Compact accommodation with room for the whole family

Tight spaces in the city meant that Sofia and Mattias solved their family situation in a rather unique way. Now they and all the children are, as usual, in the joint holiday home on Djurö outside Stockholm.

In the inner city they live separately, but in the Enkelrum-Houses on Djurö they live together with their respective children, as often as they can. They have two children each from previous relationships, aged 19, 14, 13 and 10. Here in the holiday home, everyone must have space and have both their own sleeping place and their own storage space. You must also be able to withdraw and be completely yourself when you need to. Mattias, who works as the person responsible for opinion formation within Svenskt Näringsliv, and Sofia, who runs her own business in podcasting, sometimes work from home and have even found a desk corner in Attefallshuset from where they can work in peace.

There used to be an older holiday home from Sofia's grandparents on the plot, and before Sofia and Mattias met, she had used the cottage herself for many years. With the new family situation, a place was needed where everyone could be together and Djurö became a logical solution. The old cabin was of an older standard and poorly planned, so a new house felt inevitable. They found Enkelrum that felt just right for them, above all because they wanted to collaborate with a company that delivered turnkey houses. Enkelrum were also very accessible and easy to work with.

"We chose to first build an Attefall house of 30 square meters, because according to the building regulations you have to have a main building in order to build attefall. Then the old house was demolished and we were then also able to use Attefallshuset, above all as storage, while everything was prepared for the 60 square meter holiday home," says Mattias.

They also had an opportunity to place the larger body of the house a little higher up, so that they now have a view of nature and neighbors. "Here I can sit on the hill like an old man and have a look at what the neighbors are up to," says Mattias.

Where the old cabin stood, they have now laid lawn and they have chosen not to change the plot but to leave it as it is with some plants that have been there for a long time, such as an old rhododendron. "We are very satisfied that we did not remove any trees unnecessarily when the houses were delivered," says Mattias.

It turned out at the time of delivery that the Attefallshuset got through, after many hours of searching, between electricity poles and a neighbor's fence. This meant that the larger house had to be redrawn and made ten centimeters narrower to be able to get through the narrow passage.

With compact living, every centimeter and every detail is important. Both houses have been clad internally with horizontal wooden panels and adapted with massive doors from the Swedish manufacturer Njord.

"We opted for solid interior doors from Njord in the MDF variant, one of which became a sliding door. Our holiday home is not that big, so the massive inner doors with MDF surface layers really fulfill their function. Where both their insulating ability and the architectural idea of ​​opening up and closing up contribute to the house feeling much more spacious. Above all, they are great.”

The smart planning with two house bodies also gives the possibility of having guests who sleep over. "And our two oldest boys have used the Attefallshuset a lot," says Mattias.

"Sofia and I have had the same opinions about the interior design. We wanted a classic holiday home feel but still modern and we reasoned many times with Enkelrum's architect. We wanted to stick to wood and have also chosen wood in the furniture and other furnishings. Several pieces of furniture come from the previous cabin and to avoid the feeling of a newly built mountain cabin, we prefer to shop at flea markets rather than buy newly produced. We have said no plastic in the houses, but it is not quite that simple".

Mattias has built the bunk beds himself. The wooden decks, on the other hand, were built by their creative and skilled carpenter Lennart. This year, Lennart has also built a pergola over the newly installed outdoor kitchen. "The outdoor kitchen has given us even more space and we usually cook there when there are many of us here. We hang out with neighbors and invite friends over, so it's a good social space to have outside when the weather permits".

Everything they need is here. "Life is simple on Djurö. I start the air heat pump from the car when we are on our way out so that everything is heated up until we get there".

From the inner city, they come directly out into nature where they can engage in boating, swimming, exercise and mushroom hunting. But above all, they have a place for everyone to hang out.