Inside the home of a colourist

Swantje Hinrichsen is an art director, graphic designer and colourist with a strong focus on creating colourful visual identities and interior design. She's also responsible for possibly our favourite kitchen on Instagram.

We've followed Swantje on Instagram for a number of years, in awe of her playful approach to decorating with colour. Thanks to Danish furniture brand montanafurniture.com we're now able to get a little insight into Swantje's methods.

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Colours trigger emotions

Swantje suffers from emotional synaesthesia – a rare condition where specific sensory stimuli are consistently and involuntarily associated with emotional responses – so colour is like therapy. As a result, colour is the starting point for any renovation or decoration in the Hinrichsen home.

"I immediately get a sense of a feeling when I enter a room and colours pop up in my mind." - Swantje Hinrichsen

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Before the renovation of their new home began, Swantje stood in the kitchen and imagined being in an old ice cream shop. Just like the one, fictional character of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking went to with her friends Annika and Tom. It might have been the old built-in cabinets that triggered the imagination, but Swantje suddenly knew that the colour palette for this room had to be pastel blue and yellow combined with contrasting colours such as orange, Yves Klein blue and dark red. She named this room #villekullakitchen.

The same thing happened with their small hallway. The room is facing north, so the lack of natural light is noticeable. However, one morning, Swantje experienced the reflections of sunlight coming from the neighbour’s house and she immediately knew what colour to use: “I felt like standing in a forest clearing – and of course it had to be green”. It took some time for Swantje to find the perfect shade of green, but she got a helping hand from a close friend from Sweden – with the surname Skoglund (Skog meaning forest in Swedish). Therefore, Swantje named the hallway #theskoglundhallway. 

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Photography by Swantje Hinrichsen
Words by Montana

Explore more of Swantje Hinrichsen's home here.