Now Seems Like a Good Time to Sell Everything and Move Into a Wenche Selmer Cabin in Norway

Will the world have a vaccine by 2021? Will Orange Man still be in office after November? Is the world going to end? These are all questions that have been plaguing my mind as of late. But! None of these questions will have any more relevance if I just decide to sell everything and elope with my fantasies to rural Norway and live in a cabin designed by the architect Wenche Selmer.

Never heard of her? Yeah, me neither - until I picked up a coffee table book called Norwegian Wood (The book is super rare and out-of-print now so if this piece really sways you mad respect for spending $400 on it) while waiting for an egg sandwich outside a cafe in downtown Cincinnati last summer. My mouth began to drool even before they called my name for my egg sandwich.

If is picturesque, simple yet eloquent, instagram-worthy cottages you want to daydream about, Wenche has you covered. The majority of her projects consisted on small houses for individuals or summer vacation residences for the hardworking Norwegians looking to get their allotted six weeks of sun during the year. These were not homes meant to be lived in a week here and a weekend there like the condo your rich auntie has in Hilton Head Island. Room of Possibilities put it best,

“Selmer was concerned with the role the house would play in the family life, and she would not conceive a cabin which was meant to be used only short periods during the year in the same way as a permanent house in the city…The house mirrored the family life.”

I’m especially drawn to the kitchen and dining space. I would argue that this part should be the most harmonious part of the home, and Wenche makes sure that’s done so.

The side door is very close to the prepping/cutting so no extra mess lugging around the giant mackrel you just caught from the fjord.

Everything is in its right place. No guessing games with cabinets. No lousily constructed islands that lead to more clutter. The red accented oven. Beautiful.

From the same cabin shown previously. Just an impeccable fireplace. Can be used for cooking and keeping warm. She regarded the fireplace as the core of the house.

The perfect cooking/eating/working/meditating combo.

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According to Room of Possibilities, many of her homes incorporated and opened up to some outdoor space, such as a dock or a garden. Doing so allowed an abundance of natural sunlight (something which Wenche found importance in) from the full-height windows that she used.

As I scroll through Pinterest and architecture sites, looking at tributes, moodboards, and even the complex geometric breakdown of this heavily underrated architect and her homes, I realize these spaces aren’t necessarily somewhere I would hit 5 friends up with the airbnb link and say '“weekend trip???” Wenche Selmer’s spaces are made for you, the individual and your family, to unwind, to meditate, and take yourself away from the all the beautiful but dumb shit that orbits around city life. Every residence is thoughtfully placed beside the gorgeous shores, inside the luscious woods, or on the wonderous mountains of Norway. Everything that truly matters can found at a Wenche Selmer cabin.