Vintage Design in Copenhagen: Museums, Historic Interiors & Antiques
Updated: Oct 20
My interest in vintage design in Copenhagen usually starts with something ordinary: a kitchen cupboard, a patterned curtain, or a coffee pot someone used every morning.
I’m a Danish illustrator based in Copenhagen, and much of my work draws on older Danish interiors and everyday life, particularly from the 1920s through the 1970s. Museums, antique shops, and historical paintings give me references for the rooms and objects I draw. Sometimes it’s a particular color combination. Other times, I’m trying to work out what would actually belong in a kitchen from a certain decade.
These are some of the places I return to, along with a trip outside Copenhagen for anyone interested in historical interiors.
Here are a few places in Copenhagen that continue to inspire my work.
The Hirschsprung Collection: Danish Rooms in Paintings
The Hirschsprung Collection, beside Østre Anlæg, is a good place to spend time with Danish painting from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
For me, part of the interest lies in the interiors: the furniture, pictures on the walls, and arrangement of people within a room. Paintings by artists such as Anna Ancher and Vilhelm Hammershøi offer very different ways of looking at domestic life.
When I’m drawing an interior, I have to think about how the room works around the figure. Looking at paintings helps me consider where to place a table, how much of a doorway to show, or which objects a scene needs.
The museum also gives this article a broader historical starting point. Many of the rooms and objects that interest me predate the decades I most often draw.
The David Collection: Furniture, Decorative Art, and Interiors
Near Kongens Have, the David Collection brings together Islamic art, European decorative art, and Danish early modern art.
Its European collection includes eighteenth-century furniture and decorative objects, alongside a Danish Golden Age interior. It’s somewhere to look closely at materials, proportions, and the relationship between individual objects and a furnished room.
The Hammershøi painting photographed here is from one of my visits. His interiors interest me partly because of how much depends on a few decisions: the position of a door, a patch of light, or the space between pieces of furniture.
The Danish early modern collection isn’t permanently on display, so check the museum’s current exhibitions if there’s a particular artist you hope to see.
A Trip Beyond Copenhagen: Frederiksborg Castle
Frederiksborg Castle is in Hillerød, outside Copenhagen, so I would plan it as a separate outing.
It houses the Museum of National History, with portraits, history paintings, furniture, and applied art. The decorated rooms offer a very different scale from the domestic interiors I usually draw: elaborate ceilings, carved woodwork, and large formal spaces.
There’s still plenty to look at if your interests are more modest. Clothing in a portrait, a chair against a wall, or a small object within a larger painting can be useful historical reference.
Together, the rooms and collections show how furnishings and the presentation of everyday surroundings have changed over time.
Historic Places to Stop for Lunch or Pastries
Older cafés, restaurants, and bakeries are another way to encounter Copenhagen’s history outside a museum display.
Café & Øl-Halle 1892, beneath the Workers Museum, serves traditional Danish lunch in historic surroundings restored to reflect the restaurant’s early years. I’d include it as a place to enjoy a meal and take in the interior.
Sankt Peders Bageri, in the Latin Quarter, is Copenhagen’s oldest bakery and is especially known for its Wednesday cinnamon rolls. It’s a different kind of stop: a bakery visit while walking through the older streets.
These places belong in a personal guide because the surroundings are still being used. People come in, order food, and carry on with their day.
Antique Shops: Looking at Everyday Objects
Antique shops let you examine things that might appear only briefly in a painting or behind glass in a museum.
Antik K is one place to explore in Copenhagen. Green Square, whose current address is in Kastrup, is another option for those interested in antique furniture and decorative objects. Check their websites before making a special trip, as stock and visiting arrangements can change.
When browsing, I’m often interested in relatively small details: a drawer handle, the shape of a jug, or the pattern on a piece of fabric.
Those details become useful when I’m drawing an imagined room. A kitchen needs objects that make sense together, and looking at the real things helps me avoid relying entirely on memory.
Flea Markets and Secondhand Finds
Copenhagen’s flea markets offer another source of older household objects, books, ceramics, and printed material. What you find depends on the market and the day.
Old postcards and books are particularly interesting for their images, lettering, and color combinations. Everyday objects can be useful too, especially when I can look at them from different angles.
Many outdoor markets are seasonal. Check the organizer’s current location and dates before heading out.
From Vintage Danish Design to My Illustrations
Historical references help me make practical decisions in my drawings. What kind of lamp would someone have? How might the cupboards be arranged? Which coffee pot belongs on the table?
I usually combine references from several places. A room might borrow its layout from a photograph, its colors from a painting, and a few objects from things I’ve seen in a museum or antique shop.
The turquoise enamel coffee pot pictured here is the sort of household object I’m drawn to. Its shape and color give it a clear presence in a room, even though it was made for an ordinary task.
That interest runs through my vintage-inspired illustrations: older Danish kitchens, furnished rooms, and people going about their day. The historical details help me build a setting that feels lived in.
You can explore these interiors and everyday scenes in my illustration portfolio.
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