RESIDENCE: NOTES FROM 3DAYSOFDESIGN COPENHAGEN, JUNE 2025
There is something particular about staging an exhibition inside an actual home rather than a showroom. The stakes shift, the intimacy deepens, and every piece has to earn its place the way it would in real life. For our debut at 3daysofdesign this year, that's exactly what we set out to do. Residence took over a historic apartment near Rosenborg Castle Gardens, and across five rooms, we tried to answer a question we think about constantly at EB: how do you let centuries of design sit together, honestly, in a space someone might actually live in?
On the idea itself
We've never believed historic design belongs on a pedestal. It belongs in a room, in use, in conversation with whatever else lives there: a mid-century chair beside an antique side table beside a lamp made last year. The contrast isn't a conflict to smooth over; it's the whole point. What matters is finding the thread that ties it all together, a material, a color, a proportion, so that four hundred years of design history can share a room without anyone feeling out of place.
"I wanted to create a residence that feels timeless, layered, and deeply personal," Susan said of the project, "where every piece, whether an 18th-century secretary or a contemporary sculptural table, contributes to a story."
The foyer
Visitors were greeted with a small, quiet tension before they'd even taken their coats off: 19th-century French witch stones, once perched on castle rooftops to ward off dark spirits, standing beneath a sculptural pendant by Andrea Claire Studio. History and craft, face to face, right from the threshold.
The work room
From there, into something more atmospheric: scent, sound, and textile setting a tone before guests moved deeper into the apartment. Less a room to look at than a room to feel.
The living room
Here the dialogue between eras really opened up: a Swedish Rococo secretary beside a vintage Mario Bellini chair, contemporary lighting resting easily against 17th-century furniture. Nothing in the room matched in the conventional sense. Everything belonged anyway.
The dining room
A Gustavian center table, stacked with our favorite photography and design books, sat beneath a crystal chandelier, joined by a pair of 1930s armchairs and a striking new console from Studio Khachatryan, proof that a single well-placed contemporary piece can sharpen everything historic around it, rather than compete with it.
The bedroom
Our favorite room, if we're honest. A generous Cappelen Dimyr rug beneath a Hästens bed, a 17th-century tapestry on the wall, rare Baroque furniture throughout, and the whole room washed in the soft glow of Andrea Claire lighting alongside another sculptural piece from Studio Khachatryan. Quiet, warm, and layered in exactly the way we hoped the whole exhibition would feel.
What stayed with us most wasn't any single piece, as much as we loved each one: it was the feeling of walking through a home where centuries had quietly agreed to coexist. That's the whole philosophy of Emerson Bailey, distilled into five rooms. A proud way to make our Copenhagen debut.
Until next year.