Pastel Palette

Stylist Rikke Bye-Sondresen has shaken up the classic Scandi look in her Oslo apartment with soft shades and floral prints mixed in with timeless design pieces

- Serena Fokschaner

Springtime in Oslo is here. The days are lengthening and the tall trees outside the windows of Rikke Bye-Sondresen’s city apartment are bright with shiny green shoots. ‘We Norwegians are very connected to nature, you know,’ says Rikke. Even in the depths of winter, she tells me, when street lights fade at 9 am and dusk falls around 4 pm, city dwellers will seize any opportunity to grab skis or snowboards to jump on a bus or a train and hit the slopes, 10 minutes outside the capital city. ‘We just love being outside,’ she says.

There’s also an air of the great outdoors to Rikke’s third-floor apartment in the centre of town. ‘Nature is very important to me,’ says Rikke. ‘It’s where I get most of my inspiration; it might be a pink sky at night or an autumnal leaf.’ A palette of hyacinth blues, rose-petal pinks and leaf greens contrast with icing sugar-white cornicing. No two rooms are alike and yet, thanks to the tall, early18th-century ceilings and windows, the two-bedroom flat has an easy flow. For Rikke, an interior designer and stylist who enjoys encouraging her clients to trade the safety of neutrals for colour, it’s a scheme that has evolved over years of tester-pot experimentation.