Getting Hyggey With It

Hygge was the latest trend to make its way into our magazines and onto our screens at the start of winter and the run up to Christmas. This Danish style of living is about atmosphere, experiences, a way of life, one that we experience naturally without knowing what it’s called.  But hygges not just for Winter, it far surpasses cosying up with a hot chocolate, book and your favourite socks.  Hygge is not easy to define, it is a feeling that is created through a combination of things but in a nutshell it’s about spending time with family and friends in spaces filled with natural light and textures, living in the moment (not being distracted by mobiles and tablets) and enjoying happy times.

With Hygge in mind, this style of living can be designed into your home to provide quality, more connected, intimate, quieter times.  What better place to start than with an exposed structural timber frame to provide a natural form of visual relief that is pleasing to the eye.  The inclusion of a timber frame in your home provides a wealth of texture and organic material, it also brings with it a history, a past life, a story, all essential ingredients of hygge.

According to ‘The Little Book of Hygge’ by Meik Wiking there are 10points to make your home more Hygge like.  Here are the 10, with a Carpenter Oak twist.

1. A hyggekrog

Every hygge home needs a hyggekrog, a cosy nook in which to snuggle down in for some time alone or a cuddle with a loved one.  Timber frames can be designed to fully support the structure of you home, open plan living is easy to achieve, spaces can be separated using the frame to create cosy areas whilst retaining a shared, social environment.

2. Fireplace/Wood Stove

A fireplace is also another hygge essential, an oak frame combined with a fireplace can make a stunning centrepiece and nothing epitomises hygge more than Carpenter Oak’s Seagull House. Its large fireplace framed with an arch brace truss has nook areas incorporated, one housing a piano, the other firewood and if you needed another there is a mezzanine, reached by a ladder, above the fireplace.

3. Wooden things

Things made out of wood are also on the hygge list, that’s easy to achieve with a timber frame.  If Seagull House is a bit overpowering on the wood front there are many more designs that give a modern, lighter frame.  The introduction of steelwork allows for dramatic, exciting spaces that are less conventional, combined with curved wood you can create barreled ceilings and curved walls such as those in Barrington and Wilson

4. Candles

Candles are vital to hygge, as is the lighting in general.  Warm, subtle, caves or pools of light rather than bright white light provides a welcoming calm atmosphere.  Natural light is also key, Carpenter Oak, working with Roderick James Architects have designed several frames for homes where natural light is utilised in the design.  Boyden has a particularly striking, glazed, roof shard.  The Cruciform House uses floor to ceiling glazing and also has a window light that creates a dramatic centerpiece through the core of the building.

5. Nature

Hygge isn’t all about the inside, nature needs to be included, and designs that bring the outside in can be a great source of inspiration.  If you don’t want to hyggify your entire home why not consider a garden room, cabin or extension.  From Carpenter Oaks rustic Foresters Cabin or their Modern Eco Cabin through to a frame built for a funky luxury Dartmoor Tree House there is a restful space where anyone can be at one with the outdoors whilst holding on to home comforts.

6. Books

Books, particularly old ones containing that unique smell are always welcome.  From classics to thrillers everyone enjoys browsing a book shelf.  Have you ever wanted you own secret bookshelf door?  Architect Roderick James included one in his own Carpenter Oak house Tigh Darach.  He designed and built the hidden door himself, he sawed and glued each book into place; entrance can be gained by pressing down on the New England Bible.

7. Ceramics

For the Danish ceramics, a favourite mug or vase can help emulate hygge.  If ceramics are not you thing, how about making the room with the most ceramic, the bathroom, a bit more cosy with the addition of an oak frame.