All Images: Elisabeth Riksen
Years lived in: 1 year, owned
Type of Home: Factory apartment
Size: 818 square feet
Location: Oslo, Norway
Name: Elisabeth Riksen
I’ve been lucky enough to live in some great houses and apartments but had a long-time dream of living in a loft or factory apartment. A space with that indescribable wow-factor.
Scandinavian minimalism done wrong. I aspire to a light, orderly, neutral space with pared down design. And then, fill it up with art, books, plants. It looks semi-cluttered, but there is order in the madness.
Apart from the sense of space the double height living space gives, most definitely the bespoke bookcase in the living room!
The massive custom bookcase in the living room is something that I have dreamt of since I was a child and wanted to live in a library.
I needed to trade my lovely tan leather couch in for something smaller and am very happy I experimented with colour by getting the third-hand white leather couch. It’s vintage IKEA, only cost me $75 USD.
I’ve always enjoyed keeping plants, but my thumb most certainly became greener during the pandemic. Spending so much time at home you become more aware of how much life plants give to a space.
The egg leather chair and footstool are Arne Jacobsen/Fritz Hansen, the brown lambskin in the chair was bought at a local farmers market, and the brown cushion in the chair was bought in London in the '90s.
Homes with a distinctive character where you can tell something about who lives there, whether it’s minimal or maximal, neutral or bright, modern or classic.
The apartment was very pared down when I viewed it. Super cool, but not at all practical with the almost totally open plan solution.
When it turned out that the ceiling spotlights in the bathroom were a fire hazard, that naturally ate up the chunk of money I had set aside for more fun things. So some things were put on hold while I found alternative solutions for others.