Bright Fantastic

Combining inherited antiques with collected pieces has created a unique home for Maria and Jakob Brix

- Melanie Whitehouse & Christina B Kjeldsen

French flea-market finds and family treasures form the basis of Maria Brix’s individual decorating style, which is ideally suited to the elegant, high-ceilinged apartment that she and her husband Jakob moved into a decade ago.

Their apartment is in Frederiksberg, known as the Paris of Copenhagen. Dating from the 1920s, the Art Deco building in which it is housed was created for ministers in the Danish government who needed somewhere to stay while visiting from their constituencies in other parts of Denmark.

‘I instantly loved the daylight flooding in from the huge windows – it reminded me of Paris – and the tall, three-metre-high ceilings were a huge attraction,’ says Maria. ‘The apartment had been beautifully renovated by the previous owners, with many original details intact. They had paid great respect to the 1920s features, such as the cornicing.