Sofie values quality in the home and serenity in nature

Sofie Wulff lets her dog, Melvin, out of the car and Melvin is on cloud nine. She has parked her car at the dunes in front of the sea. There is a complete calmness until you get to the top of the dunes where the quiet is broken by the wild North Sea. Sofie almost skips down the dunes heading to the beach. "Ah, it is so lovely to get out," she says. "You can go a little nuts from being inside all the time." Just a couple of hours earlier, Sofie answered the door with her daugther, Gertrud, in a baby carrier and opened her family's newly renovated home in coastal Klitmøller in the northwest of Denmark, an area that goes by the name Thy. Here, Sofie lives with her husband Søren and the children Erik and Gertrud - and Melvin of course.

Sofie and Søren met each other at a New Year's Eve party and three months later, she was pregnant. They moved in together in an apartment in Copenhagen and it was during her maternity leave with their son, Erik, that the desire to move closer to nature and away from the big city arose. "I like to spend a lot of time outside both with Melvin and with my children, and it became a huge project every time we wanted to go out. I found it to be very limiting," Sofie says and further explains that she can get overwhelmed by the many impressions in the big city. "Becoming a mother was quite intense. So I have had to figure out where I can re-charge my batteries to be the best I can be for my children. And that is in the quiet and calm of nature."

In order to get closer to nature, Sofie and Søren started looking at areas which were a bit secluded. But after visiting Sofie's father in Klitmøller during Christmas 2021, they were no longer in doubt as to where to live. "We wanted to find an area where there is nature but also an active community, because I crave to be inspired, and for that this place is perfect. There is always a lot going on, and it is filled with creative people who start their own businesses and activites because they have a passion for something - it is incredibly motivating. There are so many great initiatives done by people with the same values as us. There are a lot of intitiatives focusing on recycling and organic values which I really like. It feels quite safe to live in an area which also mirrors who I am as a person." For Sofie it is also important that her home is a representation of the people that live there. When asked what makes a home for her, she answers: "A home for me reflects the person who lives there. For me it is that most of the things we own are made of good quality materials so they can last longer and that it is items that we have inherited, bought second-hand or I have made myself. I relate very much to my home and I don't like if it is cluttered with stuff. My mantra is: If I buy something, something else has to go."

During the autumn of 2023, the little family moved in to a brownstone house, which Søren has thoroughly renovated and which they together are attempting to make into a home which oozes of personality. "Søren just threw himself into it and has done everything himself as I gave birth to Gertrud only two weeks after we got the keys to the house. He had no prior experience but has learnt so much in the process and being able to do things ourselves has been really liberating. I am the creative and visual type so I always get lots of ideas - and it has just been great being able to give the ideas life," Sofie says and continues: "We want to live in a healthy house with quality materials which last, so we have spent an incredibly amount of time researching the sustainability of various construction materials. The floor that we have chosen has a thickness of three centimetres which means that it can be sanded down a hundred times and still be here in a hundred years and that is sustainable to me. We have also really taken the style of the house into consideration - a house from the 70's with a Japanese vibe with the low, wide roof - and we have chosen our sofa and curtains to reflect this. The curtains are actually made specifically for this house which is very personal, I think."

1. Haandpluk is a really lovely place in Klitmøller. During the summer, you can visit their cosy garden on Fridays and get a glass of nature wine while the children can climb trees and play in the garden. One thing I miss from living in a big city is getting a great cup of coffee or a really good wine, and I can get that at Haandpluk while there is also room to bring your children. And that is really awesome. 2. Lodbjerg Lighthouse is a really beautiful place where you can go for a hike and admire the beautiful nature of Thy. There are different hiking routes so it is easy to adapt your route if you have brought your children and are maybe not up for taking the longest route. On the hike, you can experience both forest, sea, and dune landscapes so you get a bit of everything. After the hike, you can climb the lighthouse and enjoy the amazing view of the beautiful nature of Thy or you can visit their café. 3. The North Sea is of course also on my top three of things to do in Thy. The sea is beautiful all year round - both when the wind is still and when there is a storm, whether it is summer or winter. The sea is ever-changing and pleases both the body and the mind. Our son can spend hours at the sea and he gets tired in a very specific way after playing at the beach. If you want to visit the beach during the summer and it is windy - which it often is here at coast - then it is just so lovely to lay by the dunes with a blanket and a picnic basket and let the children play in the dunes.