“A Kitchen of Love” Highlights the Beauty of Wood in This Copenhagen Flat

Garde Hvalsøe creates kitchen and interior solutions, designing spaces for world-famous chefs like René Redzepi of Noma. Designer Thomas Lykke, who runs OEO Studio together with Anne-Marie Buemann, needed a new kitchen in his Copenhagen flat. Like pieces of a puzzle, the two came together to collaborate on the Lykke Model, a modular made-to-order kitchen furniture solution that highlights the beauty of wood and classic craftsmanship.

Like Garde Hvalsøe, Lykke admires the nature and characteristics of wood, an appreciation stemming from his childhood spent with his grandfather, a cabinetmaker often in his workshop. He shares:

Wood is special. You have to understand its nature, and it is important to remember that the tree grew for twenty, fifty, sometimes hundreds of years to produce the wood for my cabinetmaker’s kitchen.

Designing the Lykke Model came from OEO Studio and Garde Hvalsøe’s previous project, “Cabinet of Love”, a showpiece the pair designed for the Wallpaper* Handmade X exhibition in 2019. The furniture was designed for the enjoyment of playing vinyl records and listening to music. Lykke’s “Kitchen of Love” follows the same craftsmanship and functionality. A metal plinth creates contrasts with the solid wood body. Metal is also used in slender vertical divisions in between cabinets. A marble tabletop seemingly floats above the wood, thanks to its slightly raised position and the use of a shadow-groove trim. Drawers with visible finger joints further highlight the beauty of the wood and pay homage to the traditional craftsmanship of cabinetmaking.

Like the one-of-a-kind objects Lykke has collected from around the world in his kitchen, the Lykke Model is a treasured piece of furniture that is both artful and functional, to be used and enjoyed for years to come.