Nordic Influence And Florida Confluence Blend In A Naples Family Home

On the Scandinavian Peninsula, where winter is long and cold, homes are designed to be cozy and simple—tight little spaces that hold in the heat and maximize the light. “It’s almost the opposite of Naples,” Sara Blomqvist laughs. She and her husband, Peter, are both from Sweden, and grew up visiting the United States. She went to college in Connecticut and Peter spent time in California before the two settled back in their native Sweden, where they worked as builders. Throughout their adult life, as they married and started to have kids, the family vacationed in Florida.

They decided to get a vacation home in Naples in 2018. “Every time we came on vacation, we never really wanted to go home,” Sara says. Within a few years, the Blomqvists set up permanent residence in town and bought a narrow lot on Oak Avenue, near Vanderbilt Beach. Over the next few years, they worked with architect Brandt Henning—who owns Naples’ Hlevel Architecture with his wife, Michaela Reiterer Henning—to build a family home that bridges their Scandinavian modern design sensibilities with the materials and needs of Florida homes. Like many of Brandt and Michaela’s European clientele, the Blomqvists appreciate the Hennings’ understanding of Old World sensibilities and contemporary design.

The home’s restrained, vertical footprint balances the Blomqvists’ Scandi ethos and American market needs. “In Sweden, you’re not allowed to build large houses,” Sara says. “We designed the home a little bigger than what we wanted, in case we ever sell.” Maximizing space remained a primary driver. The ground-floor layout gives the sense (and flood protection) of an elevated home but remains usable with its enclosed footprint, housing a large kids’ playroom and a gym in front of the lanai and pool. The second floor houses the couple’s bedroom; their daughter, Ester’s room; the open-concept great room and kitchen; and the alfresco kitchen. On the third floor, there’s an office, the boys’ (Anton and Frans) bedrooms, a central TV and gaming space, and a hotel suite-like guest room looking out to the Gulf.

“I’m always cooking, or my husband is grilling, so it’s nice to hang out there while we’re getting food ready.” — Sara Blomqvist on the second-floor outdoor kitchen and living space.

Overall, the scheme is minimalist but warm. “The design is clean, but not in a sterile kind of way,” Sara says. To keep things from looking stark, the team employed materials that evoke natural and weathered textures outside and inside the home. Out front, TAU Cerámica Corten tiles in a bronze finish fold over and around the entryway and continue as an accent above the garage. “We wanted something with a patinaed metal look but knew we couldn’t put metal out there,” Sara says, conscious of the blistering sun. The tiles provide depth against the stucco facade and sharp architectural lines.

Inside, wood tones inform the surface materials and decor and provide striking focal points. The rich walnut in the kitchen cabinets repeats on the opposite side of the room in the floating cabinets and shelves that flank the fireplace. The walnut continues on the stair treads and railings, which rise from the first to the third floor as a sculptural cynosure. “We took that walnut through the whole house,” Sara says.

Pecky sinker cypress—a classic Florida material, milled from logs that have been lying underwater for up to a century—covers the wine cellar wall and stretches to a strip of ceiling above the dining table, with distinctive holes and veining. “They were intrigued by some of the elements of Old Florida vernacular and tied them into the design very well,” Brandt says. The pecky shows up again in the wall behind the TV in the living room. “We used the wood to accentuate the open volumes and create nice spacial elements,” the architect adds. LED tape lighting lines the pecky sinker cypress insert in the dining room and the stairway’s glass railings, setting the home aglow at night.

Sara judiciously used color, patterns and artful flair to lend the home a personal, playful and fashionable aesthetic. Following the European knack for effortless style, the interiors are smart but not overdone. At the entryway, guests find a pair of stools with hundreds of wooden dowels that seem stiff and impractical but prove to be soft (springy and wrapped in foam) for a nice place to sit and kick off shoes. “I thought they were really fun, and they’re surprisingly comfortable,” she says about the stools, sourced from Clive Daniel Home in Naples. A print of actor Jack Nicholson smoking a cigar graces the stairway wall, which, on another level flaunts paintings from Swedish artists Carolina Gynning and Peter Dahl. Metallic-like blue wallpaper wraps the elevator shaft and up to the second-story entryway wall for continuity and to draw the eye up toward the RH chandelier and its nearly 700 drop crystals, which Sara hung one by one, standing on a scaffold.

“We wanted to create an axis to maximize the views to the south and west to capture open water and sunsets.” — Brandt Henning, architect and owner of Hlevel

Each bathroom has its persona, from the powder room with its York Palmetto Black Green wallpaper to the daughter’s whimsical ensuite bathroom with its scalloped, aqua tiles. The standout is the couple’s primary bath, where porcelain, Cristallo tiles cover the floors and walls and a large backlit, man-made Cristallo slab frames the freestanding tub. “Here, we played with solids and voids to create interest,” Brandt says, noting the floating countertop, backlit mirrors and glass enclosure for the water closet. Rose gold fixtures play off the brownish-pink tones in the crystal.

Recalling another tenet of the Blomqvist’s Scandinavian roots, the home exalts nature at every turn. All of the spaces were designed to take full advantage of the location on a canal and the ample light that pours into the new build. “We wanted to create an axis to maximize the views to the south and west to capture open water and sunsets,” Brandt says. When you first approach the home, glass-paneled doors look in and through the home out to the back garden and water. Off the lanai, a pergola connects to the house and dips into the pool. “We liked the idea of visually linking it to the house to unite those vertical and horizontal elements,” he says. “I’m not a huge fan of symmetry, but I love balance and composition, the idea of accentuating different areas and creating a hierarchy.”

Tones of cream and taupe carry the decor, with blue as an anchor. The nautical palette carries through the outdoor spaces on each floor, including the cabinetry for the alfresco kitchen, extending from the main living area on the second floor. “I’m always cooking, or my husband is grilling, so it’s nice to hang out there while we’re getting food ready,” Sara says. The family chose long-lasting polyvinyl chloride (PVC) paneling for the cabinets. “I wanted something really durable that could withstand saltwater and humidity,” she says. The hue ties into the blue accents in the great room. “We have blue chairs, blue wallpaper—we always have to add that blue back in,” she says. Swedish knickknacks—the only things the family brought from their native country—dot the living room tables, couches and floating shelves, with candle holders, pillows and glassware from brands like Skogsberg&Smart, Svenskt Tenn, Orrefors, Kosta Boda and Georg Jensen.

After scouring American retailers, she found much of her furniture and larger objects at RH, including the dining table’s glass chandelier—a rectangular block of crystal prisms that shine across the main living areas like emerald-cut diamonds. It all comes together in a family home that’s bright and uncluttered, but cozy, too—the efficiency of a small house with generous American dimensions.