A Colourful Stay at a Danish Hotel

Walls: Light Gray No.17; Bookshelf: Drawing Room Blue No.253; All Images: Asger Mortensen, Wester Agency 

Welcome to The Monica. A home away from home for visitors to the fairytale Danish town of Ærøskøbing, this boutique three-bedroom hotel is the creation of Monica Conradsen, for whom every visitor is a personal guest.

With luxury woven into every detail, from organic homemade food to beautifully designed furniture, it just makes sense for our richly pigmented paint to be the finishing touch. And what better selection of colours to help bring Monica’s vision to life than our Scandinavian-inspired palette, the Nordic Edit?

 The Nordic Edit

The Nordic Edit is a selection of 24 Farrow & Ball paint shades chosen to celebrate the colours of Scandinavia. Forget the notion that Scandi style is strictly neutral, this palette shows the real vibrancy and range of colours found in the region – a perfect starting point for this Danish hotel.

The palette itself has a range of diverse inspirations – sparkling seas, shady woodlands, the roof tiles of Copenhagen’s oldest streets – but one site in particular captured Monica’s imagination in the search for her scheme.

“I was inspired by Den Gamle By,” she says, “the open-air old town museum in Aarhus, with its colourful timber-framed houses.”

With its strong yet muted palette and its colourful woodwork, the hotel is a clear homage to this regional heritage. But there’s also an unmistakably English flavour to its design, and that doesn’t just come from our made-in-Dorset colours.

“The Monica is my take on the style of the Polizzi hotels,” she adds, “the Endsleigh in Devon and Hotel Tresanton in Cornwall. When I first visited the Endsleigh, that was when I really encountered the concept of ‘home away from home’.

“They combined modern design with a respect for the historical details of the building in a way that really struck me as unique. I wanted to capture some of that magic in my own place, in my own way.”

Outside The Monica

Door: Danish Lawn No.9817

Whether at home or in a hotel, the front door is where you make your first impression. For this particular grand entrance, Danish Lawn was the clear choice.

Jannik Martensen-Larsen, creator of The Nordic Edit, is a great fan of Danish Lawn. “It’s an intense, eye-catching, quirky colour,” he says. “That’s so important, because then when a guest arrives the first thing they see is exquisite and welcoming.”

While we couldn’t agree more, the choice of front door colour was more than simply good taste on Monica’s part – it had a little helping hand from fate, too. “Danish Lawn is almost an exact match for the original green of the door,” says Monica. “It’s actually been that colour since 1850!”

This attention to detail isn’t just characteristic of Monica’s work, it’s also emblematic of Ærøskøbing itself.

Thanks to the Ærøskøbing Heritage Society, who were given a Europa Nostra European Heritage award in 2002 for their dedication to preserving the town’s history, the urban landscape has remained relatively unchanged, with exterior colour having a crucial part to play.

Window: Etruscan Red No.56, Door: Serge No.9919

In the hotel’s courtyard garden, there are more elements of that all-important colour. The Etruscan Red window frames make a picturesque backdrop for the outdoor seating area, and pair beautifully with the bold back door painted in Serge.

Inside The Monica

Left – Cupboards: Eating Room Red No.43; Green Smoke No.47 | Right – Walls and Woodwork: India Yellow No.66; Wallpaper: Tessella BP 3604

Beyond the front door, the rest of Monica’s boutique hotel continues to be exquisite and welcoming.

From the rich combination of Green Smoke and Eating Room Red in the dining room to a deep India Yellow guest bedroom, both private and shared spaces feel luxurious and familiar at the same time. This adds to the impression of being a guest at a beautiful home rather than in a hotel, something Monica took great care to create.

Left – Walls and Ceiling: Babouche No.223; | Right – Shelves: Brinjal No.222; Panelling: Mahogany No.36

“It’s so important that a guest feels at home when they visit,” she says, “but at the same time it shouldn’t feel like they are at home. It’s also about the experience, those personal, luxurious touches, and I think that’s communicated in the design and feel of each room just as much as in the service.”

Jannik, needless to say, is in agreement. “Every room in the hotel reflects Monica’s taste and personality,” he says.

This includes the more practical spaces that are often overlooked. Both the sunny Babouche utility room and the deep Brinjal and Mahogany boot room are so much more than simply functional, they are now expertly designed spaces that add to the overall feel of the hotel.

The Nordic Edit by Tapet-Cafe

Discover a palette where the understated meets the unexpected. These 24 shades have been hand-picked by Tapet-Cafe’s Jannik Martensen-Larsen, who also shares his favourite tips for combining colour, to reflect a bold new take on Scandi style.

Explore the Edit