There is no word for it – that strange feeling of walking into a classroom long after one’s school days are past. Everything seems smaller: the desks where you once squirmed, the blackboard that seemed like a dark, devouring universe when you stood there and struggled (in front of everyone) to diagram a sentence or make sense of some equation. Imagine, then, a student returning to this former schoolhouse in Kullaberg, Sweden.
Dating from 1928, the building had been repurposed as a B and B when Sara and Jörgen Ahdrian Brorsson acquired it a few years ago. The sewing room and gymnasium on the second floor were converted into bedrooms, and the first-floor classrooms were made into a kitchen and living room. While one can still imagine kids trooping up and down the wide staircase, in its current incarnation, it’s hard to believe a student may have once sidled her way to teacher’s pet within these walls.
The Brorssons operate Dunke Design, offering a selection of contemporary furniture and storage systems (plus chic air hockey and ping-pong tables), so creating a stylish home here came naturally. But it took a little tweaking to get things just right. “When we moved in, we set up our dining room pieces in the new kitchen, but they looked like dollhouse furniture,” shares Jörgen. “The huge spaces required significantly larger pieces, a totally different range of furniture and decorative items.” The couple’s site-specific inventory includes two couches in the living room (an iconic black leather model by Børge Mogensen and Toan Nguyen’s Stilt Sofa from District Eight) and a Faifo dining table in burnt fir, also from District Eight. A version of the classic, cast-iron Akron stool stands three abreast at the kitchen island. “We furnished our home with respect and admiration for the well made, with respect for craftsmen and their efforts,” states Sara.
Singular pieces – a vintage, glass-fronted display case in the entrance hall, a set of old, wooden movie house seats at the top of the stairs, a Gucci umbrella hanging from the ceiling as a light shade – add a warm, lived- in layer to these interiors. In the kitchen, where white tiled walls and a simple but expansive black island project an almost industrial vibe, original schoolhouse pendants are paired with unfinished brass cylinders from Sweden’s Konsthantverk.
The Brorssons took their time making the old schoolhouse their own. Although they didn’t alter the building’s structure, they did turn a 60s-era kitchen on the second floor into a third bedroom and renovated the ceilings and walls throughout. When they moved in, almost every space was painted black. “We added color to every room and recovered the stoneware flooring, which was sourced locally from the nearby town of Höganäs, known for its production of bricks and ceramics,” describes Jörgen. The two are now in the process of restoring the nearly century-old window frames, and they are committed to caring for them gently.
After years in Stockholm, the couple is completely at home in the countryside, enjoying such simple pleasures as the sound of a bird. “It is sad that you need to move to be able to notice birdsong,” muses Sara. “The birds were obviously singing in the city, too, but that orchestra played to empty stands.”
Photography by Ingalill Snitt.
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