| HOMESTORIES | At home with Kim

Neutral colors dominate in the home of Kim, a content creator from Düsseldorf, and flowing shapes complement clear edges. By cleverly combining hard and soft, warm and cold, round and angular, Kim creates contrasts and accents without deviating from her color scheme.
Her current comfort color - beige - can be found in every corner and is essential to her sense of home. The only other things that are just as important are her two house tigers, Frida and Emil, and fresh flowers.

In this interview, she reveals her tricks for creating her very own feel-good place.

1. What makes your home your home? And what qualities must your home have to make you feel comfortable?
   Comfortable colors, always fresh flowers and two house cats that always look forward to seeing me. A tidy home is right at the top of the feel-good list. Everything has a fixed place in our home, which makes tidying up extremely easy.
   
   
2. How would you describe your furnishing style/home?
   DesignClassics combined with old vintage collector's items. Currently, the color beige dominates and I focus on natural materials such as wood and stone.

3. What is your favorite piece of furniture?
   First and foremost, of course, our stool from WYE. Closely followed by our new real stone dining room table. I designed it myself together with a local stonemason and am always in love with it when I walk into the room in the morning.

4. What role does sustainability play in interior design for you? What are your hacks for a more sustainable home?
   Sustainability plays a big role and we try to implement it as much as possible. We buy a lot of furniture second-hand and give it a new home. We also sell individual pieces from time to time that no longer have a place in a refurbishment. My hack for a sustainable home? Definitely set up eBay classifieds alerts for favorite pieces of furniture or Designclassics. This way, you will be notified when a piece of furniture is offered in your area and can give it a second chance.

5. Your home creates a great aesthetic with neutral colors - how do you like to make a statement when designing your home? (How do you still manage to incorporate splashes of color harmoniously?)
   The large pieces of furniture such as tables, sofa, bed or cupboards and chests of drawers are kept in neutral colors and I try to bring in splashes of color through pictures, decorations such as candles and, above all, fresh & colorful flowers. The sideboards in particular, but also the pictures, are regularly rearranged. From time to time, a vase or picture is stored in the cellar for several weeks until it's time to make its grand entrance again.

6. What criteria do you use to buy your furniture?
   I usually fall in love at first sight - but unfortunately far too often and with far too many different styles. I love stone and wood, vintage and new and always try to keep a mixture. Too much vintage very quickly looks like "grandma's second home" and too much Design (for me) often quickly looks cool. One criterion is always the quality of the furniture and, in the case of real furniture, timelessness. When it comes to decoration, it can be a bit more funky.

7. Are there any materials that you particularly like to combine?
   Wood and stone and especially wickerwork, but this trend may change again. As already mentioned, our table is made of real stone and the chairs are made of wood.

8. How often do you redecorate your home?
   When my friend is asked: every day. In fact, almost every day something is moved, rebuilt, moved to the basement for a few days or redecorated. I also wield a paintbrush pretty much every six months. Entire room redesigns take place roughly every year.

9. What do you enjoy most about designing? What is your personal trick for designing your happy place?
   Courage to use unusual materials and lots of inspiration. Instagram and Pinterest are of course the most popular platforms for this and my folder for "pinned home inspo" is endlessly long. It's also exciting that I can see how my tastes change based on my favorites saved on Instagram. In any case, what I enjoy most is that there are endless possibilities and it's especially great that new companies like WYE are constantly coming onto the market that you can combine.

10. What convinced you to integrate a WYE-Piece into your home? Is there a product that you feel is still missing from the WYE collection?
    The sustainability aspect and the simple yet elegant Design. The stool is a prime example of versatility. Sometimes it sits at the head of our dining room table and on another day a striking vase of fresh flowers finds its place on it.
    But above all, I'm a huge fan of the fact that I can use my WYE products both indoors and outdoors, so the furniture is constantly moving between the patio and the home.

Many thanks, dear KIM, for the insight into the design process that has made your special apartment the very personal place it is now. We can't wait to see what will change next and when you'll next be wielding the paintbrush. Who knows - maybe a completely different color will be in high demand in 6 months!