Travels in Norway and Sweden during her 20s gave interior designer Anne McDonald an early taste of what would eventually become a favorite style. It’s one she shares with children’s book author Amanda Henke (who’s also spent a lot of time in Norway and whose family background is Norwegian American), a bond strengthened through, of all things, a staircase.
The opportunity for the stair became clear when McDonald began working with architects Mark Stankey and Matthew Byers from PLAAD on Henke’s new home in Sunfish Lake. The stair—just inside the main entry, which faces east-southeast—would bask in morning light coming through windows on two walls.
A design rooted in a traditional Norwegian aesthetic made sense (the home already had Scandinavian-inspired touches in its architecture), but how could the team ensure it felt fresh? “The last thing we need is another modern Scandi farmhouse,” McDonald says.
The team found its inspiration for the perfect balance close to home, in the work of late Minnesota architect Edwin Lundie. Lundie looked to traditional Norwegian influences for his designs of North Shore cabins and the original lodge at Lutsen Resort, and his details for railings weren’t spindles. “They were decorative cutouts of boards that related to Norway” where the visual interplay involves both the board and the void, Byers says.
After McDonald sketched some initial ideas on paper, Stankey and Byers moved the process to computer-aided design. “We avoided it becoming cute by using geometry (circles and diamonds) as opposed to referential icons of birds or trees,” Byers says.
That type of simplicity is rooted in Norway. “A lot of Norwegian design is restrictive in some capacity,” Stankey says. “Even if there is detail, it’s done in all white, for example, so it’s not overly ornate.”
The architects married the design with the technical requirements for handrails and guardrails, making the pattern repeatable. “That’s the benefit of using computer-aided design, where we can iterate internally and test things out quickly and make sure they work,” Stankey says.
The finished feature is one everyone loves, McDonald says. “It has this warmth and intimacy. And the way the light interacts with it is incredible.”