She is a storyteller who loves poetry: When it comes to combining tradition with modernity, Katrin Greiling is like a magician: a dab of colour here, fabrics there, and, hey presto, you get an amazing result.

As timeless as possible, but never boring – is Katrin Grelling’s mantra. “When I work with a floor plan, my first step is to analyse how and by whom the home will be lived in,” says the designer, who learned cabinetmaking and carpentry on the Swedish island of Oland, adding a course in furniture design and interior design at Stockholm’s renowned Konstfack College of Design, Arts and Crafts. Having worked in Dubai and Stockholm, she now runs her own studio in Berlin. There she designs Nordic-inspired, functionally beautiful objects, blending the boundaries between furniture design, interior design and art direction, but juggling with the disciplines, developing spirited new items – and breaking new ground.

This also goes for the remodelling of a flat in Berlin, which she has just completed. The owners wanted their home to be more modern and spacious with a better quality of life and the option of inviting friends over. And this was not a 120 square metre period home, but a flat with just half as much space. The perfect challenge for Greiling.

The designer moved drywalls as easily as if they were building blocks and concealed gaps in walls with storage fixtures. She repeated colours and materials in the flat, combining warm white with stone, black and stainless steel, turning the interior into an expansive airy ambience. It was precisely this traditional style of Berlin living that the clients wanted.

In the process, she works according to plans that look as if a glossy magazine layout had strayed into her own designs. Precise colours, collages, her own furniture designs, colour suggestions and photographs – the very interdisciplinary mix her work stands for, combined in such a meticulous manner that it produces not only a mood board but a big picture.

“A home is like a showcase of the life that is supposed to be lived there,” the designer believes. Hence, she creates a perfect balance between the precise and timeless, but never boring. Be it for homes or furniture designs like the F51, which she reimagined for Tecta. With colours and Danish fabrics that add a poetic energy to its voluminous upholstery and cubic frame that even Walter Gropius would have liked.

Because that’s what it’s all about: joie de vivre! Be it an F51 in sunny yellow or bright fabrics with a feel that invites you to touch. “Creating a whole out of different elements,” as Katrin Greiling says – be it an armchair or a home. Soft, hard, loud or quiet, a designer who masters the entire repertoire. From big to small or vice versa.