Villa Haller in Munich

Interior, design and individual living concepts

Interior stylist Victoria Haller has always been fascinated by houses and flats with a personal touch that really make their guests feel at home. So it’s no surprise that Victoria's chosen home in Munich reflects these values perfectly: a 1934 coffee mill simply brimming with details lovingly curated by the owner, who lives here with her husband and their five-year-old daughter. But it hasn’t always been this way. The house had to undergo a lot of work before Victoria could bring her own style to bear – the full renovation took around eight months to complete. “I was working pretty much full-time as the owner-builder, so I really threw myself into every aspect of the design and construction work,” Victoria recalls.

An unusually personal touch

Looking around the period house, visitors are greeted by a pleasant, cosy atmosphere in every room they enter, though each is very different from the last. The blend of old and new radiates calm, elegance and a traditional yet modern vibe. For Victoria Haller, it was important to keep as much of the original building as possible. All the changes needed to fit in with the overall style and feel of the house. One of the biggest decisions the family made was to add an extension, which would house a new kitchen and also provide a new access route to the patio and garden.

“We love the mid-century Danish style – such an elegant, minimalistic way of living,” Victoria Haller says. However, there were also a number of practical issues to resolve. “Some of our most important considerations during the planning phase were the patio, the garden, and how to maintain the simple transition between the indoors and outside.”

Villa Haller Übergang von innen nach aussen

MORE LIGHT AND AIRINESS

A large kitchen island was chosen as the focal point of the extension, thus keeping the exterior walls of the extra room clear. This was another area where the owner’s creativity came to the fore: she made the decision to use a full-glass design for the remaining exterior walls. “Our garden is quite big by Munich standards, so we wanted to be able to enjoy it from the kitchen all year round,” the Swede explains. “The extension also has a ceiling height of three metres, which gives it a very open and spacious feel. Our aim in using glass for the external facades was twofold: we wanted to really bring out that sense of airiness while also providing a harmonious transition between the inside of our home and the outdoors. As an added bonus, this also made the transition to the patio very aesthetically pleasing.”

The perfect solution

It was the Haller family’s window manufacturer who pointed them in the direction of Solarlux’s bi-folding doors. “The look of our extension is based on industrial lofts and old wintergardens – we’ve always liked spaces like that. Since we had decided to go with black lattice windows in the older part of the house, the dark aluminium look of the floor-to-ceiling, bi-folding glass doors fitted in perfectly with our overall vision.”

Victoria was also impressed with the functionality of the solution. “Of course, we wanted to be able to open up the facade completely when the weather is good, but we didn’t want the window elements to break up the space and get in the way. Thanks to the Solarlux system’s folding technology, the transition from inside to outdoors is nicely understated, and the individual glass elements can be pushed to one side to save space.” Victoria Haller is thrilled with how perfectly the solution has worked out. “That way, it feels like we’re outside, even when we’re sitting at the kitchen island rather than on our patio.”

Interview with Victoria Haller

With her Swedish background, her past life as a sales director and her passion for interior design and fashion, Victoria Haller loves making her customers the focal point of her projects – and she’s always got one eye on the owner’s personality when coming up with new interior design ideas. Renovating her own home has taught her a lot about individual design concepts. She now hopes to share this knowledge with other passionate owner-builders.

What drives you? What’s your inspiration?

“My dream is to make interior design accessible for everyone and to demonstrate how, with just a little effort, you can create a beautiful home by working with what you’ve already got. Starting from scratch with an expensive redesign is easy – but that’s not what makes for a comfortable home. You need somewhere with personality, character. In my work, I want to help people come up with realistic ideas and transform their own homes into somewhere that is beautiful to them.”

“I always get new ideas from the people I work with. A lot of the details I incorporate into my designs are simply things that I like and have been waiting for the opportunity to make a reality, so to speak. A lot of my inspiration is sparked by things I just stumble across on Instagram.”

Why is individuality so important when creating a beautiful home?

“I believe that every home should reflect the personality of those who live in it. But it also needs a practical aspect. For example, we always have friends over for barbecues in summer –that’s why we wanted to put our kitchen in the extension, making it an extension of the garden as well. For other people, it might have been better to put the living room in the extension instead. That’s why every design should start with the individual needs and lifestyle of the residents.”

You can find out more about Victoria Haller’s work at villahaller.com or on Instagram @villahaller.