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Local studio Form Us With Love has transformed its waterfront workplace into a bistro for Stockholm Design Week, where visitors can meet, eat and “actually use and test” the furniture on display. More
Ahead of Stockholm Design Week, Dezeen has asked some of the city’s most prominent designers (and one architect) to share their recommendations for the best places to eat, drink and soak up culture across the Swedish capital. More
Swedish architecture office Tengbom has set up its studio inside a renovated 1930s factory in Stockholm, with a demountable fit-out that relies almost entirely on reused and existing elements. More
Creative studio The Great Exhibition has created a permanent, fully functioning rollercoaster in its office in Stockholm. More
Stockholm-based Bofink Design Studio has turned the Börshuset cattle-auction building into a members’ club, updating its Jugend interior with plywood panels that evoke animal skins.
Located in Stockholm’s historic meatpacking district Slakthusområdet, the 1912 building had its interior extensively renovated in the 1980s but Bofink Design Studio’s refurbishment has revealed its original details.
Parts of the walls are deliberately left raw”Hidden behind all the layers of paint, plastic, linoleum, woven wallpaper, floor screed and plasterboard walls were beautiful surfaces such as the terrazzo floors, tiled flooring, wall murals and wood panelling,” interior architect Jenny Askenfors told Dezeen.
The building’s main Börssalen hall – which measures 140 square metres – was designed for trading cattle, but was barely used for its original purpose and instead quickly converted into a workers’ canteen.
The main 140-square-metre hall was revamped”Over the years, the building has housed a police station with jail cells, and, among other things, a bank, post office, hotel, and restaurant,” Askenfors said.
The studio made several interventions to restore the 3,600-square-metre building to its architect Gustav Wickman’s original design in the Jugend style – the German branch of the art nouveau movement.
“We removed a floor level in the old Börssalen to recreate the double-ceiling height and to reveal the beautiful bullseye-shaped windows, hidden in the smaller rooms on the top floor,” Askenfors said.
“We also discovered some old murals around the windows, which were carefully restored.”
Bofink Design Studio recreated a mezzanine floor and added a spiral staircaseBofink Design Studio’s design retains part of Börshuset’s upper floor, recreating an original mezzanine level. It is designed to accommodate the members’ club and community workspace A House.
A spiral staircase formed of patinated metal connects the main hall and the upper floor, where the studio has added a balcony balustrade in laser-cut metal.
“We left [the staircase] outdoors for a while, which gave it a nicely patinated surface,” Askenfors said. “The old hotel rooms on the upper floor kept their layout and now serve as office spaces. The bank vaults have been turned into smaller meeting rooms.”
Moulded plywood panels decorate the main hallBofink Design Studio drew on the industrial history of the surrounding area when choosing the materials for the interior.
“The walls in the corridor have hand-painted panels that allude to the tile-covered walls that are common in the Slakthusområdet district, and the Börssalen space has moulded plywood panels that look like stretched animal skins,” Askenfors said.
Vintage furniture was sourced for the projectOther materials used for the interior include stainless steel, concrete, tiles, terrazzo, mirror, wood, cork and leather. The studio also deliberately left much of the interior in a raw state.
“Part of the old wood panelling was discovered behind plaster boards – it’s been preserved in the condition we found it in to highlight its history,” Askenfors said.
“World’s largest wooden city” set to be built in Stockholm
“The woven wallpapers were torn down, but haven’t been plastered over, telling us something about the passing of time,” she added.
“The raw walls become an architectural map while also creating contrast and giving the space character.”
Börshuset’s colour palette has warm brown and tan coloursNature and animals inspired the colour palette for the interior, which features plenty of warm brown, tan and red hues.
“Meadow green, oxblood red, cowhide brown, butter yellow, milk white, flower meadows, clover orange and earthy colours that evoke the cattle and nature,” Askenfors said.
The restoration unveiled decorative wall paintingsBy filling the space with vintage furniture, sourced together with vintage studio Temporärt, Bofink Design Studio underlined the importance of the building’s past as an inspiration.
“With ‘beefy Jugend’ as our watchword, we searched far and wide for designs that highlight the building’s history,” Askenfors said.
“A great find was the wall fixtures in the Börssalen space, which we discovered on a sourcing trip in the Netherlands.”
