Celebrating in the Stable

Antiques dealer Julia von Hülsen specialises in Gustavian pieces - all of which look perfectly placed in her German home

- MIRIAM HANNEMANN

The smell of fir and freshly baked cookies fills the air, the fire in the woodburner crackles and small candles flicker. The home of Julia von Hülsen, in northern Germany, is a place that stimulates the senses, radiates warmth and, more unusually, takes guests on a nostalgic journey to 18th-century Sweden.

The picture-perfect house is a former stable in the grounds of a country villa, nestled between lakes and forests in the hilly landscape of Holstein Switzerland (so called because the area resembles rural Switzerland). Julia’s great-grandfather bought the villa in 1918 and, during the post-war period, converted the stable for habitation. The estate was passed down through the generations and, after Julia was born, her grandparents lived here. The extended family would join them for family celebrations and holidays. Julia’s father now runs the villa as a Bed & Breakfast.