Our Story

Our Story...The Danes

The Danes was founded by Stine and Nicoline, two friends from Denmark, with two husbands, five children, a couple of dogs, three cats and some chickens between us. We’ve spent the last 15 years, working, crying and laughing together.

The Danes Family

Before we set up in business together Nicoline styled dozens of Christmas trees at Selfridges, designed sets for theatre and created models & costumes for Madame Tussaud. Stine started off in publishing, before managing a sustainable chemicals business and setting up her own property management business.

We built our first business, home décor and partyware retailer Pipii, from our homes on the edge of the beautiful Ashdown Forest in Sussex. But we decided we wanted to go further, offering products that bring greater sustainability and creativity to everyday life. So we created The Danes.

And while we’ve lived in England for what feels like forever, we like to think we’re true to our Scandinavian roots. So with The Danes we’re also keen to introduce you to hygge. After bacon, hygge is probably Denmark’s biggest export, but it’s surprisingly hard to pin down. It’s that feeling of contentment you have when you’re snuggled up with the family by the fire, but it changes with the seasons and the light. It’s picking blackberries on a misty September morning and it’s inviting friends for an impromptu picnic, surprising them with a 1001 night setting.

Hygge is about creating special and memorable moments every day, just by paying a bit more attention to the details that can make the ordinary beautiful.

 Picnic The Danes Style

We hope some of the things we’ve picked out for you here become part of your lasting family traditions, giving you years of pleasure ahead and that, like us, you can discover real joy through creativity. For Stine that has always been first and foremost in the kitchen using the crockery and linen handed down her family to whisk up glorious sweet creations (meringue mountains a speciality). Wrestling with getting the vegan gluten free pancake recipe to perfection and exploding kombucha, having to redecorate the kitchen ceiling.  

Danish Layer Cake

 

Nicoline has turned her home into a creative den that draws on childhood memories of crafting and sewing, her granny's pottery and her grandad's woodcraft basement. In other words it’s one big hotchpotch of things picked up in the garden shed or field, from dried seed heads to old paint brushes. 

Nicky's potting shed

Whatever you choose, whether it’s wrapping your gifts in sustainable eco-friendly brown Kraft wrapping paper, making wreaths of foraged leaves, or crafting snowflakes for the front window, remember, it doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect. Just have fun along the way.