Pastel Palette
Stylist Rikke Bye-sondresen has shaken up the classic Scandi look in her Oslo apartment with soft shades and floral prints mixed in with timeless design pieces
Springtime in Oslo is here. The days are lengthening and the tall trees outside the windows of Rikke Bye-sondresen’s city apartment are bright with shiny green shoots. ‘We Norwegians are very connected to nature, you know,’ says Rikke. Even in the depths of winter, she tells me, when street lights fade at 9am and dusk falls around 4pm, city dwellers will seize any opportunity to grab skis or snowboards to jump on a bus or a train and hit the slopes, 10 minutes outside the capital city. ‘We just love being outside,’ she says.
There’s also an air of the great outdoors to Rikke’s third-floor apartment in the centre of town. ‘Nature is very important to me,’ says Rikke. ‘It’s where I get most of my inspiration; it might be a pink sky at night or an autumnal leaf.’ A palette of hyacinth blues, rose-petal pinks and leaf greens contrast with icing sugar-white cornicing. No two rooms are alike and yet, thanks to the tall, early18th-century ceilings and windows, the two-bedroom flat has an easy flow. For Rikke, an interior designer and stylist who enjoys encouraging her clients to trade the safety of neutrals for colour, it’s a scheme that has evolved over years of tester-pot experimentation.
‘The previous owner was a bachelor; he’d put in a black kitchen and grey tiles,’ says Rikke. ‘All the walls were white. One of the first things I did was to paint the place. Over the years, it has changed. I’ve tried lots of different colours to see what I like the most; the bedroom used to be dark grey, but that didn’t work. So no more grey. I think I’ve now arrived at a palette that feels more me.’
Rikke, who originally studied set design, bought the place in 2003, lured by its size and setting. From the front, there are views of the nearby park and boutique-lined streets. At the back, a pretty balcony overlooks the communal garden. The floor plan of the apartment, which Rikke now shares with her husband Torkel, needed a clever rethink, though. ‘Over the years, previous owners had subdivided the interior with partition walls to make smaller, darker spaces,’ says Rikke. ‘We’ve taken those down to open up the rooms
and reintroduce the original feeling of light – and height,’ she says.
‘When we’re not communing with nature, Norwegians love to spend time at home with friends. We invest a lot of time and thought into making our homes cosy and sociable.’ Which is one of the reasons why she removed the doors between the kitchen and living room to create a friendly, open-plan living area. ‘It’s transformed the way we use the apartment, for entertaining or just evenings on our own,’ says Rikke.
The starting point for the kitchen cabinetry layout was the white wall lamps, designed by Poul Henningsen, which glow above the eight-metre long marble worktops. ‘I was determined to have these lights, which meant there was no space for overhead cupboards,’ says Rikke. The kitchen carcasses are Ikea, but souped up with mint-green doors by Swedish company Superfront. ‘We’ve used their doors throughout the flat, on wardrobes and cupboards, just to make things look a bit different.’
In the living area, Rikke added the ceiling rose and cornicing, made from original moulds. She also installed a traditional Swedish ceramic log burner, which was built ‘brick by brick’ on-site and replaced a dark-green fireplace. Furnishings gathered over the years are by a pick of Rikke’s favourite Scandinavian designers. ‘When I first moved here, I made do with flea-market finds, which I used to paint up,’ she says. ‘Now we can indulge in more expensive pieces… Norwegians have lots of Swedish and Danish design in our homes – but not vice versa,’ Rikke adds with a laugh. A Hans J Wegner Wing chair sits near a Muuto pouffe. There are chairs by Carl Hansen & Søn and vases by House Doctor, and the natural materials and soft colours are offset by the pale flooring, which replaced dark, cherry planks.
Rikke has also rolled up her sleeves and perched on a ladder to redecorate the hall several times. Now visitors are greeted by the new Pierre Frey wallpaper, which contrasts with powder-blue walls. Featuring a painterly design of palm trees and pastels, this latest DIY addition is a distillation of everything Rikke loves best: colour, pattern – and nature.