Summer Magic

Clara Tengbom fulfilled a lifelong dream when she built her own special retreat on an idyllic Swedish island

- Jane Bowles

Clara Tengbom had been living and working in the centre of Stockholm for years, but always harboured a secret ambition to own a summer house by the sea. ‘It was a lifelong dream,’ she says. ‘The Swedish archipelago landscape is amazing, all craggy cliffs and pine trees. There are around 25,000 islands, all within an hour’s drive of Stockholm. My parents and brother already owned houses there and I liked the idea of being close to my family.’

Then fate took a hand. ‘I was visiting Denmark on holiday when I saw a Danish kit house I really liked. I instantly fell in love with the simplicity of the design and I especially loved the large windows,’ says Clara. ‘Ironically, I come from a family of architects; my father, Svante, is an architect and I’d always assumed he’d design a house for me one day. So I asked him what he thought. Happily, he saw the potential of the kit house at once. My parents also gave me a plot of land to build the house on, so I decided to take the plunge.’