Scandi meets Scot: Part II

Scandi meets Scot: Part II

Here is the second instalment of the ‘Scandi meets Scot’ storyline, in which we continue our chat with Ruth Kramer. One of the interior designers behind Killiehuntly Farmhouse – covered in Part I – Ruth similarly worked on its sister retreat, the Kinloch Lodge. This story is also drawn from the archives, but still relevant today for readers of The Interior Dispatch.

“Kinloch is a place where you can feel the passion of the owner who is into nature, art, botanic, and the people in the community”

— Ruth Kramer

A key principle in interior design is that a house should reflect its owners.

Good interior design means having the homeowner’s personality, interests, and appetites revealed in the final design.

For the ruggedly handsome Kinloch Lodge – in northeast Scotland – this was an imperative for its Swiss interior designer, Ruth Kramer.

“Kinloch is a place where you can feel the passion of the owner who is into nature, art, botanic, and the people in the community,” says Ruth.

CMID loves a good sporting lodge and in Kinloch, we find one that is hard to resist and impossible not to admire.

The Kinloch Lodge is a three-hour drive away from sister retreat, Killiehuntly Farmhouse. Though distanced by geography, the two retreats occupy the same ground in bringing elements of modern Scandinavian design to the Scottish Highlands

Like Killiehuntly, Danish married couple Anders Povlsen and his wife Anne Holch Povlsen (nee Storm Pedersen) also own Kinloch. Anne and Ruth once again teamed on the interiors of Kinloch to mirror the Killiehuntly experience.

Even if the rural havens share the same design genes, they do differ in the impression they give off.

While Killiehuntly provides its visitors with softer and genteel interiors, Kinloch’s interiors exude more masculine overtones better suited to its more rough and remote backdrop, and stronger connection to the natural world – akin to most sporting lodges.

“We wanted to give the lodge a lived-in feeling right away. Since Kinloch is so far away from everything, we also imagined the people who previously lived here – a life connected to nature and the land, and used this as our inspiration”

— Ruth Kramer

Indeed, for Kinloch, its natural surroundings significantly informed the designers' thinking.

"We wanted to give the lodge a lived-in feeling right away. Since Kinloch is so far away from everything, we also imagined the people who previously lived here – a life connected to nature and the land, and used this as our inspiration", says Ruth.

"Kinloch was about solitude, loneliness, and what the guests could see and seek to understand about the nature which is right there in front of you,” she says.

Built in 1676, Kinloch once served as the Duke of Sutherland’s private lodge. Even after Anne and Ruth’s interior work, Kinloch’s stately bearing remains with the design aimed at both preserving and reviving the lodge.

“Kinloch was in good condition when we started the work, but it lacked personality and life,” she says.