Visiting Pavlína Louženská

She stands behind the successful platform #HolkyzMarketingu and, as a certified Google mentor, helps young brands grow. This time, Pavlína Louženská showed us around her home, filled with iconic design. Read on to find out why she compares interior design to web creation, what her rituals are, and where she hunts for unique pieces for her apartment.

WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES A HOME?

Home is not a place, but a feeling. A feeling of security. A feeling that something is mine. A feeling that you can kick off your shoes and unbutton your trousers. A feeling that this place is me. I believe home reflects who you are, what your values are, what you like. That's why it's so intimate for us to invite someone "up." And that's why it's so hard to find a sense of home in hotel rooms. They're not yours at all.

Pavlína's sofa is adorned with our woven and knitted accessory collections.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE RITUAL?

Taking a bath for the whole evening. And then moving furniture around. My mom moved furniture my entire childhood, and I inherited it from her. I get nervous when things in the apartment stay in the same place for too long.

WHAT SHOULD EVERYONE HAVE AT HOME?

A place where you can curl up. Binge-watch Too Hot to Handle, or nurse your wounds after a bad breakup. Just a place where you feel safe and calm. It can be an alcove, an armchair, a bed, or anything else.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE SPOT IN YOUR APARTMENT?

I like any empty space. I grew up in a small apartment in a housing estate where storage space was constantly being optimized. Boxes under the bed, the option to store something in the sofa, or a false ceiling in the toilet. We were constantly coming up with ways to store things well. Currently, I have a storage room and a walk-in closet at home, and thanks to that, I can breathe in the rest of the apartment, leaving enough space for life.

"I like any empty space."

WHERE DO YOU PREFER TO BUY FURNITURE?

I enjoy what the guys from Nanovo manage to hunt for. They always sell me a story along with a lamp or an armchair. My favorite brown armchair, which I got from them, was bought by a young couple with money they received from their parents for their wedding. It was meant for a car, but they discovered two armchairs at Tuzex and decided they wanted to grow old together in them, sitting side by side. They ended up at Nanovo from their daughter's estate. And besides being the most comfortable armchair I own, I'm always warmed by the thought that it got a second chance with me.

And I also spend hours at furniture bazaars. From Sbazar, to 1stdibs, to flea markets. I have a soft spot for vintage IKEA.

Lamps of all shapes and colors adorn every room in Pavlína's apartment.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU THINK MAKES EVERY SPACE COZY?

Cozy, in my opinion, is about feeling good in that apartment. And that's not achieved with doilies, but by tailoring the apartment to yourself. We say we're all unique, and then we live in copies of the same IKEA showroom. That's a shame!

When I help friends design apartments, I talk to them about how they live, what they do, and how they spend their time. Some people spend most of their day at the computer and don't have visitors, so they won't need a big table. When you design websites, you use tracking of how the user moves around the site; I think about the same thing with apartments. I make a heat map of movement and ask myself why I don't spend as much time in the living room, or in a certain armchair, and what would have to change for me to be there more. That's also why I move things around so often.

Ilse Crawford (1) and her approach to interior design have influenced me a lot. She says that interiors should reflect and evoke emotions. That you should first explore the feelings you want to have in that space, and only then figure out what kind of sofa you need and where it will be placed.

But to be specific – when I talked to interior designers, they advised me to pay great attention to light. To have multiple sources at different levels relative to the eyes. And the bulb temperature is also important; nobody wants to live in a hospital corridor with blue light. So I have small lamps all over the apartment. I usually hunt for them at Nanovo.

(1) Tip: There's a documentary about her on Netflix called Abstract.

The favorite armchair and the Afternoon Storm bedding collection take center stage in the bedroom.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR LOVESTORY WITH CHAIRS?

Chairs are symbolic. By buying a chair, we often make a promise to ourselves. From now on, I will read more. From now on, I will have a large family that will gather around the table. From now on, I have my place in this office.

They always have a story. I listen to people who tell me about their favorite furniture, and almost always it's a chair. Because Eames designed it with innovative methods, because it belonged to their grandmother, because it's their armchair at the table.

Chairs are safety. Places that are large enough to encompass the entire universe of our existence and small enough to make us feel safe. Long ago, we sought safe caves, shelters from the world, and now armchairs play this role for us.

And last but not least – chairs are a sign of progress. For a long time, they were the prerogative of royalty. A symbol of power. Only knights could sit (on chairs) around the round table. Only Marie Antoinette could eat strawberries on a daybed. Only the king could sit on the throne.

There's so much! I've also written more about chairs in my newsletter.

"It's the most comfortable armchair I own."

WHERE DO YOU LOOK FOR INSPIRATION FOR INTERIOR DECORATION?

Pinterest. I have at least twenty thousand saved images there, and most of them are interiors. And then favorite interior designers (Ilse Crawford), books and magazines (Milk, ELLE Decoration, Kinfolk, Monocle, and many others), newsletters (Tyler Watamanuk writes about chairs), or museums of applied design. This summer, I was at the Vitra Design Museum in Basel again, and again I left with my head full of ideas on how to move the entire apartment.

I like knowing the story behind the design of a particular piece, or understanding the context in which it was created. That's why I have such a weakness for bentwood from Artek, or a bench by Lexová Smetana, for example.

WHAT DID YOU LAST BUY FOR YOUR APARTMENT? AND WHAT'S ON YOUR WISHLIST?

Most recently, a wooden spoon from Tadeáš Podracký, Lasvit glasses, a crystal ball that casts rainbows when the light hits it, and finally, a drill have been added to our home.

And I would really like a Roly Poly chair from TooGood, a small table from Hem, a painting by Matěj Macháček, and a large kitchen.

Afternoon Storm bedding & Daily Notes pillow & Colour Melange throw.

IF YOUR HOUSE WAS ON FIRE, WHAT THREE THINGS WOULD YOU SAVE?

If I leave out personal items like photos or jewelry, or things I need for work, then from the apartment furnishings, it would be my favorite Vitra LCM chair, a painting from India that I inherited from my grandmother, and the book The Last Unicorn that I got from my boyfriend.

WHEN DO YOU FEEL HAPPIEST AT HOME?

When I'm not alone there.

Blue and white Playful Cotton terry & grey Confident Hemp guest towels.

TELL US YOUR FAVORITES.

Lejaan product?

White bedding. I adore the feeling of a hotel bed with a pile of pillows, two throws, and a fluffy, freshly made duvet.

Flower?

The one that won't die on me. Besides houseplants, I always have cut flowers at home. I think I spend half my salary on them. Green Decor in Dejvická has ecological fair trade and local pieces.