ELLE DECORATION UK September 2018
The traditionally luxurious decorative features of this Oslo apartment get a contemporary update with a gleefully technicolour palette.In our last issue, we introduced the Happy Design trend, and it’s a mood that’s captured perfectly in this 19th-century three-bedroomed Oslo apartment, home to production designer Sunniva Rostad. The interior is the work of Norway-based stylist and consultant Dagny Thurmann-Moe of Fargestudio, who confidently used a combination of striking shades that can’t fail to make guests smile.
‘My brief was to make something truly extraordinary,’ says Dagny, adding that the home was once ‘white, bland and lacking personality’. It was, however, embellished with coving, ornate door frames and luxuriously high ceilings. ‘In Nordic regions, these decorative elements are normally painted white, which makes them seem to disappear. But these apartments were built for bold colours, and can carry even the most complex of palettes with ease.’
Colour envelops this home, with each room taking on a totally different feel thanks to its unique shade of paint. ‘I wanted to create contrast,’ says Dagny, ‘so I shifted the degrees of warmth between each adjoining space. Both of the end rooms have cooler, calmer colour schemes – teals and greens – while the two middle rooms are oriented towards the warmer end of the spectrum.’
Perhaps surprisingly, Dagny views these daring shades as neutrals. ‘I wanted a monochrome room,’ she says of the deep red office. ‘Because of the ceiling height and huge windows, the colour really doesn’t overpower in the way you might expect. The interesting thing is that most people who visit the apartment are struck by how calm it feels.’ However, the stylist admits that her choices might not be for everyone. ‘The patterned wallpaper in the hallway is not supposed to be easy for many to like, but for some to love,’ she says, pragmatically.
It was important to Dagny that the colour pairings made sense. ‘In the dining room, we have a dark plum on the dado rail and a pale nuance of the same hue on the mouldings,’ she explains. ‘In the hallway, brown was the starting point – brown is made up of red and yellow, so I decided on a wallpaper with shades of red in it, while the ceiling is a deep ochre.’ In the living room, the scheme becomes cooler – pale green walls, dark green mouldings and a deep blue ceiling – all closely related on the colour wheel. In fact, advises Dagny, ‘whenever you’re thinking about pairing shades, that relationship between colours is a very good place to start.’ dagnyfargestudio.no
Words: Pop McCormac Copyright: Pure & Original Photography: Margaret de Lange Styling: Kirsten Visdal Creative direction: Dagny Fargestudio Visual manager: Iris Floor