Art paired with vintage items at Anouk Lamm Anouk and Marleen Anouk-Roubik’s home in Vienna
Anouk Lamm Anouk has been committed to issues such as queerness and animal rights since she was a child. “No age, no gender, no religion” is the artist’s credo today. Anouk creates works in which female, non-binary, and undefined bodies and animals are depicted. The studio is located in the same building as the apartment of Anouk and wife Marleen Anouk-Roubik. Both in the studio and in their shared apartment, the works lean against the walls providing the home with its unique atmosphere. The couple only buys vintage furniture: “We buy a lot of items on the Austrian platform Willhaben. We found a Wittmann sofa for 10 euros there, for example, and we found some secondhand designer pieces at really good prices.” In addition to online platforms, the two also look for items to buy via vintage dealers and at auctions.
At home in Munich with vintage aficionados Danielle Grosch-Ruppersberg and Jonas Ruppersberg
Danielle Grosch-Ruppersberg and Jonas Ruppersberg describe themselves as classifieds professionals. Almost every item in their Munich apartment is a secondhand find. “I want to show that you can create a beautiful and stylish home with secondhand furniture,” says Grosch-Ruppersberg. Their style is dominated by design classics and unique pieces that they have acquired not only on online platforms, but also at flea markets, as floor models, and irregular pieces. Sometimes the couple will plan entire city getaways around a purchase. “Danielle simply has an eye for things that others don’t see,” says Ruppersberg about his wife, who is in charge of acquiring and selecting the couple’s furniture. “When it comes to finding furniture in classified ads or at flea markets, Danielle does all that,” he explains. Grosch-Ruppersberg often looks for very specific items, but sometimes the finds come to her: “I didn’t even have the space-age armchair in the hallway on my radar, for example. But, on the other hand, I was specifically looking for the Bruno Rey chairs in the kitchen.” The stainless-steel kitchen is the only item in the apartment (apart from some appliances) that the couple didn’t find via classified ads or other vintage resources.
Polly Roche’s vintage paradise in Berlin
Turning to classified ads for vintage pieces is an especially wise strategy when you’re furnishing your first home. That’s what Polly Roche did when she moved from Cologne to Berlin at the age of 17. The model answers the question “vintage or new?” without any hesitation: “vintage.” She found the furniture for her home at flea markets and online, using search terms such as “midcentury,” “postmodern,” “Panton era,” and “space-age.” In contrast to buying everything new, furnishing with vintage pieces is a process. Roche sees this as a positive: “Looking back, I like the fact that the furnishings weren’t all acquired in a day. It was an organic process with lots of trial and error.” Roche inherited her love of secondhand furniture from her father: “My father and stepmother’s Cologne apartment consists of vintage furniture, crazy vases, and midcentury sideboards. Not a Sunday has gone by without a visit to a flea market, it’s an unspoken but almost obligatory ritual. I’m glad I grew up with that approach, otherwise I wouldn’t have put so much effort into creating such a comfortable first apartment.”