Ett Hem | Studioilse

Built in the first years of the twentieth century, this building was home to a government official and his wife, a lady with a love for the aesthetics of Karin Larsson, who collected objects, textiles and furniture from all over Sweden. This was a time when the home became the focus of art and life, and design was integrated into the everyday. The influence of the Arts & Crafts, the romantic notion of national character and the delight in the design of useful things, combined with an impulse to embed a family in a place through architecture. All together this created a very special moment for domestic architecture in Sweden.

Ett Hem, built in 1910, dates from this moment. The house in Sköldungagatan was designed by architect Fredrik Dahlberg. With its protective brick shell it weaves a coat against the harsh Swedish winter. In its interiors it has both the robust, dark-timberlined rooms of public life, the masculine realms.

Each room has its own cocktail cabinet in gleaming brass. And throughout the house is the owners’ personal collection of art and photography. At the heart of it all is the kitchen. Furnished with a big table, comfy chairs and settles.

Ett Hem is not the usual hotel. If Ett Hem is an idea of home, of comfort and security, of familiarity, the other is an institution, a series of services. Ett Hem is something very different. It is active, where the guests can subtly shift the conditions, the atmospheres, the conviviality. A hotel is passive, a place that exists with or without you.

While it has all the facilities expected today, Ett Hem is a place that allows the guest to become part of it. Guests are treated as friends of the family. They can turn on the television in the sitting room, borrow our car or take the dog for a walk. They can make themselves at home, help themselves from the fridge. The food changes with the seasons, the rooms warm up with stoves and cool down with a fresh breeze from an open window. Ett Hem is connected to the street and the sky, to the city, it is not a machine cut off from life outside. Ett Hem is as glamorous as it is casual, but while it is a luxury, it is not a luxury hotel.

The value of Ett Hem comes through the pleasure of proximity to beautiful things, of being in spaces that tell a story, and through an ethic of generosity and care. And to a degree, of being left alone to live in a very special house. This from the moment you step through the college door, enter the courtyard into the garden and go up the steps to the front door. In the entrance hall a fire is lit when its cold outside, and fresh cut flowers from the garden are arranged on the table. Check in and wait for friends by the fire. Ett Hem will feel familiar. It is a place to use as you please. Downstairs in the sitting room there are sofas to sink into and games to play. The library, a room to disappear into, is stacked high with books you actually want to read. And the leafy glass house, where you can take breakfast during the day, or where you can enjoy a twinkling feast at night. Upstairs the bedrooms have a warm domestic feel with a sophisticated edit of vintage and new pieces in tactile materials such as cane, wood, leather.