Wooden furniture was sourced with vintage studio TemporärtThe animal theme continues with the furniture, which is intended to evoke the livestock once housed in the neighbouring area.
“‘Beefy’, chubby sofas in leather, with animalistic and powerful characteristics; substantial wooden armchairs upholstered with animal skins, organic shapes, bentwood; chairs and tables in the Jugend style and gigantic plants to bring the outside in and honour the livestock,” Askenfors said.
A House is part-owned by real estate developer Atrium Ljungberg, which is redeveloping the wider meatpacking district surrounding Börshuset and is also behind Stockholm Wood City, the “world’s largest wooden city”.
Also in Stockholm, 3XN recently designed a stepped building with a spiralling “innovation hub”.
The photography is by Viktor Tägt.
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Interior designer Erik Bratsberg has created unique artwork for the interior of the Persona restaurant in Stockholm, which also features asymmetrical terrazzo and patinated brass details.
Bratsberg, who worked in finance before moving into interior design, wanted the fine dining restaurant in Stockholm’s upmarket Östermalm neighbourhood to have a warm and welcoming feel.
Persona is located in Stockholm’s Östermalm area”The inspiration is drawn from a mix of personal experiences, subconscious imprints from admired styles, particularly mid-century Italian design, and a desire to integrate a homely warmth into a hospitality environment,” he told Dezeen.
“The design philosophy centres around creating a timeless, inviting space that enhances the dining experience while maintaining a sense of personal touch and intimacy.”
Green tones feature throughout the interiorGreen hues are used throughout Persona’s 120-square-metre interior, complementing its cream-coloured walls and numerous wooden furniture pieces and panelling.
“Green is my go-to when I want to arouse a sense of calmness and comfort,” Bratsberg explained.
Designer Erik Bratsberg used furniture pieces with rounded and organic shapes”It’s a tertiary colour, a mix of a cold and a warm colour, which allows it to go well with both warmer and colder hues and materials – a yin and yang of colours somehow,” he added.
“Green also brings the mind to nature and I guess my love for green relates to the joy of seeing the leaves back on the trees after a long Swedish winter.”
“Honey-tinted” oak shelving is filled with crockery and artThe restaurant, which feels more like a living room than an eatery in parts, also features plenty of natural materials such as stone and wood, which are interspersed with terrazzo and brass to create tactile interest.
This material mix was chosen to evoke a sense of “casual elegance”, Bratsberg said.
“For the floor I played around with the possibilities of terrazzo, using shades of green and warm greys and whites forming an asymmetrical pattern,” the designer explained.
Note Design Studio creates “unexpected” restaurant in historic Stockholm food hall
Bratsberg clad the walls of the Persona restaurant in an off-white plaster with a mottled surface, designed to contrast the “silky honey-tinted oak” used for the wall shelving and tables.
“Patinated brass together with details in yellow ochre acts as an accent,” Bratsberg added. “Sheer curtains, patinated leather and textured textiles round it all off.”
Bratsberg created his own artworks for the restaurantCustom-made abstract artworks also decorate the interior. Bratsberg made these himself from watercolour paintings that he had made, which were then screen-printed onto acoustic panels.
“In my multidisciplinary practice I strive to interrelate my art, design and interior work – why not make a lamp into sculpture, or a bar front as a painting, or a plain wall a relief?” Bratsberg said.
Cut-out geometric details add extra interest to the barAlso notable in the interior is the variation of shapes, with the angular tables and counters contrasting against round and jagged lamps, cut-out geometric details and smaller tables made from organically shaped burl wood and stone.
“Perfectly straight lines and symmetry bring order and calmness for the eye, but never have I been particularly intrigued by squares and straight lines,” Bratsberg said.
“On the other hand, too much asymmetrical geometries and organic shapes can bring the feeling of disorder. But balancing the two – as with many opposites or contrasts – can create an interesting harmony,” he added.
The bathroom features undulating mirrors and a mix of different shapesIn the bathroom, undulating mirrors match a wavy sink and are juxtaposed against square wall niches and angled, jagged cut-out wall decorations.
“Forms, lines, colours and materiality speak to us in mysterious ways, but an interior without any sculptural form and asymmetries is like a language without exclamation marks, gestures or emotional expression to me,” Bratsberg concluded.
