Interiors / Society

Take a look inside Peter Ibsen’s dreamy interiors: “People always say, ‘How can you live like this with kids?’ but you just do”

By Isabella Rose Davey

Photo: Enok Holsegård

Inhabiting the very Danish desire to balance city and country life, the gallerist and art collector Peter Ibsen has cultivated two distinct spaces: a minimalist apartment and a wood-heavy summer house. If home is where the heart is, his heart, like many Scandinavians, is split in two

There is something in the Scandinavian psyche that manifests itself in the love of a summer house. An hour or two outside a Nordic capital, surrounded by lush greenery, often with easy access to a body of water, we can balance our obsession with nature with our love of simplistic design. Here, wooden walls soften sounds to hums and whispers.

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The summer house sits in stark contrast to the ideal city apartment, where clean white walls roll onto glossy wooden floors. It is a strictly curated way of living, spotted with designer furniture and decorated with minimal abstract paintings. If the summer home is an escape, the apartment is sometimes more like a showroom.