SINCE they decided to set up a Danish Design Shop - which opens in Monkstown, Co Dublin, this afternoon - Per Ploug and Lene T Pederson have been surprised at just how many Danish people there are in this country. "When you move here first you think you're the only one but then slowly you meet more and more, which is a bit disconcerting, because you don't leave Denmark to meet Danes," says Lene.
"Then, when you're here a couple of years, you want to hunt them out because you start feeling so homesick.
Lene has been in Dublin over four years, after a stint in London where she met her Irish husband, property developer Wesley Curran.
Her partner, Per, came here three years ago to do an engineering course. Then he met and married Laura O'Hagan of the successful Tileworks company. Looking around for something to do, he began making Danish style kitchens first for friends, then after good word of mouth recommendations, for clients. The business has grown so much that the enterprising friends feel there is a market for the classic simplicity of Danish design hence the shop.
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