Every morning at their Kilpisjärvi log house, Valtteri Bottas, a Formula One driver currently competing with the Alfa Romeo Team, and Tiffany Cromwell, a top-level professional road cyclist, are greeted by a picture perfect view of the Saana fell. Discover the couple’s modern leisure home with Design Stories!
FORMULA ONE DRIVER Valtteri Bottas and professional road cyclist Tiffany Cromwell’s hideaway in Finnish Lapland offers the couple a chance to relax for a moment to counterbalance their fast-paced life across multiple continents.
The house, which features a harmonious Scandinavian-style interior, is as calming and peaceful as the fell landscape surrounding it. It offers the busy couple the perfect resting place in between their workouts and adventures in the surrounding nature.
The house, which features a dark outer surface finish, is nestled beautifully into the unique scenery of Kilpisjärvi. It has been built in two separate parts with a window-walled corridor connecting the two halves. The first half houses a garage, bathroom, sauna facilities and an upstairs bar. The other half features a kitchen, living area and an upstairs bedroom.
The uniquely beautiful nature of Lapland surrounding the house is an essential part of the place. Around the year, the inhabitants get to enjoy varying views from mountain birches of the spring to the iconic outline of the snow-covered fell in the winter.
The uniquely beautiful nature of Lapland surrounding the house is an essential part of the place.
The interior of the house is understated and elegant. The predominant material is wood: the logs of the interior walls have been left unpainted and have been combined with other pine elements, such as the pine battens of the roof and stairwells.
The dark stained oak of the fixtures and fittings, along with other carefully selected details, balances out the lighter natural wood surfaces. In addition to the rich use of wood materials, the light floor surfaces and the large tiles used in the kitchen and the bathroom give the space a modern, luxurious feel. The serene atmosphere of the open interior allows the large landscape windows to take center stage.
The building was designed by HIMLA Architects’ Topi Laaksonen, and the interior design is by Anna Tuohimaa. “The owners wanted a Scandinavian, modern interior. The log material used in the house was also a defining factor in the design process”, Tuohimaa says.
In the end, balance between the strong log surfaces and the more modern supporting elements was easily achieved with a simple yet harmonious color palette and by utilizing the beautiful shades of natural wood. In addition to this, Tuohimaa also used luminaires to create a unified, atmospheric space. Indirect and easily modifiable lighting solutions make the space feel cozy and assure sufficient lighting throughout the year – also during the polar night.
Tuohimaa ordered the furniture and decoration through Finnish Design Shop’s Contract Sales. She chose pieces that continued the Scandinavian style and complemented the existing design choices of the house.
Designed by Marcel Wanders for Moooi, the sweet and soft Love sofas chosen for the bar space offer a striking contrast to the simplified design of the Nikari, Muuto, Secto Design and Woodnotes pieces used in the rest of the house.
With the help of professionals, the interior design process ran smoothly from beginning to end despite the remote location of the house, and Bottas and Cromwell were able to spend their first Christmas in their new northern hideaway in 2021. But it would seem that even the leisure time of two professional racers is exactly as busy as one could imagine.
“Valtteri and Tiffany have been very happy with the house. They spend a lot of time around the house enjoying the outdoors, snowshoeing or snowmobiling. The house offers them the perfect hideaway to relax afterwards”, Anna Tuohimaa says.
Get inspired
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See also:
• Finnish Design Shop's Contract Sales >
Text: Hanna-Katariina Mononen Images: Merja Paakkanen