Other Stockholm restaurants with interesting interiors featured on Dezeen include an “unexpected” restaurant in a historic food hall and a decadent Italian restaurant located in a former cinema.
The photography is by Erik Lefvander.
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Note Design Studio has updated this formerly characterless apartment in Stockholm to feature bespoke Douglas fir joinery and curvy stucco ceilings designed to suggest cloud formations.
Although the Cloudy Outlines apartment sits within a building dating back to 1842, Note Design Studio says the interior had been stripped of any historic charm and “traces of craftsmanship” during previous renovations.
Douglas fir joinery appears throughout the Cloudy Outlines apartmentIt also had a poor layout, with a living area that could only be accessed via a dark, lengthy corridor snaking around the back of the apartment while the remaining rooms were awkwardly shaped and difficult to furnish.
The studio decided to redesign the home from scratch, knocking down all of its internal walls to form a more cohesive floor plan.
The apartment’s corridor was repositioned to allow for more natural lightThe corridor was repositioned to run parallel to the building’s window-lined facade and, as a result, is now flooded with natural light.
Rooms were classically finished with white-painted walls and Douglas fir flooring.
Curved stucco gives the ceilings a soft, cloud-like qualityBillowy stucco moulding was added throughout to give a soft “cloudy” quality to the ceilings and provide a contrast with the “rationality and material robustness” of the apartment, the studio explained.
“With the previous interior and finishes removed, a new holistic design was developed with a limited amount of design principles, all with a timeless ambition,” Note Design Studio said.
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In the kitchen, Douglas fir was used again to create simple cupboards and a striking circular cover for the extractor fan.
The countertop, on the other hand, is overlaid with a sleek metallic finish.
Furnishings in pastel hues disrupt the otherwise neutral colour schemeAll of the apartment’s doors, as well as its window sills, are also made from Douglas fir.
The material palette only deviates slightly in the bathroom, which features grey-tile surfaces and flecked terrazzo-like flooring.
The stucco effect can also be seen in the bedroomThe Cloudy Outlines apartment is one of several residential renovations that Note Design Studio has completed in the Swedish capital, where the firm is based.
Among them is Habitat 100 – an apartment littered with references to the Swedish Grace movement – and the Mantelpiece Loft, which is distinguished by its colour-block bedrooms.
The photography is courtesy of the studio.
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Interior design firm Studio Giancarlo Valle has turned an early 20th-century cinema in Stockholm into a showroom for rug company Nordic Knots, restoring its original stone details and adding warm wood and brushed steel.
Mottled green marble covers the walls of the 150-square-metre showroom, which is located in the central Östermalm area of Stockholm.
As part of the revamp Studio Giancarlo Valle restored the existing marble – a traditional Swedish type of stone called Kolmårdsmarmor – as well as the building’s grand central staircase.
The showroom is located in a former cinema in ÖstermalmThe studio also added more contemporary touches, such as brushed stainless-steel details and walnut and oak furniture.
“The interior is historic and we wanted to preserve the architectural details, so we restored the terrazzo and plaster,” studio founder Giancarlo Valle told Dezeen.
“The building is a 20th-century former movie theatre and it was critical to maintain a sense of grandness when entering the space,” he added.
Green marble from Sweden clads the wallsNordic Knots’ co-founder Liza Laserow wanted the interior to feature as many of the original details in the 1918 building as possible.
“During the demolition of some old closets, we discovered the original floor to the building from the early 1900s – a muted green terrazzo with a red and white checkerboard,” Laserow told Dezeen.
“Discovering the original flooring made us realise that we wanted to use terrazzo throughout, as the green colour in the original terrazzo matched the green marble on the walls perfectly.”
The brand managed to find a Swedish company that could replicate the original terrazzo to cover the entire floor area.
Rugs designed by Giancarlo Valle decorate the spaceThe stone floors and walls are complemented by a variety of natural materials.
“To balance out the existing stone and terrazzo, we brought in warmer, more tactile materials like pine, oak, and walnut,” Valle said.
Oak and walnut shelves decorate the walls of the Sample Bar, a room where customers can see samples of different Nordic Knots rugs, and where Studio Giancarlo Valle introduced custom-made oak lounge chairs.
