WHEN DESIGN
ON REAL
LIFE MEETS

Ronja Rupalla – better known on Instagram as @housenumbereight_ – has been living with her husband and three-year-old son in her 250 square meter home in rural Baden-Württemberg for two years. 

The planning for the house took four years: Architects were responsible for the architecture, while Ronja, an interior designer herself, worked very closely with them on the interior design. The result is a home with a very special relationship to its architecture – and a house that has fundamentally changed the young family's life, both personally and professionally.

For Metallbude Ronja opened the doors to her home and invited us on a personal tour. A tour that tells the story of a life balancing family, self-employment, and hosting – and of what modern interior design can look like when you consciously break free from trends and the fear of certain materials.

Building your house also meant leaving the city and returning to your roots in the countryside. What has changed since you moved out here?

“My husband and I lived in different cities for years, in some really lovely apartments. We even lived in a converted barn with a garden once. But always right in the city center. When we built our house, we decided to move to the countryside – and that has changed quite a lot in our private and leisure lives. We used to love going to restaurants and cafes, always meeting up with friends outdoors, and spending a lot of time in the city. Now all of that has shifted more to our garden and our house. That's why it's so important to us that our home is welcoming, that we can have guests here anytime, and that we always have friends around. Being able to meet here for coffee on Saturdays, instead of at a trendy cafe around the corner, is simply wonderful. It's a completely different feeling to be able to enjoy your own home in this way.”

Did you take these changes into account when planning your house?

“Absolutely. We’re very social people and have always loved having friends over. That’s why our house is designed to be a real host house – with open doors for friends and family. We love throwing dinner parties, having brunches together on weekends, or simply meeting up for coffee in the garden. We just love having people around us. That’s why we tried to envision our everyday life and design the house accordingly. I think a house always has to work for the people who live in it. When we planned the house, we didn’t have any children yet. But we knew that we wanted to have children someday. So, family life was extremely important to us.”

A question you are often asked is: Minimalist living and a toddler – how does that work?

"We live here as a family with a toddler who also likes to make a bit of a mess. Of course, it's not always as tidy as it looks on Instagram. Toys are often scattered around during the day. But I think a key factor in why it always looks tidy again so quickly is that we planned for storage space and built-in furniture with storage everywhere. The toys are put away again in seconds. And our son also knows that he has to put things away again after he takes them out. Honestly, that's also something I need for my mental health: knowing that I can quickly restore that state of visual calm."

What words – besides “minimalist” – would you use to describe your living concept and interior design? 

“'Minimalist' – definitely. That doesn't mean we live a minimalist lifestyle or own very few things, but the interior design of our house is very pared down. Otherwise, I would say 'soft.' We work with many soft materials, and everything flows together so seamlessly that the entire interior has a correspondingly soft feel. Our architecture is very 'clear.' We have edges everywhere, but relatively few corners. This makes the architecture very easy to understand. Which doesn't mean it isn't interesting, but it simply has a very clear design language. We also placed great emphasis on having lots of windows so that light can enter everywhere. I think what's special about our house is that we have a north-facing orientation, but thanks to the many windows, so much light still enters the house that it's not at all bothersome or noticeable. Hence, 'bright.' And the last word would be 'warm.” Although we have a lot of concrete walls, exclusively white walls and very little decoration, the house still feels very warm overall due to the abundance of wood and soft materials.”

What are your favorite materials in interior design and how do you combine them?

 "I absolutely love working with concrete – I think that's pretty obvious. I find it to be such a beautiful and natural material, and it simply brings the colors of the outdoors inside. However, since concrete is relatively cool, you have to balance that a bit. That's why we've also used a lot of wood in our design and tried to keep it as natural as possible. I think wood and concrete harmonize beautifully together. One of my absolute favorite materials is also stainless steel, or metal in general. It adds a very modern aspect and is also a completely natural material. For me, concrete, stainless steel, and wood simply work incredibly well together."

Speaking of metal: What role does it play? Metallbude in your home? And how does metal actually fit into your warm living concept? 

"We have practically every room in our house MetallbudeIt just sort of happened that way. I actually bought a lot of things before we even moved in. I love the minimalist design, which simply fits into any room and looks incredibly high-quality at the same time. It complements the rest of the decor, you don't have to think about it much, and it just blends in – while still looking exceptionally beautiful. Metal is a real key element for me in interior design. I often get messages and questions from clients who are concerned that metal can't be warm and can't fit into a warm interior. I think that's a misconception. Just because an interior should be warm, inviting, and a place of well-being doesn't mean you have to use only warm and fluffy materials. On the contrary: then the balance is often lacking, and the overall look doesn't feel harmonious. For me, it's always important to find a good balance between cool, smooth materials and warm, soft materials. So that when you enter a room, you simply think: Everything fits together perfectly here.

What are your thoughts on interior design trends? Does it make sense to follow trends?

"Trends come and go quickly. That's why it makes perfect sense to incorporate trends through decorative elements or smaller pieces of furniture that you can easily swap out. But I think the key elements of a house—flooring, built-in wardrobes, kitchen—simply have to be timeless. You should still enjoy looking at them in 10, 20, or 30 years. With smaller elements, you can then experiment much more. But even with decorations, I try not to chase every trend. This fast pace is sometimes incredibly exhausting. Especially if you consume a lot of social media and are on Pinterest and Instagram, you constantly see something new that everyone has. I find that if you try to block that out a bit and put things on a wish list and leave them there for a few weeks, you often realize that you don't actually need a lot of it. And if you choose more consciously, the interior ends up being much more special."