Katharina and I have been in contact since the start of Tat. She was one of the handful of customers who I hadn't known since birth. It felt so exciting, especially when I saw what an excellent eye Katharina has and the home the pieces were going to. We have now messaged back and forth over four years, a real-life pen pal. As ever, I was beyond happy for Katharina to show us around her truly remarkable home and let us have an insight into the workings of Heroldian Art Concepts.
Please come in,
Since this is a virtual Knock Knock, I say it takes time at around midday. By this point, I've had a lot of coffee and just finished breakfast. It's not that I've just gotten up, but it takes a while and a lot of coffee for me to get going. If this was an actual knock-knock, a Friday invite would be perfect, as it is market day, and I would prepare all things yummy from my local food market, which is just around the corner at Isestraße.
My historic apartment in Hamburg is always in motion. It's part home, part showroom, part office, part cabinet of curiosities and part storage mess... I curate the display of art and artefacts according to my current project, or if I prepare a Heroldian Art Collector (my art Collector Club), I surround myself with the pieces that will be put forward, and I photograph them in my living quarters. I am currently working on a big penthouse project here in Hamburg for clients in the US. Due to the pandemic, they haven't been able to come to Germany. To present the artworks I have gathered for them, I re-decorated my whole apartment and created a PDF with the artworks photographed in situ. We scheduled a Zoom meeting in which we discussed each piece, emphasising its role in art history and its unique attributes.
Once the pieces move to their projects, the space looks different again. I do become attached to artwork, which is hard to sell, but I never sell anything I don't like myself. The passion I have for the art and the objects are part of each sale.
I moved to this apartment in 2018 after living on a small island in the North Sea for four years. I took over the place from my brother and his wife, so I knew the apartment well. However, I made quite a lot of changes. The first thing I did was remove a few doors... I like open and fluid spaces. To make up for one door, I attached a canopy with curtains over the dining/living area entrance. The canopy was supposed to go over the bed, but it had to make room for a large painting. However, I desperately wanted the canopy somewhere, so as I was staring at the door-shaped hole, it came to me. I found the beautiful fabric for cheap as it was leftover scraps from a small interior shop. One arts & crafts evening, I attached it with my staple gun, and it's pretty astonishing how well it suits.
Friends of my parents used to run a wonderful hotel on Sylt, and when they sold it, I was allowed into their storage of wallpapers and fabrics. Over decades they collected designs from Colefax & Fowler, Liberties, GPJ & Baker, Pierre Frey etc. I picked two leftover wallpaper designs- one GPJ & Baker Passion Toile in red and a floral pattern by Les Olivades. I was determined to add the rolls of wallpaper to my new place, but I've never really been a fan of the ‚one wall wallpaper look', and there wasn't enough to decorate a whole room. One day my dad (my interior hero) came to visit. He sat in the living room and said, 'This is such a beautiful room; it's a real shame about those doors [that separate the living and the dining area]. Why don't you use the wallpaper on them? "I was immediately jealous that I hadn't thought of that idea myself... I put the Passion Flower Toile on, and I absolutely love it. I used the rest on a small plastered wall that is hiding an old entrance. I had the front room painted in a deep turquoise by Paint & Paper
Library and I haven't regretted it a single day. The colour is called Reseda, and it's a 1920s inspired shade. I wanted to have lacquered glossy walls in my bedroom, but it failed. For my tiled sunroom, I chose a bright orange in a lime wash paint to get a Moroccan vibe. It can be pretty grey in Hamburg, so I wanted a room that felt like somewhere more south. I use my sunroom mainly as a studio for restoration, framing and making jewellery. It's the place where I get my creative juices flowing- it's always in a bit of a state, but I need a creative mess to think :-) In fact, I am sitting now writing this looking into the overgrown garden with my ping pong table in the middle of it. A stranger on the street gifted me the ping pong table, and I rolled it halfway across town to bring it to my garden. If I owned the apartment, I would re-do the bathroom and the kitchen entirely. But it will have to make do until I buy my own place, which might not be far off... :-)
Thank you so much for the visit to my own Heroldian Villa Kunterbunt (Villa Villekulla) x
I can't thank Katharina enough for letting us visit Heroldian Villa Kunterbunt, to see all the exciting work that goes on at Heroldian Art Concepts click here & to follow her click here!
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