The Sample Bar features wooden shelving and steel furnitureValle also added brushed-steel touches to the Nordic Knots showroom, including on its custom-made steel and walnut coffee bar in the main gallery area and a table in the Sample Bar.
The furniture throughout is designed in reference to the building, such as the curved front of the coffee bar that reflects the shape of its doorposts.
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Laserow and co-founder Fabian Berglund had previously worked with Valle on a series of rugs for the company, which resulted in four designs, including an all-beige rug with a pattern of open hands and a red rug with flower buds on it.
These are used to decorate the walls and floors of the showroom.
Meeting rooms are located in the back of the buildingAt the back of the building sit the company’s meeting rooms and office spaces, which feature wooden furniture and a colour palette of saturated blues and mustard yellows.
“The new interiors very much honour the building’s history,” Valle said.
“We were careful to preserve the historic architectural details, along with the feeling of entering a grand theatre, when designing the space.”
The original terrazzo floor is replicated throughout the spaceThe showroom opened during this year’s edition of Stockholm Design Week, which also featured an exhibition of “functional art” by Danish studio Tableau and a virtual apartment.
Studio Giancarlo Valle’s designs have previously been used for projects including a showroom in a Brooklyn warehouse and a co-working company founded by Yves Béhar.
The photography is courtesy of Nordic Knots.
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An all-lilac kitchen and bright geometric storage solutions feature in this colourful Stockholm apartment renovation by local studio Westblom Krasse Arkitektkontor.
The two-bedroom apartment, which is housed within a 1980s prefabricated concrete building in southern Stockholm, was transformed by the architecture studio for a family with four-year-old twins.
Westblom Krasse Arkitektkontor renovated the apartment for a family with twinsAs part of the renovation, Westblom Krasse Arkitektkontor created a number of space-saving storage solutions. For example, the original floor plan featured an enclosed storage space in the middle of the apartment.
The studio converted this into a trio of smaller storage units for the living room, the kitchen and the pantry. This was achieved by decreasing the size of the hallway but maintaining a corridor to the open-plan living room and home office.
A see-through bookshelf and the studio’s bespoke Elephant sideboard feature in the living space”The original floor plan was robust and quite deep, with a load-bearing wall separating the living room and bedrooms into two halves,” studio co-founder Jesper Westblom told Dezeen.
“We didn’t want to close off the spaces by making tiny enclosed rooms, but rather make light additions. The aim was to use small adjustments to make the rooms more defined spatially.”
Red, yellow and blue tones feature throughout the apartmentA palette of hues created from a mix of the three primary colours – red, blue and yellow – features throughout the home, with the colours offset by white-painted flooring.
Westblom Krasse Arkitektkontor also chose a combination of pine wood and red medium-density fibreboard to create bespoke joinery and furniture.
An all-lilac kitchen creates a statement accentThe kitchen was finished in a floor-to-ceiling shade of bluey lilac that also characterises a built-in geometric bench next to the dining table and a tall cupboard concealed behind a “secret door”.
A large bookshelf divider decorated with organically shaped vases creates a partition between the open-plan living room and office area, with a burnt-orange shelving system providing extra storage.
The office area can also be cordoned off with a curtain to create extra peace and quiet.
Matching doors provide separate entrances to the twins’ shared bedroomThe architecture studio’s Elephant sideboard – a chunky blue table that owes its name to its sturdiness and colour – was also included in the living space.
The family’s twins share one bedroom, which can be entered through two tall and narrow doors, adding a playful touch to the apartment.
Small windows were also added above these doors to increase the natural light in the apartment.
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Inside the twins’ bedroom is a sleeping zone and a play area, which are separated by a low wall to create a clear delineation between the two spaces.
“One of the biggest – and most fun – challenges was to make every single space useful and effective and make room for both play and recovery,” reflected Westblom.
Subtle storage solutions define the apartmentWestblom and Robin Krasse founded their eponymous Stockholm-based studio in January 2021.
The firm previously completed the interiors for a local hair salon, which takes cues from architect Carlo Scarpa’s geometric designs and the muted colours of 1920s swimming baths.
The photography is by Jesper Westblom.
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