Hygge—the Danish concept of creating a cozy home—took the decorating world by storm in recent years, calling for cedar-scented candles and chunky knit throws. But leave it to an actual Dane, Victoria's Secret Angel and newly minted Maybelline spokesperson Josephine Skriver, to reinterpret it in an unexpected way. The Nashville home Skriver shares with her boyfriend, singer-songwriter Alex DeLeon, eschews earth tones for grayscale, but still projects a palpable feeling of comfort.
“I’ve always liked it clean and simple, but somehow still cozy,” Skriver explains. “I'm not a big fan of a lot of colors, because the design itself has to stand out.” Luckily, her partner has similar proclivities; DeLeon, who performs under the moniker Bohnes, curated the photographic art in the home, almost all of which is in black-and-white. “The house isn't supposed to be what's loud,” DeLeon explains. “The life that you live is supposed to be what's loud. I think that is represented in the house perfectly.”
To that end, the couple painted nearly every room in the three-story home with Sherwin Williams’ Pure White, but softened the effect by adding shiplap and removing plaster to expose some of the original brick. They also worked with Nashville-based designer April Tomlin to create interiors that were equal parts Scandinavian and modern. “I think my entire Pinterest mood board was April's Instagram,” Skriver laughs. For DeLeon, Tomlin’s greatest skill was being able to manifest the inchoate images in his head. “The best interior designers are the ones that can take what's in your mind and somehow make it a reality,” he says. “April was great at pulling that out of us.”
Tomlin and her team spent nearly a year redesigning the home, including adding a breakfast nook in the kitchen and fashioning a bunk bed room for the couple's younger siblings. But the true showstopper piece is the custom-built floating bed for the master suite. “I've always had this picture of a hanging bed in my head,” Skriver says. “April customized it exactly how I had it in my mind, even though I couldn't fully describe what I wanted.” The piece started with sketches, which Tomlin then brought to a woodworker to find the most stable design. “It was a long process to get it done, but so worth it,” Tomlin says.
The lengthy renovation process, however, was actually partially on purpose: “This is both of our first houses and our first house together; it's our baby!” Skriver says. “That's why the redesign took a lot longer, because we took our time to make sure everything was right. Nothing was rushed.” The same couldn’t be said, however, of the decision to move to Nashville. DeLeon was familiar with the city from touring, but Skriver had not visited until the couple spent a weekend there two years ago. “Later that same week, Jo said, ‘That's where I want to live,’” DeLeon recounts. “And she spins her laptop around and points to this house and says, ‘This is the one.’”
Part of the appeal for Skriver was the six acres of wooded land that surround the house. “I think it's the first place in America that reminds me a little bit of Denmark,” she explains. “I felt so at peace and so at home here.” The house, a modern design with oversize windows that look out into forest, is certainly an anomaly compared to other homes nearby, many of which are more traditional colonials. “We jumped on it because there are only a handful, if that, that even exist in Nashville,” DeLeon says. The end result is a home unlike any other in the city. “There’s no photo on earth that can capture the magic of actually being in that space,” Tomlin says. “It’s one of my favorites.”
Related: How to Create Danish Hygge at Home
