Dinesen Apartment by David Thulstrup
On the tree-lined edge of Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill, the Dinesen Apartment by David Thulstrup offers a calibrated sanctuary – a lived-in interior that invites quiet attention and the slow register of touch, sound and light.
Conceived as a temporary residence and appointment-only showroom across the 1st and 2nd floors of 144 Vanderbilt Avenue, the project situates Dinesen’s storied timber within a warm domestic context, allowing material character to unfold through everyday rituals. Open until February 2026, it marks Dinesen’s first spatial venture in the United States and a counterpart to the Copenhagen apartment conceived with John Pawson in 2024.
“Everything I design is about crafting a sense of place,” shares David Thulstrup. Here, that sensibility is translated into a layered and intimate sequence – stairs that slow the ascent, rooms that temper daylight, and surfaces that invite the hand. Rather than presenting product in isolation, the apartment uses scale, shadow and tactility to frame Dinesen wood as an enduring presence within daily life. Spaces are meant to be sensed: light steps across Oak, the hushed acoustics of thick timber underfoot, the soft give of fabric as bodies settle into conversation.
At the heart of the scheme is Dinesen Layers Oak in the Classic variant, chosen for its calm grain and engineered stability. Boards run as cohesive fields, binding rooms into a single, quiet language. Select moments of Layers HeartOak punctuate this calm with natural cracks pinned by oak butterfly joints – subtle signatures of growth and time. Timber moves beyond the floor plane into vertical cladding and built furniture: a bespoke half-turn staircase in Layers Oak, a built-in bookcase in solid Oak Classic, and a solid HeartOak headboard that anchors the private realm. The continuity reads as a grounded landscape in wood, measured and assured.
Furniture gathers as a conversation among contemporaries and ancestors. Thulstrup’s own pieces, including the Arv Collection for Brdr. Krüger, sit alongside designs by John Pawson for Dinesen. Upholstery in Levino by Sahco adds a quiet tactility, while vintage works by Arne Jacobsen and Severin Hansen, reissued by Dagmar, lend a historical layer that deepens the narrative of Scandinavian craft. Each piece feels considered, as if invited to contribute rather than to decorate.
Execution is handled with a deliberate hand. The Danish duo Ocular installed the flooring and undertook the joinery – the turning stair, the wall claddings, doors and built-ins – with a patience that reads in every junction. Walls in Titian, Sand and Suede, tones developed by Thulstrup for Bleo, hold the timber’s warmth while modulating daylight. Soft layers of rugs, drapery, bedding and towels from Kvadrat, Sahco and Magniberg bring a gentle hush to the palette, allowing wood to speak without strain. Finely judged accents include Penumbra, a sculptural hollowware piece by Thulstrup for Georg Jensen, and hardware by FSB – details that extend the project’s material clarity to the touchpoints of daily use.
Set within a building by SO—IL and developed by Tankhouse, the apartment treats the architecture as a canvas rather than a container. Contractor and developer work align to keep the backdrop disciplined and supportive, allowing the joinery, furniture and finishes to carry the narrative. The home-like format underscores Dinesen’s ethos: material as lived experience, not spectacle.
Beyond its role as a showcase, the Dinesen Apartment functions as a working residence, an event space and a locus for meeting. Guests arrive by appointment, moving through a series of spaces tuned to cadence and pause – living areas for conversation, a stair as a quiet pivot, private rooms cast for rest. “In an age of hyper-visual design, we wanted to offer something deeper,” Thulstrup notes. Here, the encounter with wood becomes bodily: weight, grain, temperature, sound. Photography can only suggest what the apartment asks visitors to feel.
As Dinesen extends its spatial practice to America, this apartment threads lineage and place. It stands in dialogue with the Copenhagen apartment by John Pawson, yet speaks in Thulstrup’s voice – grounded, sensorial, and precise. The project frames design as a lived experience, where material, craft and light meet within daily life. Open by appointment through February 2026, it offers a measured invitation: to slow down, to notice, and to dwell.
Visiting information
Location: 144 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205, USA, 1st & 2nd floor
Access: By appointment only. Book your visit here
Open period: Now through February 2026
