Meet vacation home owners Julie and Steffen from Episode 1 of "Vacation Home Makeovers"

Julie, 34, and Steffen, 35, live in Skjern with their two children, Ester, who is two, and Astrid, who is one. Together, they own the A-summer house in Gjellerodde near Lemvig, built in 1976. In their day-to-day lives, Steffen is a teacher at a design and crafts boarding school, while Julie teaches continuing education courses in the field of education. When asked to describe their summer house in three words, “personal,” “spacious,” and “family-friendly” are the first that come to mind.

But a bit of context is needed, according to the couple, who met in their hometown of Lemvig and got together while they were both studying in Aarhus. For example, the summer house isn’t just spacious in terms of square meters, but rather because it can accommodate different personalities; there’s room here to retreat and find your own little nook to enjoy the peace and quiet.

> And our oldest, who’s two and a half, is really set on the idea that when it’s the weekend, we have to go to the summer house. She really relaxes when she’s there.

“Family-cozy” might be a word that’s not in the dictionary yet, but Julie explains that for her, it reflects the fact that everything in the summer house is secondhand—so it’s perfectly fine to use it:

“There’s nothing where I think, ‘Oh, be careful not to break this.’ It offers a different kind of opportunity for family relaxation,” she says.

And after careful consideration, they’ve deliberately chosen “personal” over “unique”: “We’re very West Jutlandic, so we’re probably a bit modest,” Steffen laughs. And he thinks “unique” is also a bit of a cliché. And the summer house is far from that.

A Base for the Family

The couple both grew up in Lemvig, so it was natural to buy a summer house there. Julie has family on the same street as the summer house, and for her, being close to her family has meant a lot.

“At that time, my mother was very ill, so having our own base up here allowed us to be close to her,” she explains. “So we bought the summer house for several reasons.”

> There’s nothing where I think, ‘Oh, be careful not to break this.’ It offers a different kind of opportunity for family relaxation.

“Another reason was that, with two small children and the way our family lives, having a permanent base where we could go on vacation would work really well,” says Steffen.

“That way, my dad can come over often, but at the same time, we don’t feel like we’re invading his home with the two little ones,” Julie adds. “With two such young children, we’re very family-oriented, so it makes so much sense to have this place as our own. And our oldest, who’s two and a half, is really excited that when it’s the weekend, we’re going to the summer house. She really relaxes when she’s there.”

An Old Carpenter’s Kitchen Amid Major Life Events

Before “Summer House Makeovers,” the couple had already put a lot of love into making the summer house feel like home to some extent since they took it over in November 2020:

“We like it when things have a bit of soul, so we’d been given an old custom-built kitchen as a gift. And on the day I gave birth to our youngest daughter—it was during the European Soccer Championship, with Denmark playing Wales—the whole family was gathered at my parents’ summer house, and suddenly my water broke. And Steffen—he just happened to think, ‘Oh, by the way, I didn’t quite finish that kitchen.’ So it actually got finished while I was up at our summer house having contractions.”

“And watching the second half,” adds Steffen.

“I’m watching soccer, and Steffen is working hard to finish the kitchen. So we actually got that done ourselves beforehand,” says Julie with a laugh.

“In general, we have an insane number of ideas for the place,” says Steffen, “but there are a couple of little ones who demand our time, too.”

And that’s part of the reason the couple signed up for Summer House Makeovers in the first place.

> And Steffen—he just happened to think, ‘Oh, by the way, I didn’t quite finish that kitchen.’ So it’s actually getting finished while I’m up at our summer house having contractions.

“We already feel like we’re running at full speed in our daily lives with our jobs, and as a boarding school teacher, I have some pretty crazy work hours. That creates some peak periods for one of us or the other, and on top of that, having two kids who are so close in age while also having to find the energy to do this massive summer house makeover—or at least do a lot of work on it—has been a bit of a drag for us at times,” says Steffen.

“And then, speaking purely for myself, Steffen is the kind of guy who has a lot of great ideas,” says Julie with a laugh. “Not just a lot. An insane number,” adds Steffen with a laugh.

Ideas Make Your Brain Work Overtime

“He says himself that his ideas are like a little sparrow that I’m shooting down with cannons every day. Because he has so many great ideas. So we needed a little help figuring out which direction to take it all in. What should we prioritize spending our energy on? Steffen wanted to build a shelter; we wanted to paint the exterior… But getting this help has actually allowed us to make some progress on a few things,” says Julie.

