My name is Katerina, I'm 28 years old and I work as a chef at Beetschwester, a small vegetarian and vegan restaurant in the old town of Münster. I actually only entered the restaurant business 5 years ago and turned my hobby into a career: I started out as a student working as a waitress in a vegan restaurant and then trained as a chef.

I simply realized that this type of gastronomy in particular suits me much better than any desk job. Even after work, cooking is still my passion and the kitchen at home is my laboratory! I bake, deep-fry and make my own pizza and pasta - but after a long day, of course, I also just open a frozen pizza.

For two years now, I have been living with my boyfriend in a wonderful old apartment in the heart of Münster. We live in an old distillery dating back to 1907 on 140 m² with two floors and an open gallery. The heart of the apartment is the first floor, which combines a hallway, kitchen, dining room and living room on 90 m² and, in addition to the beautiful arched windows, also has an incredible 5-metre-high ceiling.

On the upper floor, there is a small circular route via the gallery, bedroom, bathroom and study, where you finally end up on the gallery again. We really appreciate having the loft feeling on the first floor and being able to entertain friends and family in the open kitchen, while in the bedroom and study you can close the door behind you and enjoy some peace and quiet.

We mainly use our stocubo shelf for my boyfriend's record collection and my collection of cookbooks. Plants find their place in the sun on our shelf and small heirlooms are displayed. Before that, it had already had many locations in our home: as a highboard in the living room, as a stepped shelf under the staircase to the gallery and, following the redesign of the guest room and study, our stocubo shelf is currently serving as a slim and decorative sideboard. Other elements can be found sporadically, for example as a mobile container next to the desk or as closed storage elements for tools and other items in the living room.

I particularly like the versatility of the stocubo elements: The modular system and straightforward design fits into any environment and matches all our furniture, whether it's grandma's old wooden cupboard or classic tubular steel furniture. It is so easy to convert and adapt to different locations that I can always indulge my desire to move furniture around without any problems. My latest stocubo elements are also mobile: I have set up a small workspace for DIY projects under the stairs on the first floor and use stocubo elements on wheels, horizontally and vertically, with and without doors. In other words, as storage space that fits into the living room without looking like an office. The whole thing is also produced sustainably and fairly in Germany, affordable and adaptable to any living situation!

My favorite pieces on the stocubo shelf are the heirlooms from my boyfriend's family with a rich history and, from my own collection, the "Greenfeast" cookbooks by Nigel Slater. With their bright pink and orange covers, they look great on any shelf and inspire with small seasonal and exciting vegetable dishes. And if our collections of records and cookbooks continue to grow in the near future, we'll simply add more stocubo elements.