This apartment sits in an unremarkable 1940 building in Käpylä — a quiet Helsinki neighborhood often called the “Olympic village.”
Most buildings here are low-rise; many were built for the cancelled 1940 Olympics and for the 1952 Summer Games. Käpylä was planned as a garden city: each house has its own front yard and green communal spaces, and you won’t find many tall buildings around.
A young family bought one of those low houses — Anna (a homemaker) and Kevin (a head chef) and their two small children (a 2-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl).
When they bought the 3-room apartment it looked dull: white walls, white floors and ceiling, a cramped layout and no furniture. But the simple interior didn’t scare the couple. In a few months they turned the drab flat into a cozy, comfortable home.
Here’s how they made it feel so welcoming with a few simple items and lots of color.
The apartment is about 52 m² (≈ 560 sq ft). It has three bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen; the bathroom is combined.
The kitchen is tiny — just enough room to cook. The kitchen units were left by the previous owners; the new owners only modernized them a little: they removed the upper cabinets and one side cabinet, replaced the countertop, the cooktop and the hood. That made the small kitchen feel more open.
“Kevin, a chef, at first thought the kitchen was too small. But it turns out there’s enough room if you organize things well. We keep only the pots and pans we actually use,” Anna says.
To break up the white in the kitchen, the couple added bold accents: an orange fridge, a colorful rug, a painting on the wall and ceramic vases on the windowsill.
The dining table sits in the living room, just down the hall from the kitchen.
Anna chose woven chairs by a Finnish designer. Plants on the sideboard and shelves and bright paintings on the wall bring life to the modest Scandinavian room.
“Color matters to me. It brings joy and warmth to a room,” Anna told the Finnish magazine Meillakotona. “I agree with Swedish designer Beata Heuman, who once said every room should sing.”
Below is a photo of Lyster glass coffee cups from the 1980s — from Anna’s personal collection; she loves vintage tableware.
The blue vase that looks like a paper bag is literally called “Paper Bag.” It’s vintage too — by Tapio Wirkkala, the famed Finnish designer and sculptor who became well-known in the postwar era.
An emerald sofa works perfectly for a family with small kids: there’s room for everyone. Its deep color echoes a painting on the wall that used to hang in the house where Anna grew up.
Anna and Kevin met while working on an international cruise ship; Anna is Finnish and Kevin is Irish.
Most things in the apartment are by Finnish designers, but there are mass-market pieces as well — for example, the brass plant pot for the palm was bought at H&M Home.
An unusual three-candle holder on the sideboard is a vintage Artek piece Anna bought at Christmas. Artek was founded in the 1930s by Aino and Alvar Aalto.
The candleholder sits on a chess set box. Kevin used to play chess a lot with guests before the kids were born; now he has much less time for it.
“In 2014 we visited Paris. With the help of friends we toured a photographer’s home that appeared in Vogue. That house was so bright and cozy that afterward I wanted the same feeling at home,” Anna says about where she finds inspiration.
The ceramic plant pot shaped like a woman’s head is a souvenir from Sicily, where they vacationed a few years ago. Such pairs of pots — male and female heads — are sold as a set. The shopkeeper told the couple a legend about the pair: two lovers who couldn’t marry because he was Arabic and she was a noblewoman.
For their bedroom the couple chose accent wallpaper from Svenskt Tenn just two years ago. Before that the walls were plain white.
The beauty of Svenskt Tenn pieces is in their colors and patterns: each is different, yet they combine surprisingly well, Anna told Meillakotona.
It’s hard to disagree — the bright wallpaper pairs beautifully with the pillows, the plants on the windowsill and the bedside lamp.
Below is Kevin with their two-year-old son, Liam. For the kids’ room the parents also chose a patterned Svenskt Tenn wallpaper with a gentle 1940s motif.
The swallows are a souvenir from Copenhagen.
The kids’ rug is from Carpetvista. The table, chair and dresser are from IKEA.
All the floors are original, from the building’s construction. Before moving in the couple sanded and painted them white.
Anna and Kevin say they truly love their small apartment in an old house. They appreciate the details — like the wooden floors — and the neighborhood amenities.
