An 11-suite villa has opened in the heart of Oslo’s West End. Villa Inkognito is a new addition to Sommerro, a neighbourhood hotel which opened in 2022.
Originally built as a private residence in 1870 by architect Thøger Binneballe, Villa Inkognito has taken on many iterations throughout the years. Now part of Sommerro, it benefits from all of the hotel’s amenities, including seven restaurants and bars, meeting and event spaces with a capacity of up to 150 people, a 100-seat gilded theatre, a wellness space and the city’s first year-round rooftop pool, sauna and terrace.
Designed to capture the feel of a stylish private home, Villa Inkognito’s design has been led by Grecodeco, the New York and London-based studio that also directed Sommerro’s interior design. Leaning into the history of the long-standing building, the design team opted to create interior spaces embellished with a mix of antiques, original artwork and classic Scandinavian furnishings.
The villa’s guestrooms meanwhile are inspired by a range of styles, including Classic Norwegian, Art Nouveau and Japonisme, and feature details like furnishings with marquetried details that recall 19th century Norwegian motifs, bespoke hand-knotted rugs, beds from innovative Swedish sleep brand Hilding Anders and custom-tiled bathrooms.
Each public space in the hotel holds a unique colour scheme, which guests are able to discover across the hotel’s library, lounge, dining room and open kitchen, and its gym in the basement. The hotel’s private entrance for instance, separate from Sommerro’s main doors, is decorated in a black and white colour scheme, adorned with antique wallpaper from the US.
Designed with a commitment to eco-sustainability in mind, the villa’s interiors see a commitment to preserving or repurposing the building’s existing materials, floors and textiles. Grecodeco was also able to maintain the original layout of the rooms on the public floor, and preserve the uniquely-patterned plaster ceilings. Original stone remaining from the renovation has also since been repurposed into décor pieces such as stone vases, and excess textiles have found new life in the villa’s public spaces and guestrooms.
