716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138706","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=138706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}