Relocating by Design
A family weaves their Danish threads into a new Santa Barbara fabric of life
Maj Henriques creates a warm melange in her Montecito living room via furniture designed by her Copenhagen friends: a wall lamp and mint chaise longue by Muller Van Severen, and art by Studio Oliver Gustav. Around the hearth, a pair of chairs by Le Corbusier, a Linie Design rug, and a jolly yellow side table by E15.
Written by Olivia Joffrey | Photographs by Michael Haber
In my experience the Danes are a bit like Californians: laidback, warm in manner, open-minded, and generous. They are also dry in their humor and forthright in speech. This was precisely why I fell for the Henriques family, when I met them on Miramar Beach a year and a half ago. Maj Henriques, a classic Scandinavian beauty in the Greta Garbo mold, approached me wearing a long, striped caftan and said wryly, “So I hear you make scrunchies.”
“Home should be a personal collection of interesting things that make you happy and express your personality.”
I do not, in fact, make scrunchies. (Our daughters, classmates in school, had met earlier that week, and mine was wearing a patterned scrunchie someone had made her in some spare fabric from my own caftan line.) I laughed, and our friendship was cemented. That day Maj (pronounced “May”) and Frederik Henriques had only just landed in Santa Barbara. They, along with their two children, were recovering from jet lag by indulging in a sunset dip in the ocean.
Maj and Frederik are a Copenhagen powerhouse couple. He is an entrepreneur and a partner in Simple Feast, the wildly popular plant-based meal-delivery service that has taken Europe by storm since its inception in 2016. Three years later Frederik was tasked with expanding the company to the United States, starting in California’s Central Coast. (Their test kitchen is in downtown Santa Barbara, the main facility in Oxnard.) Maj herself is a renowned Danish entrepreneur. Her award-winning design agency, Creative Notes, made a name for itself with elegant, modern design solutions that attract clients in the fashion, furniture, hotel, and restaurant worlds. The agency’s output is so good that her work for clients often ends up in galleries, appreciated as fine art.
“Life is a sensory feast at the Henriques’ house. If the place could talk, it would be singing.”
Maj never expected to rebrand her family, but that is exactly what happened in 2019 when the Henriques packed up a fraction of their possessions and relocated from urban Copenhagen to beachside Santa Barbara. Maj’s experience as a designer became indispensable in the move. Just as she might help a client distill their brand into a moody mustard yellow or a slight undulation in a logo’s typeface, Maj packed up only the most potent bits of their Copenhagen life and transplanted them to California.
The Henriques’ Santa Barbara midcentury house, nestled in oak trees, is airy and high ceilinged, with sliding doors that invite the leafy surrounds in. Only a select group of furniture made the journey, and each piece carries some deeper meaning: There are chairs designed by a friend, photographs of a favorite coastal nook on the Oresund Belt, a quilt from a friend’s shop. While these threads of their Danish life speak to their roots, Maj underdecorated the house in pale sun-bleached colors, leaving it open to new discoveries and experiences. A year and a half after moving here, their shelves are now peppered with pottery from Ojai, art by California friends, trinkets from salvage yards, surf posters, and seashells. The result is overwhelmingly sunny and optimistic and decidedly unfussy despite its inherent design pedigree.
Magne and Frederik (and sister Hannah, not pictured) surf nearly every day. Before leaving for California, Magne held a coveted spot on the Danish national sailing team.
“The main thing,” explains Maj, “is that home should be a personal collection of interesting things that make you happy and express your personality.” Life is a sensory feast at the Henriques’ house. If the place could talk, it would be singing. There is a joy expressed in the surfboards leaning outside the back door, music and sunlight pouring through the rooms, the scent of eucalyptus gathered from a local hillside, a dining room table made in shop class by their son, fresh produce on the counter. The visual language in the home is succinct, but it celebrates change, beauty, adventure, and growth.
“It’s ok if things get scratched,” explains Maj. “You invited in the life. Let it leave its beauty mark.” •
