Sometimes I look through the homes we feature here at Design*Sponge, and a color that a homeowner selected — or the light that streams into the room in the photo I’m looking at — invokes a certain feeling within me. It’s like hearing a song that instantly transports me to a time or place in […]

Sometimes I look through the homes we feature here at Design*Sponge, and a color that a homeowner selected — or the light that streams into the room in the photo I’m looking at — invokes a certain feeling within me. It’s like hearing a song that instantly transports me to a time or place in my life. Such is the case with the home of Daniela Schinke, a teacher and blogger based in Kassel, Germany, that she shares with her husband and her two youngest children. I look at the pictures of Daniela’s home and suddenly I hear the beautiful piano playing of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, an Ethiopian nun. The muted tones of the home blend together from one room to the next like a well composed song, tying each hue together seamlessly. Dating back to the 1880s, the house was formerly part of an old monastery complex that was partly destroyed during World War II. Once rebuilt, two rooms ended up with slightly higher ceilings in addition to some very low-height rooms. Based in a small district within Kassel, Daniela shares this about her rented home of now 19 years: “We live close to fields and meadows. We always say we live ...