"Take out as much as you can" were the brave words Gisbert Pöppler offered a new client. The homeowner had initially imagined a simple refresh — new colors and furniture — for their 1920s garden villa in Hagen, Germany.
But while the listed clinker-brick exterior was beautifully preserved, a 1980s gut renovation hardly matched up and Gisbert wasn't impressed. Open to bold ideas, the client trusted his radical vision for a complete transformation of this modern home.
The homeowners planned to use the living room to entertain, but also to host meetings. Gisbert opted for comfortable, yet solid, furniture that helps maintain composure without "sinking in". "You still look good when you sit on the sofa," he says.
The home, designed by the Ludwig brothers, sits within Hohenhagen, an early-20th-century artist colony spearheaded by industrialist Karl Ernst Osthaus and inspired by England's garden city movement.
The setting is packed with history, and its modern garden reads more like a small park. But its interiors were destroyed by fire during the Second World War. This made the home a blank slate — ideal for the entrepreneurial client, who envisioned the estate as much for business meetings as family life.
Gisbert chose dispersed ceiling lights instead of a chandelier so the expandable dining table would never appear off-center, whether used for intimate dinners or meetings with 20 people.
Simple in form, with a nod to retro style, this Heal's lamp is a stylish and inexpensive alternative to Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni's design for Fontana Arte.
Light was essential to designer Gisbert Pöppler's glow-up. Despite its south-facing orientation, the house had many rooms that were surprisingly dark. First, a series of walls came down, merging three tight rooms into a spacious salon.
An earthy yellow paint — a recurring color favored by the homeowner — brings much-needed brightness to an entrance hall with limited natural light.
Gisbert's team also improved the flow of light through technical solutions: subtle slants in window reveals capture more sunlight, and doorways were heightened into gentle arched openings.
More dramatic interventions, such as interior porthole openings and a sculptural skylight in an orangerylike extension, funnel light deeper into the house.
The entire project started, in a way, with the kitchen. The client worked with Ofco Küchen on the design, and it was its MD, Nicole Otto, who recommended Gisbert for the wider renovation.
Anthropologie is a gold mine of floral and botanical-print chairs — we love this design as a chunkier alternative to Svenskt Tenn's piece.
A bold palette completed the picture. Gisbert proposed decorating with colors so unusual that the site's master painter phoned the client, concerned the tints were mixed incorrectly. But color is Gisbert's calling card and one of the reasons the client approached his Berlin studio.
The sculpted skylight introduces a different, atmospheric light into the glass-walled space.
A mix of earthy yellow, vibrant orange and light blue offsets the home's serious architecture. The playful color palette pops in pieces designed by Gisbert's studio, from color-blocked cashmere throws to rotund armchairs in mustard and powder blue.
Despite the intentionally calm color palette here, Gisbert didn’t abandon color entirely. The custom red vanity topped with a blue glazed lava stone links the space back into the home’s overall color story.
The most striking intervention is an oak staircase to private quarters off the main entrance. Its presence is palpable: with its arched walls lined in pink linoleum, it's reminiscent of an art installation. The bold gesture also clearly marks a passage reserved for the homeowners only — no stray business guests allowed.
"Immediately you feel like you want to go to bed and read a book because of that color," says Gisbert of the earthy golden brown on the walls of an attic-like floor that is often used for sleepovers.
A playful rug adds a fun touch to this children's room — and this handwoven rug has an intricate and colorful geometric part which is like artwork for your floor.
What was lost to history is now alive through a reverent respect for craftsmanship — the skylight alone took weeks to complete. This devotion, says Gisbert, is worthy of Osthaus's craft-centric ethos for the original artist's colony: "He would have liked it in this era."
If you like this villa, you may also like this LA home designed by Coco Greenblum that is filled with color and texture but without being overwhelming.
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