The Sunday Times

Svenskt Tenn home, 1

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‘The best place for recovering if you have a stressful day is to go out into the forest’

Below The curtain fabric in the marble bathroom is from Cathy Nordstrom Textiles. Elin says: ‘A big tub with a window towards the forest was on the must-have list when we started the project.’ Right Villa Lervik was built in 1961. The couple moved the entrance to the side and added the staircase up to the front door

REPRO OP SUBS ART

The principal bedroom with its view of the forest. The remote-control curtains were Alexander’s idea

PRODUCTION

brushed and deployed elsewhere. The star of the scheme is Alexander’s Hollywood movie-inspired staircase, a spectacular timber spiral curving from the hallway to the kitchen. Other highlights include the marble bathroom and the glass elevator, designed by Alexander for Aritco. Originally part of their plan to futureproof the villa, the lift has been in daily demand for moving furniture and groceries to the upper floor. Nine months on, the Lerviks are delighted with the move. The children were initially alarmed by the silence in the forest, so different from central Stockholm, but the grown-ups revelled in the quiet from day one. “The best place for recovering if you have a stressful day is to go out into the forest,” Alexander says. “It makes you calm.” So the humans have settled well, as have the dogs and cat. And the bunnies, in particular, have flourished. “We bought two rabbits and I got it confirmed by a vet that they were female rabbits, but then we suddenly had two more rabbits!” Elin says. “I took Charlie to the vet again and had him castrated, but last week two more rabbits came. Now there are six!” What next for Elin and Alexander, apart from a third visit to the vet? “Our big 50th/40th birthday celebration party two weeks ago was our deadline for finishing the house, and now we want to rest for six months — or a year,” Alexander says. Let’s hope Charlie feels the same. ■ See more of the property and animal snaps @elin_lervik

CLIENT

Alexander, 50, who claims he was not consulted about the menagerie.“Elin is talking about getting goats next.” Alexander creates highly original furniture and lighting that treads a line between art and design, while Elin is press manager at Svenskt Tenn, the Swedish design house famous for the trippy mid-century prints of Josef Frank. Merging their very different aesthetics has been the challenge of the renovation. “I wanted it to be like an old Enid Blyton novel,” Elin says. “And I wanted something more timeless and minimalistic,” Alexander says. “Together we’ve created something better — a welcoming home that will last for generations.” They found the house by leafleting their desired street. “I remember it was a Sunday, it was raining and I was putting notes in the letterboxes,” Elin says. “I told them about our family and that I was pregnant again and how we love the area, especially this specific street and the forest.” “I didn’t believe it would work,” Alexander admits. Ten notes resulted in a call from a homeowner, and the two women hit it off. “She was crazy about feeding the birds and squirrels. I said I would take care of her animals when she moved,” Elin says. The Lerviks got the key to the property at the end of March 2021 and moved in in September 2021. Villa Lervik is a katalog huis, literally an off-the-peg home ordered from a catalogue, which was popular in the 1960s. Alexander says the location was superb but the property, built in 1961, had a big drawback: “There were no windows in the whole house facing the forest. We put a 2m x 3m window in the bedroom. It’s fantastic to lie down in the evening in the summertime and look out into the forest.” They reused original materials wherever possible. When they fitted new windows, the yellow bricks were loosened by hand,

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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

The kitchen was designed for the house by Alexander and is now in production with the Nordic kitchen manufacturer Ballingslov

Left A cosy corner of the kitchen, with an Arco lamp from Flos, a Stuv log burner and a classic PK22 seat by Poul Kjaerholm for Fritz Hansen. Above Lola, aka mummy bunny. She and Charlie are teddy lionheads

The Sunday Times Style • 35

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