Kitchen of the Week: The Dinesen and Garde Hvalsøe Kitchen in Aarhus

At once novel and traditional, a kitchen in Aarhus comes to us by way of two Danish design standbys: Dinesen, makers of wide plank wooden flooring, and kitchen design company Garde Hvalsøe. It’s not a residential kitchen, but a model of one which is situated in the Dinesen and Garde Hvalsøe showroom in the historic Mejlborg building. In showcasing the Hoelgaard model from Garde Hvalsøe along with wood and finishes from Dinesen, the brands enlisted Jonas Djernes and Justine Bell of Djernes & Bell architecture studio. Specializing in low-carbon, bio-inclusive, and regenerative practices, Djernes & Bell formulated the concept of “Ecology of Home” to exhibit the transformative nature of home crafts using inspiration from historic room typologies from the salon to larder and library. Here’s a look at the details.

Photography by Claus Troelsgaard for Garde Hvalsøe and Dinesen.

The 600-square-meter showroom was originally built as a restaurant; the paneling and columns were preserved in their original forms during the renovation which completed in 2018. The Mejlborg building in Aarhus dates back to 1898 (which also happens to be the same year Dinesen was founded) and features a Gothic Renaissance-style edifice. The architects drew inspiration from the iconic kitchen of Castle Drogo in Devon where architect Edwin Lutyens implemented a robust wall-to-wall plate rack above a row of sinks.

For more from Dinesen and Garde Hvalsøe, see our posts:

• The House of Dinesen, Reimagined by Copenhagen-based Mentze Ottenstein
• The Dinesen Family House: A Historic Renovation for Danish Design Royalty
• Saltviga House: A Coastal Norway Home Built (Almost) Entirely With Dinesen Flooring Scraps
• Kitchen of the Week: A Culinary Space in Copenhagen by Garde Hvalsøe
• Kitchen of the Week: The Dinesen Wood Kitchen
• Kitchen of the Week: Nadine Redzepi’s Secrets to a Well-Ordered Home Kitchen