A white KONTIO log home by the lake

A Kontio villa by the lake

A Scandinavian villa inspired by Italy

Busy architects Heidi and Esa Schroderus look forward every year to a well-earned spring ski holiday, which, like true Nordic people, they usually spend in ski gear on the slopes of the Austrian Alps, or on one of the many cross-country trails their native Finland has to offer. In April 2016, Heidi and Esa Schroderus decided on something a little different from their usual annual holiday. This year, tired after a long, harsh winter, Heidi and Esa planned to leave their still-frozen homeland for a few weeks to enjoy the warmth, sunshine and blossoming beauty of Italy. The Finnish couple's Italian travels turned out to be pivotal for their lives going forward, since they surprisingly ended up shaping the quality of their life back home in Finland.

Heidi and Esa travelled through the Italian countryside, enjoying excellent wine and delicious food, but above all soaking up the idyllic Italian landscape. They saw a cobalt-coloured sea, green hills dotted with villages, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards. During their month in Italy, the couple had the chance to experience staying in country hotels, villas on the Mediterranean coast, and homes surrounded by beautiful gardens amid olive groves. Every house they stayed in during their time in Italy was beautiful, bright and airy, and Heidi and Esa began to dream of a similar home back in Finland.

Back in Finland, still full of impressions from the Italian homes, the couple wasted no time and began making their dream a reality. On one of his business trips, Esa came across a plot that reminded him of the beautiful Italian landscape, with its idyllic, picturesque setting on the shore of a sparkling lake. Since both architects had already worked on KONTIO timber homes before, they wanted to combine their dream of Italian-style living with a timber home built from fine-grained Arctic pine, all in one. Right there, by the lake, Esa and Heidi sketched the first designs for their dream house. These first sketches soon turned into professional drawings, and it wasn't long before, over the six months following the finalisation of the architectural plans, a beautiful timber villa inspired by Italian homes rose up on this lovely spot by the lake.

Heidi and Esa wanted the house to be as bright as possible, so they chose solid beams in a white stain for their build. The front of the house is dominated by large windows, which, together with the white-painted beams, ensure the interior is bathed in sunlight. The bright interior is reinforced further by a cathedral ceiling, letting light flow uninterrupted into the interior living spaces through the glazed front of the house. To keep the house from feeling bland, the floors are finished in natural wood, which pleasantly enlivens the look of the interior and gives it a warm palette. The colour of the floor feels cosy and warm, and the natural grain of the wood is almost like a work of art — in Heidi's words, it makes you want to walk around the house barefoot, just to physically feel the wood against your skin.

The kitchen is done in a combination of white and natural wood tones, dominating especially the kitchen units and the dining table, which pair beautifully with the natural colour of the floor. The furniture in this beautiful villa was carefully chosen by Heidi, incorporating tones of dove grey, her husband's favourite colour, into the interior. The furnishings of the lower, living part of the house are therefore a combination of white and dove-grey tones.

Upstairs is the bedroom, which Esa wanted to keep as minimalist as possible — after discussing it with Heidi, he had a custom bed made in dark wood, matching the wood used for the wall behind the bed, so the whole space feels elegant and cohesive. On the same floor as the bedroom is a children's room, set aside for Mia, the Schroderus's granddaughter, where light colours again dominate, combined with the natural tone of the solid timber floor. A large-scale wallpaper with birds on the wall by the child's bed feels wonderfully warm and cosy, as does the charming round window above the cot, from which Mia watches the sunset over the lake before bedtime.

On the lower level of the house, in the space next to the entrance hall, there's also a walk-in wardrobe and a utility/laundry room combined with a toilet. Even though this is a functional part of the house, Heidi, for whom a beautiful environment is a physical need, insisted that the end result look just as good here. Heidi carefully chose the wallpaper for the wall behind the units, and together with her husband finally settled on a wallpaper with an oriental pattern that pairs with the silvery-grey floor. A similar pattern appears on the bathroom floor too, but in blue, to match the floor with the muted blue log wall in the space behind the toilet.

On the spacious, partly covered terrace, the Schroderus couple can enjoy views of dark green forests and the deep waters of the lake, where wild birds gather. From the safety of their home, Heidi and Esa can watch wild animals come down to the lake. Esa often steps straight from the terrace down wooden steps to the lakeshore to enjoy a swim in its cool waters, and at other times fishes on the lakeshore with his wife. Here on the terrace, and on the covered balcony upstairs, Heidi and Esa savour the beauty and changing seasons of Finnish nature, just as they once savoured the beauty of Italian nature from the balconies of country estates on their Italian holiday. The couple's dream of an Italian villa by the lake has come true in their Scandinavian homeland.