Sweet Living Under The Stars In Germany

I’ve happily followed Laura Wolter on Instagram for years over at @oursweetliving because I adore her smart DIY ideas and her kind and friendly Insta Stories, and of course her eye for style and color. Laura works primarily with warm, earthly colors - terra cotta, green, creamy white, beige, and peach tones combined with tons of textured, natural materials like wool, ceramic, linen, rattan, sessel, wicker, and wood. Combining these colors and materials with her large potted plants, two fluffy cats, and her boyfriend Victor - her house feels like a very loving and caring space.

I’ve met Laura in person a few times at the Garden + Home Blog Awards each year, she is as open and warm as you’d imagine, which is directly reflected in her interior world. It’s wonderful to see such a wide-eyed enthusiastic person enter the digital space with a fresh approach to decor that doesn’t feel heavily sponsored, extremely “on trend”, or overly staged. Laura is the real deal, which is why I wanted to introduce you to her today and share a glimpse of her new attic apartment in the very charming city of Münster, located in western Germany nearby to the Dutch border.

On Laura’s Insta, I enjoy how expressive she is in her daily videos (Insta Stories) and how much she shares with her followers, from her morning coffee to her frequent trips to IKEA and garden shops. I’m most impressed by her overall excitement for mundane home projects - she is motivated to get to work on things that most people whine and procrastinate about like laying a deck floor, adding molding to walls, and having to repaint because the color wasn’t quite right the first time around. Laura and her boyfriend Victor jump right in with contagious laughter and lots of smiles and kisses. Laura’s approach to everything she does is centered around staying positive, making small moments count, and doing everything with a complete heart.

Laura’s interiors are very tidy and well-edited. Together, they share a 140m2 space spread across two floors in the attic with a generous outdoor terrace, but even a large city apartment like this could easily become too full - yet she takes the lead in keeping it simple and relatively minimal. It can often be a challenge to share a space with pets, which I asked her about. She confessed to never being a “cat type”, but her two cats, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, moved in with her on a whim and now she can't imagine living without them. She expressed that it’s, “incredibly nice to come home to them” (especially when she lived alone in her former apartment), that, “they greet me at the door and they love to cuddle up in bed in the evening… They’ve been there for me throughout many difficult situations and have helped me with their cuteness.” :)

Her words made me think back to my childhood when I grew up with dogs and cats at home. Pets can certainly make a home feel so much warmer and loving, don’t you think?

One of the projects that I love the most from Laura and Viktor is shown below - how they changed their walls to look and feel more charming through the use of panel molding. Panel molding is raised wood trim used to accentuate flat walls to add character and mostly run the full height of the wall but many people are doing it 1/2 or 3/4 up the wall now to mimic wainscoting. Panel molding (and wainscoting) is a real trend for interiors, especially used in neutral, relatively minimalist spaces, in cream or white, in spaces where this type of paneling was not included originally. Laura appreciates the charm of her old building which is why they decided to apply this idea to their living room, dining room, and hallway - because it creates even more charm in the apartment. I have to agree - you can see the BEFORE and AFTER in both her hallway and dining room below. Gorgeous!

BEFORE - Adding wood molding and paint to their hallway

After!

BEFORE - Happy to get started!

Adding paneling to wall, and paint, and still HAPPY!

AFTER - and next they will add a cabinet to the wall… IN PROCESS….

This talented couple is currently working behind the scenes to build an online store for home decor - OUR SWEET LIVING SHOP. They’ve teamed up to design and make everything themselves because their backgrounds and talents match perfectly - she studied fashion with a major in tailoring, design, and management, so she is responsible for the textiles and Victor is a carpenter so he handles the building and woodwork. After her fashion management studies, she also studied communication science in Münster. Victor is from Chile and relocated to Germany six years ago and like Laura, he has a great passion for traveling, getting to know other cultures, and meeting different people. He did his training as a carpenter here in Germany and has been working in this field ever since, so they are a great match. Laura calls him her lucky charm because since he came into her life, so many beautiful things have happened to her. Their biggest dream is to someday buy an old apartment and refurbish and renovate everything together. It’s so inspiring to watch this young couple organically build their interiors world together now with their new apartment, next with their online shop, and later - well, let’s wait and see!

Lovely plants!

And more plants!

Outdoor space - more plants of course!

Lovely shadows - I love how palms look in the light and shadow.

When I asked Laura what she loves most about her home, she said, “That Victor and I both live together! For me, it is very special to live with Victor and to be able to share all the wonderful moments with him.” She also loves how the natural light falls into the dining room in the morning, lingers on their beautiful roof terrace during the day, and shines into the living room in the evening. In her new space, Laura feels empowered, inspired and super creative, “Now there is no obstacle to implement my creative ideas!”.

Isn’t that a wonderful way to feel at home? Unstoppable in your creativity and joy?

Thank you, Laura and Viktor for sharing your life and home with us today. Have a lovely weekend friends and remember, follow these two lovebirds in their cozy nest on Insta at @oursweetliving.

Love,

Holly

(Photos with permission from Laura Wolter)

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