The lift stops on the seventh floor in a yellow apartment building at the end of the street. The lift does not go all the way up to the loft apartment. To get there, you need to climb a flight of stairs. On the eighth floor, there is only one flat, a three-room apartment with 77.5 square metres, and no next-door neighbours.

“This apartment was a stroke of luck for us. We were looking for an apartment on a tight schedule and we had very precise specifications. Looking for a three-room apartment with a balcony is quite a challenge on the rental market of Helsinki, but we came across this one right on cue,” says Alexa Dagmar, who lives in the apartment together with her husband Joachim.

Alexa Dagmar is known as an entrepreneur and social media influencer, who has, for instance, a popular blog, an Instagram account and a YouTube channel. People have already had a chance to admire her new apartment in these channels. Her followers have especially enthused over the balcony of the Lumo home, which offers a romantic view over the rooftops of the nearby houses.

“I've spent my whole summer there. The view is a bit like a little New York. The sunsets were lovely in the summer when the sky was all pink. From one corner, you can see the ships sailing to Sweden passing by,” Alexa Dagmar says.

For Alexa Dagmar and Joachim, who both grew up in southern Helsinki, it has always been clear where their home would be located: they have invariably found their apartments on the Kamppi–Punavuori–Ullanlinna axis. They moved into their current apartment in the same area, because their previous home, with 65 square metres, felt too small. They found the loft apartment in the Lumo webstore.

“There you can easily grab an apartment for yourself, without having to fight over it with a dozen others in apartment viewings. We moved here at the turn of June and July.”

What particularly attracted Alexa Dagmar was the privacy of the apartment, and the fact that there is no direct view of the wall of another building from the balcony.

“It’s not self-evident that you can find something like that in the city centre. In addition, the apartment is bright, suitably sized and its floorplan is extremely functional,” she praises.

The spacious three-room apartment is decorated harmoniously, in light colours and soft tones. There is a lot of grey, as well as white, glass and mirror surfaces. According to the fashion blogger Alexa Dagmar, when decorating her home, the overriding theme is the same as in her own style of dressing: a lot of timeless classics and a few modern touches to bring some edge.

“I have a lot of brass here. I have been fond of it for a long time. It’s a metal, but it has a soft tone of colour. And marble is always a timeless material.”

Mirror surfaces can be found on the coffee tables in the living room and the bedside tables in the bedroom, in the dressing mirror in the hallway and on the study wall. The marble-top table in the kitchen and the living room sofa were acquired for the current home. Balcony furniture was also purchased to go with the decor. The rest of the furniture has followed the residents for longer.

Interest in interior decoration runs in the family, as Alexa Dagmar's mother owns an interior design store.

“My childhood home was very colourful, because my mother's decoration style is a little psychedelic. Maybe that’s the reason why the colours I want in my own home are grey and white,” Alexa Dagmar says with a laugh.

Alexa Dagmar calls her bedroom her ‘safe haven’. The familiar furniture she has there makes her feel at home.

“The bedroom furniture has been the same in our three previous apartments. Harmony and aesthetics are my thing, and I like rather minimalist style.”

Important places near the apartment include the gym and the beach, and the most important restaurants for Alexa Dagmar and Joachim, Löyly and BasBas, are also nearby. It’s nice to walk home along the streets of the old Eira.

“I may occasionally take a different route home that I haven’t used before, because I like the area.”

Home is, above all, a place for relaxing.

“We haven’t arranged a single party yet, even though the apartment would be well suited for that. I do love hosting parties, making food and inviting friends over. A few friends have already stayed overnight, sleeping on the living room sofa,” says Alexa Dagmar.

When Joachim leaves for work in the morning, Alexa Dagmar stays home. However, her day is filled with work tasks: blogging, marketing, making offers and creating concepts for campaigns. Sometimes, Alexa has meetings and events that she can reach by bike. Because she works at home, Alexa Dagmar has her own study, whereas Joachim’s computer must fit into the bedroom corner.

The interior of the study is carefully thought-out: a marble desk, velvet chair, clothes rack and Alexa Dagmar’s favourite pairs of high heels lined up on a glass shelf. On top of some books, functioning as interior decoration elements, there is a box full of white rose blossoms. A much-used silver suitcase also matches perfectly with the other colours.

“I like to keep my home neat and tidy,” Alexa Dagmar points out.

Alexa Dagmar and Joachim have already lived in several apartment buildings in the Helsinki city centre. They are having their own loft apartment built, but it will still take some time before it is completed. The couple’s busy everyday life in the Lumo home has been made easier by the fact that issues can be addressed, and service requests filed electronically, and they are managed without delay.

“Everything works really well, and things organise themselves quickly. The system is very modern. In the staircase, you’ll never encounter the same issue twice before it has already been taken care of."

This is also the first time the couple is living in a building where all residents rent their homes. It has an effect on things and the sense of community.

“When one operator owns the entire house, things get done. All our neighbours are also really friendly, and everyone says ‘hello’ when we bump into each other on the street.”

P.S. After this article was published, Alexa's family has grown with a lovely little boy in Autumn 2020. You can read and follow their life in Alexa's blog Alexadagmar.fi.