“That might be our challenge. Now I’m going to give you a little shout-out, Steffen,” says Julie, laughing, “but you, in particular, have so many awesome ideas, and when it comes to actually seeing them through to the end…” Steffen laughs. “Yeah, it can take a little longer because I often feel like doing something new. I have an insane number of ideas.”

One of those ideas is to move the main entrance of the summer house. He thinks it’s a bit silly that the entrance is on the opposite side of the house from where you park. “I see ideas in all sorts of things. My brain is working overtime sometimes.”

“Yeah, we’re not going to get stuck in a rut with the summer house, because there’s always something we can work on. And to really relax, we also need a project we can dive into,” says Julie.

A Boost and the Right Direction

What has it meant for you to be on Summer House Makeovers?

“For us, it’s been a huge boost in the direction we want our summer house to go, so we could make more progress toward how we want it to be,” says Steffen.

“An absolutely incredible helping hand,” adds Julie. “It’s given us a whole new sense of energy and really lifted a burden off our shoulders. But it’s also been truly inspiring. Bringing in some extra color that we might not have chosen ourselves, but which we can now see makes sense.”

> It’s given us a whole new sense of freedom and really lifted a weight off our shoulders. But it’s also been truly inspiring. Bringing in some extra color that we might not have chosen ourselves, but which we can now see makes sense.

“And which we’ve actually come to really love,” says Steffen, “so much so that we’ve decided to carry it over into some of the other rooms.”

“I think they managed to create some really nice atmospheres in the house with flea market finds, new pillows, and bamboo baskets,” says Julie. “Steffen works with wood, of course, and is very creative with it—staying true to its texture, colors, and shapes—so we’ve always had a lot of wood. That’s why we’ve sometimes thought it might be a shame to paint the wood. But we’ve learned a lot from this experience and become a bit more open to the idea that you can also paint it and bring it to life in a different way by painting certain elements,” she says.

From a Cigar Box-Heavy Space to a Living Space

What’s your favorite room now?

“The family room,” Julie replies without hesitation. “That living space up there. We went up to the loft and painted part of the ceiling there before the renovation and could see that it was taking us a really long time… Now, every time we’re up there, we enjoy the fact that someone took care of that for us and painted all the way up to the rafters. It’s become such a lovely room. It’s much brighter, much more inviting. Much warmer to be in, actually, even though it’s white. It really is a living space.”

It’s become a warm space, even though it’s white?

“It doesn’t feel as heavy as a cigar box like it used to. It has a different kind of lightness,” says Steffen.

“We also got rid of a large teak dresser. We can see now that it was probably out of place with all that dark wood. It was a final stop. Since we didn’t want it at home anymore, it ended up at the summer house,” Julie explains.

> It doesn’t feel as heavy as a cigar box like it used to. It has a different kind of lightness.

“That’s one of the things we’ve learned through this. It’s actually been a bit of an eye-opener for us and something we’ve been practicing. Now we just need to go through the whole house here at home,” says Steffen with a laugh.

Here’s what the summer house looks like now

Is there anything you’ve changed since the show?

“Yes, we’ve rearranged the rooms a bit. They’d created a really nice kids’ room, but we ended up moving it to one of the other rooms because we wanted it to be a little bigger. Our kids take up a lot of space in our lives, so we wanted them to have more space than the smaller room we’d used as a kids’ room before,” says Julie. Instead, the bed from the kids’ room has been moved up to the loft.

> That’s one of the things we’ve learned through this. It’s actually been a bit of an eye-opener for us and something we’ve been practicing.

“And then we painted the floor in the bedroom, continuing with the same colors used throughout the rest of the house. It’s given the room a completely different sense of calm, and the room has simply been given a whole new lease on life. There’s nothing but a bed, a tiny dresser, and a coat rack on the wall, but there doesn’t need to be anything else for us to have a great bedroom. It feels like a little den,” says Steffen.

Furniture from Karup Design was part of the couple’s summer house makeover. And it’s been a hit with the family. In particular, the soft armchair, ‘Hippo’, has been in constant use:

“We’ve really loved the ‘Hippo.’ We’ve used it both for sitting outside—just Steffen and me with a glass of wine—and indoors. For example, we’ve used it as a mattress for the kids to jump down onto from the sofa, or we’ve sat and read books together in it, or I’ve slept in it with my daughter. It’s just so versatile,” says Julie. “It’s been through a lot already,” laughs Steffen.

The ‘Lean’ futon sofa bed is also a favorite of the couple’s: “I’m just as excited about the fold-out sofa. I really think it’s beautiful,” says Steffen.

If you haven’t seen the episode featuring the summer house makeover, you can watch it here—or click below to see more photos of the summer house and book it.