New nordic

Breaking the conventional Scandi mould, this Oslo apartment combines a cocktail of styles and materials to dramatic effect.

- Serena Fokschaner

There are two sides to Scandinavian style. The first is the familiar: walls as white as fresh laundry, lashings of birch ply and sculptural lights glowing over low sofas. Then there’s the newer take that owes everything to travel and the aesthetic pluralism of social media. The pared-back, breezy spaces are still here, but instead of glacial whites or leaf greens there are moody lagoon-deep blues and velvety blacks.

It’s not hard to work out which category this Oslo apartment falls into. Set on the first floor of a late 19th-century block, it’s the result of a collaboration between the owner – Per Ove, a property developer – and interior designer Hanne Gathe. Per is an entrepreneur with precise tastes who oversees every detail of his projects. ‘But making decisions on your own home can be harder, so Per asked me to help,’ says Hanne, who previously worked with Norman Foster and Fiona Barratt Interiors before setting up her own practice in Oslo. ‘He wanted somewhere cool and different. This apartment was very much a joint project; every finish or piece of furniture was the result of shared ideas,’ she says.