The spruce house at the edge of the woods

Hanna and Peder have long dreamed of building anew on their lakeside plot in Bjärken outside Hultsfred. The plot, which has belonged to Hanna's family since the 1950s, is secludedly located by the lake Nerbjärken – "an almost ridiculously good spot," according to them.

The idea was to build a house that breathed natural forest, a calming place far away from the white-painted drywall in the Stockholm apartment:

– We wanted it to be very stripped-back. That feeling of "shoulders down", so you can really relax when you're here and not feel a lot of obligations, says Hanna.

What was important when the old cottage was to be replaced was that the new house must not take focus away from nature. The result became a black tar-painted facade and a continuous interior in spruce, to create the feeling that the house had grown up out of the ground.

– We've had so much time to think about what is best about this plot and know exactly how the sun moves here. Being able to have the sun on your face when you drink your morning coffee was a dream for us that we thought we simply had to have. Then moving the kitchen became one of the first things we changed, says Peder.

Said and done – the kitchen was rotated to the east side to catch the morning sun, while one of the sliding glass sections on the south side was removed to provide cooling during warm summer days. That lovely first cup of coffee of the day is often enjoyed on the eastern gable, through the double doors out from Hanna and Peder's bedroom:

– Because we are so familiar with this plot we know that it often blows a westerly wind even when it's sunny. Then it can be very nice to be able to step away and sit sheltered, Hanna says.

The centrally placed fireplace, with a view of the lake, is another spot that is greatly appreciated by both family members and the cats:

– As soon as you open the front door you can see through the house and the lit fire. It's a bit like walking into a church where everything is centered and your gaze goes straight ahead, says Peder.

Because the couple have three children, the back end of the house was refurnished to create space and room by placing the rooms in a row with each other:

– What is so good about this house is that no room is really a dead end, except for the bathroom. All rooms have a second exit, which means the rooms never feel small, he adds.

Nervous delivery

The assembly of the house was, however, something of a challenge. As the last plot on a very small road, at the bottom of a downhill slope, the assembly required a lot of logistics. The decision was made to split the house into four modules, with a transshipment at a nearby farm before they were put in place.

Finally getting to see the finished result was something both of them had been very nervous about, says Hanna:

– We were quite worried before we went into the house for the first time, because we didn't have any direct images of how it would look. We had interior choices that no one else had made and had no idea how well it would match our dreams and what we were after.

"The feeling when it was everything we had wished for and a little more was fantastic."