#61. Andre’s Notes → Vipp® Guesthouses
Listen to Andre’s notes.
You’ve probably heard of Vipp, a furniture company founded in Denmark in 1939.
Listen to André Brathwaite, podcast host of Inside Spaces by Forms of Recreation, share his notes on a space for interior decorating enthusiasts to step into and go beyond the products Vipp makes.
The opinions expressed are solely those of Forms of Recreation and do not necessarily reflect the views of any brand mentioned. We encourage you to check their corresponding websites for further information.
-
Episode #61
Andre’s Notes → Vipp® Guesthouses
____
Think about a decor piece in your home you picked out yourself and not only use — love. Maybe it's a chair, a lamp, or a rug you saw in a magazine or in a store and just had to get. Something about it brings a smile to your face every time.
Here's a question for this week: if you love that décor piece so much, could you love an entire space designed with that same obsession? Every hinge, every surface, every corner considered the same way you did?
Because that's basically the origin story of today's brand. A company that started with a single piece, done perfectly — and unexpectedly turned that same obsession into guesthouses you can actually sleep in.
[INTRO]
Welcome back to Inside Spaces — a podcast by Forms of Recreation — where I search for "wait, this exists?" spaces, built by brands that extend beyond the products they make, for people who take their hobbies seriously.
I don't hop on a plane and walk into any of these spaces. I do exactly what you'd do — I go digging online, through photos, articles, videos, and brand pages — and I share what I find as voice notes, so you can decide whether it's worth stepping into yourself.
This week: VIPP, the Danish design brand, and its growing portfolio of Guesthouses and Residences.
____
If you consider yourself an interior design enthusiast, you probably already know the name — but the origin story is worth hearing anyway, because it's not what you'd expect from a brand this design-forward.
VIPP started in 1939 with a metalworker named Holger Nielsen. His wife ran a hair salon, and she needed a waste bin — something sturdy, something she could open hands-free while covered in hair clippings, her gloves still stained with dye. So, Holger built her one. A pedal-operated steel waste bin.
[VOICE NOTE — lo-fi filter]
"Imagine sharing this story with your kids or grandkids — your love for another person, true love, can be expressed through a waste bin."
[END VOICE NOTE]That bin became the start of a business and now a design icon, commonly referred to in magazines and sitting in museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Three generations later, the same obsession with getting one object exactly right expanded into furniture, kitchens, lighting — and eventually, buildings.
____
Okay, it's time to use your mind's eye.
You arrive to a forest. As you step out of the car you get that earthy smell you have been missing for months. As you walk towards a Swedish lake, you find a carefully placed, stunning 55-square-meter black steel pod called the Vipp Shelter. The idea, originally, was to sell it like a product — a prefabricated home, off the shelf, the same way you'd buy one of their bins, shipped to the place of your choosing. A fully equipped one-bedroom unit, detailed down to the last screw, with expansive windows to enjoy the outdoors while being inside a beautifully outfitted space by Vipp.
[VOICE NOTE — lo-fi filter]
"In an interview, the current CEO actually said, 'the interest was huge, it won awards and got an incredible amount of press, praised by all the right people... but we didn't sell a single unit.' Incredible. They built something beautiful, and nobody bought it."
[END VOICE NOTE]Instead of leaving it in the woods as a monument of failure, they offered it as their first guesthouse: letting people book a night at VIPP's Shelter. What began as a misjudged business idea that the world loved but was not willing to pay for, laid the foundation for a furniture company that extends into spaces you can stay in.
Oh, and by the way, there is nothing else around. No reception, no lobby, no one checking you in. Just you, a fully stocked kitchen, and a space that feels less like a hotel room and more like stepping directly into a dream for those into interior design.
____
So, you're someone who actually notices furniture. You have opinions about materials, about maximalism or minimalism, about whether a room feels considered and thought out or just placed. What does Vipp offer you?
Guesthouses are deliberately self-service — no butler, no concierge, no restaurant. That's on purpose. The whole point is that you engage with the interior itself. Every room comes with a kitchen actually meant to be used, and the minibar and bathroom amenities are curated the same way the rest of the space is.
And the portfolio isn't one repeated formula, it's a collection of completely different guesthouses. There's the original Shelter by the Swedish lake, that movable steel pod that has no plans on moving. A 400-square-meter loft in Copenhagen. A historic Chimney House, also in Copenhagen, built inside a century-old water pumping station with its own 35-meter chimney. A Farmhouse in southern Denmark, on the island of Lolland — a gardener's cottage dating back to 1775. Then there's the sleek apartment they call the Pencil Case, set inside a former factory that used to manufacture Denmark's iconic yellow Viking school pencils — right down to leaving a few of those pencils in the room for you to use. There is a townhouse in the south of France. A 4-room house surrounded by arid Mexican terrain. A lodge in the Andorran mountains. Among many others.
[VOICE NOTE — lo-fi filter]
"I was reading that there is no commercial photography allowed at any of these guesthouses. Also, no kids, no pets. That tells you exactly who this is built for. This isn't a family vacation rental where you hope your kids won't splatter spaghetti sauce all over the walls and the host leaves a review that you left behind a crime scene. This is for adults only with a love of interior design."
[END VOICE NOTE]____
And if renting a night isn't enough — if you want to actually own a piece of this world — that's where Vipp Residences comes in.
It's a co-ownership model. The first residence launched on the Greek island of Kythnos, and all twelve ownership shares sold out. The second, Finca Selva, just opened on Mallorca — five bedrooms, a saltwater pool, wood-beamed ceilings, over three acres of private land, split again across twelve shares.
Owning a share doesn't just get you a house. It gets you into the world of Vipp — preferred access and discounted rates at the Guesthouses worldwide, and eventually, as more Residences launch, the ability to swap stays between them entirely.
In a video, their CEO said that going from renting a vacation home to owning one is a dream for a lot of people, himself included. He talks about spending time at his own grandparents' holiday home growing up and wanting to build that same kind of memory for his own family. Vipp continues to be a family-owned business, so this part of the business is no mistake. It's personal.
____
And that's really the thread running through this whole episode. VIPP didn't need to build guesthouses, let alone entire co-owned residences. They could have kept making very good bins, and very good furniture, and smile as you walk out the door.
Instead, a failed idea — trying to sell a prefabricated one-bedroom unit like it was a product off a shelf — turned into guesthouses, one of the most interesting hospitality concepts. As their own team put it in an article I read: you start with a pedal bin, and it can take you many places.
That's the whole reason behind Inside Spaces, honestly. Brands that build something worth stepping into — even if, for now, the closest you get is a voice note about it.
____
Alright — if you've stayed at a Vipp Guesthouse, or you're one of the twelve owners at Kythnos or Mallorca, I want to hear about it.
No need to go as detailed as I did. Just tell me what you see, through a voice note. It's easy.
There's a WhatsApp link in the show notes, or visit formsofrecreation.com. Just send me a voice note describing what it was actually like for a hobbyist like you. It might make it into a future episode.
Tune in next week on Inside Spaces by Forms of Recreation, for a new space that inspires you to step in.
Explore more
Globally admired brands are extending beyond the products they make. We at Forms of Recreation help discover handpicked spaces designed for refined hobbyists like you.
