It’s almost dusk in Copenhagen when jewelry designer Sophie Bille Brahe tells me over the phone that she’s about to take a quick dip in the ocean before dinner. It’s a small ritual tied to the reason she chose her five-bedroom, three-bathroom seaside home, 20 minutes north of the city center, in the first place. Designed by Danish architect Ib Lunding in 1929, the house sits on one of three small streets of similar homes in what Danes call the “flower neighborhood,” each one a slight variation on the next. For Bille Brahe, it’s this setting—and the sensory elements that come with it—that were non-negotiable. “I open up my window and I can see trees. I can smell the sea,” she says. “For me, that’s very important to have in my life every day.”
The space is a respite for the designer, who views the home as a collection of memories and a backdrop for her bustling family life, kids, and border collie included. It’s also where her namesake fine jewelry line begins. In fact, Bille Brahe often develops her designs within the home’s walls before she ever takes them to the workshop. “I sometimes catch these sensations, these small ideas, and make them a little bit more stable by doing drawings of them here at home. And then, when I have an idea of what I want to do, I’m ready to go to the workshop and start,” she explains. In those beginning stages, she works alone. “I need to be able to make really ugly things or really great things,” she says. “I need a bubble around me.”
Photo: Philip Messmann
