Located on Majorsgatan, not far from Nybrogatan, a famous fashionable street in downtown Stockholm that is home to many restaurants, cafes and stores, Soho House Stockholm is the second House to open its doors on Scandinavian soil.
In a city known for its culture and creativity, this new Soho House is located in the Östermalm district, inside a deconsecrated Methodist church. The original high vaulted ceilings date back to 1894, and the building’s history is kept alive in the carefully restored elements of the structure, including intricate stained glass windows, original columns, and painted details on the stone walls.
Covering an area of 1,430 square meters, the “House” has a large members’ space on the second floor, where people can eat and drink, relax and socialize, and also features a mezzanine.
Downstairs, the Library is inspired by a Swedish living room. Club Cecconi – accessed via an inner courtyard surrounded by lush greenery – offers members and their guests some Northern Italian – inspired specialties made with the finest ingredients and fresh handmade pasta, but with a Scandinavian twist.
Soho House Stockholm: the club
From street level, a spiral staircase lined with briarwood leads to the reception area and the club proper – the large central church space with original ogival vaulted ceilings, with a towering four-tiered, linen chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the center.
Designed by Swedish designer Sofia Olsson and Copenhagen-based American designer Cassandra Bradfield, this work was created especially for the Soho House in Stockholm. Connected to the club floor by an elegant spiral staircase, the mezzanine is designed to provide an intimate atmosphere in which to relax or work.
Soho House Stockholm: Club Cecconi
Club Cecconi offers some specialties from cuisines around the world, such as vitello tonnato, cacio e pepe and spaghetti with lobster, as well as Swedish-inspired dishes such as ravioli with fermented celeriac and black truffle and pappardelle with wild boar.
Throughout the House spaces, guests can sip on a selection of classic cocktails such as the Picante De La Casa and the Eastern Standard, as well as some specially created drinks, including the Twisted Espresso, a creamier and more intense take on the Espresso Martini that winks at Stockholm’s coffee-loving community.
On the ground floor is the House Studio, a small space available to members for content creation. The walls and ceiling are decorated with printed fabrics created specifically for this area, while Soho Home Garret swivel chairs are upholstered in bouclé for maximum comfort.
Soho House Stockholm: the terrace
The courtyard is surrounded by trellis plants to allow guests to take advantage of the terrace year-round. With sofas and soft seating, there is both an opportunity to sample Club Cecconi specialties and to relax in one of the many lounge areas.
The courtyard is embellished with hanging chandeliers made of marbled glass and punctuated with mustard-colored Swedish-inspired wall sconces. The color palette, characterized by muted, calm shades of pearl pink, is complemented by vibrant tea leaf colors and softer stripes.
The lounge seating is upholstered in a custom printed fabric developed and created for Soho House by Trine Tronhjem and Liv Rømer, two Danish designers who specialize in color and textiles.
Soho House Stockholm: the art collection
The art collection includes more than 70 works created exclusively by artists born, residing or raised in Sweden, with a high proportion of Stockholm-based artists. Among the most established names are Ranga Bley, Carsten Höller, Anna Bjerger, Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff, Paul Fägerskiöld, Charlotte Johannesson, Linda Hofvander, Andreas Eriksson, Lotta Antonsson, Nathalie Djurberg, and Hans Berg. Alongside them are some emerging talents such as Afrang Nordlöf Malekian, Anna Choutova, Elina Birkehag, Joséphine Kamoun Johansson, Judit Kristensen and Julia de Ruvo.
The collection plays with space wherever possible, upsetting stereotypes of what art in a church might look like. A series of small works accompany the passage down all the stairs of the House, with witty and sometimes subversive images. From the main ceiling of the church hangs a large installation by Bella Rune, three meters high and made of silk mohair dyed with Kool-Aid.
Soho House Stockholm: the interior
The House’s color palette is inspired by Stockholm’s expressive and deep seasonal hues, which are emphasized by the fabrics developed with Swedish designers Josef Frank and Cathy Nordström and Danish designers Nina Bruun and Tronhjem Rømer. Each fabric was chosen with the utmost care to find the right match for the red, yellow, green, blue, and purple hues of the church’s stained glass windows, which reverberate throughout the club spaces.
In this central area, the style and form of the furnishings are strongly influenced by classic Scandinavian themes. Cloudy green marble coffee tables and wood furnishings are best complemented by the hues of the fabrics and architectural elements, while the mezzanine table tops feature the intense brilliance of Granite Patagonia and Luana Red.
In the center of the room, two rounded sofas, created specifically for this space and upholstered in a cotton-wool blend, mirror each other around a custom-made marble coffee table.
Throughout the club spaces, vintage furniture and lighting were created by designers from across Scandinavia, such as Hans Bergström, Hans J. Wegner, and Jac van den Bosch, to convey more of a sense of place. The vintage lamps are decorated with Swedish-inspired fabrics and pleated lampshades.
The floors in both the main club space and the mezzanine are made of reclaimed pine wood, perfectly matching the building’s original flooring when it was still a church. In the mezzanine, we find soft armchairs upholstered in one of Josef Frank’s iconic fabrics, the Barranquilla print.
Downstairs, the library is a cozy, more secluded space in which the original wood paneling and lavish mustard-colored curtains stand out. Large armchairs with side headrests and a rich orange sofa recessed within the wall panels are gently lit by smoked glass chandeliers. Decorated briarwood coffee tables are enhanced by Verde Luana marble.
The highlight of the space is the bar, with lacquered front panels forming a sort of contemporary checkerboard of color blocks and a solid brass top.
Across from the Library, Club Cecconi features a large mosaic floor with green, white, and eggplant-colored stripes. The iconic Cecconi chair is upholstered in a green and burgundy striped fabric from Scandinavian textile manufacturer Kjellerup, complemented by deep red bar stools aligned in front of the counter with a Carrara marble top and scalloped wood front panel.