Living · 6 min

Living for a while in Vienna, an old building that smells of you

An old leather suitcase stands in front of the sofa, the straps soft and dark from many years. Beside it a small table lamp with a blue shade, the light falling through the tall old window onto herringbone parquet. One wall in deep blue, above it a wallpaper like washed out fields of watercolour. Living for a while in Vienna often looks different, smooth, uniform, interchangeable. Not this room. Whoever comes here for a few months rarely wants a hotel room with a kitchenette. They want a place where the morning cup has its spot. Where the furniture has already lived before you arrived and yet waits for you all the same.

Why living for a while in Vienna deserves more than a stopover

You know the situation. A new project, a guest professorship, half a year in a city you do not yet know. And then that first question, where do I sleep, where do I cook, where do I find some peace. The quick answer is usually an apartment so neutral that it never hurts anywhere and never does any good anywhere either. White walls, an off the shelf sofa, a picture nobody chose.

We believe in the other answer. A space that does not merely house you but takes you in. When you live somewhere for weeks or months, then that place is your everyday life, not your journey. You wake up here, you work here, you wait here for a call that matters. It makes a difference whether that everyday life happens in an interchangeable room or in a space with character. With colour, with patina, with pieces that have something to tell.

The pieces in the room, put together by hand

Look at the leather suitcase. It was once on the move, long before it came to stand here in front of the sofa. The buckles have gone dull, the edges rounded. Now it carries books and a coffee cup. You cannot buy pieces like this as if they were new, you have to find them and rescue them.

The sofa has a wooden frame, clear and calm, the cushions in a natural tone, with pillows in coral red and deep blue grey. Beside it a floor lamp with a fabric shade, behind it the dark walnut cabinet, carved, heavy, from a time when furniture was built for generations. Above the dining table hangs a brass pendant with pressed glass shades, five lights on black textile cords, staggered in height. Mid-Century, honest, no reproduction.

And then the play of colours. The deep blue of the lower wall, the warm coral of the panels, the watercolour wallpaper in between. None of it is loud. It is in tune, the way a good meal is in tune. You only notice it once you feel at ease and cannot quite say why.

Old buildings in Vienna, what these rooms can do

A Viennese old building has something that new builds rarely have. High ceilings, large windows, oak herringbone parquet that gives a little underfoot and has stored its share of stories. These rooms breathe differently. The light falls deeper inside, the sound grows softer, the air does not stand still.

That is exactly why vintage works so well here. A carved cabinet feels overwhelming in a low new build. In an old room with a ceiling three metres high it simply stands right. The round dining table with the curved legs, the pink velvet chairs around it, that is no clash of styles, it is a conversation between old and new. The old gives steadiness, the new gives lightness.

If you yourself move into an old building for a while, it is worth a second look at what is already there. Do not cover the parquet floor with a rug, show it. Bring along one or two pieces of your own, a photo, a stack of books, a blanket. Nothing more is needed to turn furnished into your home.

Three small moves that turn living for a while into a home

You do not have to renovate to arrive. You only have to place a few things right.

First, the light. A single ceiling lamp turns any room into a waiting room. Set out two or three small light sources instead, a table lamp, a floor lamp, warm and deep in the evening. The blue lamp on the side table in the photo does exactly that. It draws a warm island into the night.

Second, a fixed place for the daily things. The morning coffee, the keys, the notebook. As soon as things have a place, the temporary feeling stops. The old suitcase as a table is perfect for this, a surface with a history, not a piece from the catalogue.

Third, colour and texture. A pillow in a tone you like, a wool blanket, a vase with fresh flowers like the one on the dining table. It costs little and changes everything. A room that only functions stays cool. A room you want to touch becomes warm.

Arriving in the Graetzl, not just in the apartment

A good home for a while does not stop at the apartment door. It carries on into the Graetzl, into the streets around. The baker who recognises you again after three days. The café where you find your table. The market on Saturday. Whoever comes for months does not want to head for the tourist mile every evening but to live where Vienna really happens.

That is why location matters differently than with a hotel. Not central at any price, but nestled into a quarter with its own rhythm. Where you do your shopping on foot, where the park is near, where on a Sunday you lose the day without missing it. It is exactly this feeling that carries you through the first weeks, when everything still feels unfamiliar.

Whoever lives in Vienna for a while and wants to breathe out in the Provence on the side will find a place with the same spirit there too. Material, patina, calm. One brand, several uses, the same care.

Who this is made for

For those who stay too long for a hotel and too short for a place of their own. For people who change their location and want to take their habits along. For anyone who knows that a place can carry you or only put you up.

We furnish the way we would want to live ourselves. With pieces we have rescued and curated, with colour we like, with light that does you good. Nothing is perfect in the smooth sense. But everything is real. And that is what remains in the end, when after months you move on. Not the address, but the feeling that you were briefly truly at home here.