You can now spend the night at this newly reopened Copenhagen design hotspot

When you tell a design-literate friend that you’re going to The Apartment in Copenhagen, its name likely brings to mind a medley of colour and print, with a Svenskt Tenn chair here, an Akari lamp there, and tabletops dotted with paper plants by The Green Vase. For those in the know (around 100,000 people on Instagram alone), it’s not just an apartment, it’s the apartment.

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Founded in 2011 as a shoppable gallery and showroom by designer and curator Tina Seidenfaden Busck, for the past 14 years, its reputation and influence has traveled far beyond Denmark. Then, without fanfare or fuss, The Apartment quietly closed its doors earlier this year. Thankfully for its many long-standing fans (including this writer), it wasn’t the end—merely an evolution. After a fallow period of renovation and reinvention, it relaunches this month as a carefully curated place to stay, and with a revised name: The Apartment Residence and Space.

The Apartment was (and still is) based in an imposing 18th-century building overlooking the canal in Christianshavn. It’s where Busck and her husband raised their children, and where her husband’s mother has lived for 50 years, making it a place full of happy memories. It was this love of creating a home that led Busck to turn an empty apartment into a joyful, lamp-lit gallery space, decorated as if she might live there. Shoppers would ring a buzzer at the gate to be welcomed in, and if an antique quilt, rattan chair, or rare ceramic caught their eye, they could buy it. The Apartment quickly became a Copenhagen landmark for interior aficionados. Especially because, in a country respected for its good taste and design pedigree, but arguably best known for restrained Nordic palettes and pared-back furniture, Busck’s playful and pattern-heavy approach always stood out as distinctive.

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On a brisk Copenhagen morning earlier this month, I met Busck halfway up the building’s winding stairs. She was heading down to help carry my bags, dressed cheerfully in a skirt and jacket combination that made me regret my dull black jeans and sneakers—clearly, Busck is the embodiment of the bright and mood-lifting interiors she’s known for.

“I've always been a curious person, and I like to find things that aren’t obvious, but I also grew up with a father who was very much into decorating and collecting art,” the designer tells me. “I remember a friend of his was especially daring in the way he used colour, such as bright yellow in a living room, with chintz curtains and contemporary art. From a young age, I’d go with my father to auctions and museums, so I have been super-influenced by his taste.”

After running a home-style showroom that’s open to the public, Busck has pivoted to create a comfortable retreat for aesthetes who appreciate an experience more elevated and unique than a hotel room. It was the right time for a change, and Busck always trusts her instincts. “When I decided to close, it was without knowing what would happen next. I just needed to do something different,” she says. “Back in 2011, my father thought I was mad to open a space on the second floor of a residential building, but I went along with it anyway, because I’ve always followed my gut. I’m glad I did it, but by the time it closed, I’d started to feel trapped. I’d taken advice to expand and open a webshop, so I was selling everything from trays to napkins—and even as it was being developed, I knew something wasn’t right. I realised I had moved too far from where I started, back when I was mostly focused on curating art. I’d put myself into a corner that didn’t feel like me anymore.”

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The vacation rental concept still fosters Busck’s love of creating unique, richly layered spaces, while also offering an immersive opportunity for those inspired by her taste. Decor enthusiasts hoping to study and learn from her approach can book a stay and, for a short time, live entirely inside her whimsical world. A couple of times a year, she estimates, the versatile two-bedroomed space will also be used for exhibitions, so there will still be an occasional opportunity for people to visit, even if they’re not overnight guests.

Now that Busck is no longer staffing a gallery or worrying about packing and restocking homeware, she has more time to take on interior decorating projects, one-off design consultations, and use her many contacts to source specific pieces for clients. This changed direction seems like the best of all worlds, and the designer’s enthusiasm is palpable. “I really love what I’m doing with The Apartment now—I feel so energised and inspired again,” she says.

This isn’t Busck’s first rodeo with a vacation rental. She first launched The Apartment Residence in 2018 (in the same building as the showroom and her home), but the Covid pandemic forced its premature closure in 2020. In a moment of serendipitous timing, that same apartment’s long-term tenant moved out this year, so Busck seized upon the opportunity to finish what she’d started. “I felt so uplifted when this apartment became available again, just as I was closing the showroom,” she says.

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For breathless guests who’ve climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, The Apartment Residence rewards them with an impressive amount of space for a group of four. There are two bedrooms decorated with antique metal beds and wallpaper from Marthe Armitage, plus a generous bathroom with a spectacular green marble floor that complements the soft pink walls, and a luxurious freestanding tub (apparently a rarity in this city of small bathrooms and quick showers).

There are two large living spaces full of cushioned spots to sit and delve into Busck’s substantial collection of art and design books (they’re on almost every surface, and stacks of them double as doorstops). However, the best seat to claim is a high-sided sofa that feels almost bed-sized—it’s made to Busck’s own design and covered in a bold print that we both love called Strawberry Leaf by Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. “I have a soft spot for red and brown together. I think there needs to be a bit of red in every room,” she adds.

The designer’s preference for soft lamp lighting, hand-woven baskets, vintage furniture and displays of collected objects all contribute to the feeling of a much-loved, incredibly special home. Though it’s really Busck’s ability to use endless colours and prints in a single space that’s something to marvel at. I stopped counting at 11 different fabrics in the living room, with Soane Britain, Décors Barbares, and Carolina Irving among many esteemed textile brands she’s chosen. On paper, it sounds like mayhem, but her instinctive eye for combining and layering means every space feels intentional and inspiring.

Busck acknowledges that she has become known for mixing and matching, and people tell her they could never use that many fabrics in one room. “I don’t even really think about it,” she admits, “I just choose what I like. And somehow it comes together.” Though she does acknowledge that each room has a thread that ties it to the next, even if it’s not immediately obvious, and that’s what makes the space as a whole feel harmonious.

When The Apartment first launched in 2011, all the walls were white, but Busck quickly became more experimental and confident with colours, which eventually culminated in her own 33-shade paint collection—a collaboration with natural Danish paint brand, St. Leo. Naturally, every colour within the space is from her own range. Bell Green (named after artist Vanessa Bell) covers the walls of the dining room, and a large piece by 91-year-old artist Isabella Ducrot looks magnificent against it, as does a Märta Måås-Fjetterström tapestry. Busck declares Ducrot’s artwork as her favourite item in the apartment: “I’m completely amazed by this woman,” she smiles.

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The separate kitchen with its bright red freestanding unit is large enough to sit in, but with only a two-hob stove, a small kettle and an espresso machine, it’s not designed for cooking. As Busck rightly points out, Copenhagen is a superb city for food, so guests would miss half the fun if they didn’t take a morning stroll 10 minutes down the canal for delicious coffee from Prolog (who also stock pastries from iconic bakery, Juno) or Hart Bageri, which features in an episode of The Bear. There’s an overwhelming choice of restaurants and wine bars in the city, and most are within a 10-15 minute ride on a Lime bike. Everyone cycles here and it’s the best way to maximise a weekend—but do as the Danes do, and learn the arm signals before you take to two wheels. You want to get back to spend a cozy evening at The Apartment in one piece, after all.