The Chromarty family living
A Family of six, including their Brittany bird dog Gaia, approached us a couple of years ago as they were moving homes a few blocks closer to the Waldorf school in Oslo. Their new ‘semi’ was older, bigger, had taller ceilings and from now on, the kids would have their separate rooms. As an added bonus, they would have their very own lush garden to enjoy in front of the classic wooden building.
A budget to go by and sourcing second hand goods
Their initial plan was to give the new 150 square metres a new coat of paint to make it their own, but after the initial walk through with us -they got so inspired that they asked us for a long term plan of how to do the whole place up. That is of course without touching all the good bits that drew them to the apartment in the first place. I.E the wooden floors and the recently renovated bathroom.
-The C, had a set budget to go by, which by the way is also our strength, and as the owners are more concerned than most with environmental issues, both they and we enjoyed scouring finn.no for secondhand finds and sourcing antique beds from the grandparents farm in the west of Norway.
1.
The largest modification to the space was the decision to knock down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, which in turn allowed us a whole host of possibilities. A large family room was created for eating, cooking and spending time together, whether it be preparing a meal in concert or reading, each on their own in front of the new, shared fire place. Local carpenter treestories were summoned to custom make a Shaker style kitchen, and marble tops, though initially costlier than many other alternatives, were put in place to last, well, forever.
A Large Family Room
2.
Not all Scandinavian interiors are sparse and neutrally decorated with only straight lines and beige walls. Today, modern Scandinavian interiors are often eclectic.
They might feature found objects from other style traditions alongside streamlined furniture, but this doesn’t necessarily imply clutter, as long as it’s done thoughtfully. Cool and warm elements don’t need to be mutually exclusive; in fact, they can live in harmony, as shown by the popular Tina Seidenfaden’s gallery space The Apartmen tin Copenhagen and the work of Beata Heuman (Swedish designer based in London) demonstrate.
Rather than throw in the common Pax building set from Ikea, objects like the old wooden cabinets, sourced and painted by The C were placed in the bedrooms. Because these elements are flawed and carry with them a unique history, they have been embraced by the entire family and contrast nicely to the typical clean Scandinavian design. They make the rooms warmer, more vibrant and less correct and today the whole apartment is an embodiment of hygge. (For those who haven’t come across it, hygge is a Danish/Norwegian word, meaning a feeling of cosiness and comfort.)
Flawed objects and Scandinavian hygge
3.
A piece of wallpaper, with a dark forest theme that recently had found its way into our office became our reference point when working out the colour palette. With its mix of Duck egg blue, tender green, deep dark brown and a tiny bit of grey and creamy white, it was a whimsical choice for the walls of a guest wc. and also our setting stone for the project.
Dark forest
4.
The allroom is now dressed in a dark Farrow & Ball Studio Green 93, the adjoining sitting room with the 5 meter long velvet sofa is painted in a Poetic Wimborne White and all the woodwork in both rooms is painted NCS 1502Y. All the doors and skirting boards throughout received a clay brown colour. The four bedrooms all have carefully chosen pale tones on the walls, whereas the ceilings in pale green, powdered pink and soft teal add a certain playfulness. The youngest girl has her walls covered in a fairy tale paper sold at the local builders warehouse..And a sliding glass door separates her from the shared tailor-made wardrobes and parents room.
Added playfulness
5.
The Dad in the house longed for an antique kakkelovn, but as the engineering maths was done and we soon realised that the floor may not hold such a heavyweight item, a custom fireplace with Brunner 51/52/52 inset was built and covered in white glazed tiles. This was made with heats storage such as the old swedish stoves.. Copper sheeting was laid as a surround to protect the wooden floor. The same sheets were also used to enclose the kitchen fan. These details add hints of a country house kitchen. For all meals the family gathers around the large table produced by the Norwegian brand YGG & Lyng and the surrounding, hardwearing chairs from HAY can also be brought outside to be used for a garden gathering.
Added storage for heating
6.
Collecting art, a long term and personal project
Even though we firmly believe that choosing and buying art, should be a long term project and a chance to reflect ones biography in ones surroundings, The Chromarty was delighted when asked to suggest som artworks for the walls as well… Moving into their new family home, they wanted to complement art they already owned, such as the limited edition prints by Haakon Gullvåg and Haakon Bleken, and those fabulous, framed watercolours painted by the oldest daughter (who attends the Waldorf School). Given the family’s penchant for the outdoors, we suggested the works of Thorbjørn Sørensen, a Norwegian painter. From a series exhibited at Dropsfabrikken the same year, they chose a neatly painted watercolour. His soil and weed paintings stuck with them. With simple titles like “lump of soil with grass”, “dry leaves on soil” and even just “soil”, it’s evident that however alike they all seemed, each embodied an individual character and temperament. The painting is a meditation on the ordinary, painted almost to scale and with a certain light touch. Hanging as it does now, by their veranda door and with a view to the garden, its beauty is very matter of fact, as if beauty itself needs no embellishments.
Another well known painter, Irma Salo Jæger, with a personal connection to the family- and to Norway is also represented on their sitting room walls. The C happened to source an early sketch by her.
7.
The first thing that greets you when stepping through the front door is an antique dresser, complimented with a lithograph by the recent YRJÖ EDELMANN, instead of a typical matching wall mirror. The Swedish painter is celebrated for his Hyperrealist paintings of clumsily wrapped packages. To create his smooth trompe-l’oeil surfaces, Edelmann built up thin layers of oil paint using a traditional Renaissance glazing technique, gradually achieving the highest possible degree of dexterity and illusionism. By only depicting wrapped parcels, his oeuvre maintains a pervasive sense of tension and mystery, leading viewers to speculate what could be hidden beneath the wrapping paper.
Moving ones gaze slightly to the right and with a sightline all the way through to the other side of the apartment and into the master bedroom, there is a photograph of clouds and dramatic burst of sunlight in Morten Andenæs’ photograph, Budapest, 2019.
In the new family kitchen, just by the ragged old reading chair which may or may not be reupholstered, there is a delightful example of using decorative arts. Wall hung plates are not an uncommon feature, but here they have 6 Kai Fjell pieces in bone China popping out from the dark walls.
Art reflecting one’s biography
A room of One’s own
As we ended up being much more involved in this project than what was planned for, we can only say that we are super happy with the results. Even though the family have had help from us with both the renovation process and used us as art consultants- it still feels very personal. The brief was never to make a perfect living space in an objective kind of way, but rather creating the right mood and the right rooms for them individually. We are certain that our clients feel that this is completely theirs. Looking at the recent images shown here, it is almost as if it has been their family home for at least a couple of generations. Which suits them :)
