Owning a summer home on the Polish coast had always been high on Agnes Berchem’s wishlist. But the Poland-raised, Luxembourg–based art collector and curator, who runs art gallery Galerie 39 alongside her husband, Remy, was wary of committing to just anything. (“Seaside or nothing” was her motto.) So when she found something by the sea in the northern Polish town of Puck, with room for the couple’s art at that, she took it as a sign (or two) from the universe. “It seemed perfect,” recalls Agnes. Except it wasn’t—at least not right away. The interior had lost its sheen, and luckily, the couple knew just the person to bring it back—interior designer Magdalena Bielicka of Gdynia-based studio Pracownia Magma, to whom they’d been introduced by a mutual acquaintance just a few months prior.
Aesthetically speaking, Agnes and Remy knew what they wanted, but they also knew what they didn’t—which was, basically, anything too formal. “Our home in Luxembourg already was, so we decided to do a complete 180 with this one,” shares Agnes. Her brief to Magdalena? “Make it interesting!” Which, to Magadalena’s mind, meant something bold and vibrant, with free-flowing spaces, open-plan layouts, and art—lots of art—not just as paintings and sculpture, but also as furniture, furnishings, and objects. “Their Luxembourg residence had an impressive collection of vintage designs, some of which found new life in this apartment,” avers Magdalena, who conceived the interior as a colorful counterpoint to the soothing water views.
