The holiday home with exquisite details and a personal touch

CUSTOMER REPORT / CUTTING EDGE

A herringbone-patterned terrace, a playful combination of different exterior panels, an inviting pantry, a living birch plywood ceiling and back wall - the list of unique and creative details is endless when Maria and Johan Marklund talk about their newly built holiday home by the sea on Långnäsudden.

- "Our original plan was to buy a holiday home, but when we heard that there were plots of land for sale here, we decided to build new instead and create our own dream home from scratch," says Johan as we sit down at the table in the living room for a coffee break.

- We really wanted to give the holiday home a completely different look from our house in town," Maria continues.

Maria and Johan tipped off some close friends about the area and just like that they became the closest neighbours. They also chose Jörnträhus as their house supplier. Both families fell in love with the concept of a kit house. The advantage they saw was the simplicity of quickly getting up a rainproof house that you can then further develop indoors.

- "We fell for the Skärudden house model and, together with Jörnträhus, we adapted to our wishes for higher ceilings in the living room, more spacious areas and an extra door from the bathroom to the terrace," says Maria. "The house really blends in with its surroundings - perhaps because of its special shape and the choice of panelling we made," adds Johan.

- As a carpenter, you are also impressed by the millimetre fit of the Jörnträhus building elements. Thanks to that and careful groundwork, it took only three hours to assemble the garage and in eight hours we had the main building sealed. The job was done by two people and a crane lorry driver. It feels good to be able to continue all the work indoors in peace and quiet," Johan continues.

REFLECT NATURE

Johan's background as a carpenter and Maria's interest in interior design are reflected in all the rooms as we wander around the house and are presented with building techniques, details, material and colour choices by the couple.

- What we are perhaps most proud of indoors is the choice of birch plywood in the ceilings and as background walls. We wanted to make the connection with nature outside, and I think we succeeded with this choice," explains Johan.

- As the house model offers a lot of light with large windows, we felt that warm and earthy colours were best suited to create a more cosy and comfortable cottage environment," explains Maria.

In the living room, which is also the kitchen, we get stuck for a while at the self-designed pantry.

- "We wanted a walk-in pantry in our kitchen and we got it - even though it was on the edge of being able to accommodate it. I think we succeeded pretty well anyway," says Maria proudly, while Johan opens the doors and shows us around.

FISH BONES BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

When it's time to step out of the house and continue the tour, we do so via the large opening from the living room. Here we can really see traces of Johan's carpentry skills and Maria's creativity. We are impressed by the seamless transition from herringbone patterned parquet floor to an equally fine patterned terrace deck. The terrace is an ongoing project but is largely complete.

- It's lucky that Johan has a penchant for puzzles when you set about creating a terrace like this," says Maria with a smile.

- Exactly, Johan laughs and continues, "It's also important to regulate more tightly than in a normal terrace construction, plus mark out the centre of each row of fish bones so it's easier to keep the direction.

MORE EXCITING PROJECTS

Outside, we also see the combination of different exterior panels on the two bodies of the house. The part with the living room has a dark grey shutter panel that is unique to Jörnträhus and the other body of the house has a horizontal wide panel painted in white.

- At first we thought of going for a roller shutter panel for the whole house, but with a bit of thought we felt that the house would be more appealing by combining two different ones. We asked the designers at Jörnträhus to draw up a proposal - which we also fell for," the couple explains.

Maria and Johan go on to talk about their plans for the future and what else will grow on the site.

- As well as building an outdoor kitchen and preparing for a hot tub, we will also be putting up a hot tub for the two children to use. We will also build a small pool house that can also be used as an outdoor room for dining or just relaxing.

We round off the inspiring house tour on the patio by the outdoor kitchen as dinner time approaches. We thank our house friends for their hospitality and for all the building and design tips they shared with us.