# Hamran x Smau – where the head meets the heart

URL: https://hamran.no/en/articles/hamran-x-smau-a-collection-where-the-head-meets-the-heart/
Type: ArticlePage
Updated: 2026-11-05

A personal home where architecture, materials and bespoke solutions meet. What happens when an architect's visions meet craftsmanship traditions that have been passed down through generations? In the collaboration between Hamran Snekkerverksted and the architect duo behind Smau, a home has grown where functionality and aesthetics go hand in hand. Here, every solution is shaped with consideration for the room, the materials and the people who will live there. The result is a home with a clear identity, warm natural materials and bespoke joinery that unites modern architecture with traditional Norwegian craftsmanship. A bespoke kitchen with character The kitchen is more than a place to cook. It is a gathering point and a natural part of the home's architecture. Here, warm wood surfaces, clean lines and well-considered details meet. The bespoke joinery is developed to work as a whole with the room, while each individual function has found its place. From the characteristic wood-knot handles to the carefully fitted drawers and storage solutions, this is a kitchen where materials and craftsmanship are allowed to be visible. Materials that give the home personality Natural materials play a central role in the project. The wood's grain, play of colour and tactile qualities create a warm contrast to metallic surfaces and more playful touches of colour. Through deliberate choices of materials, Hamran and Smau have created a balance between the timeless and the personal. It is precisely in the meeting between materials, colours and precisely executed details that the project gets its distinctive character. Bespoke joinery for everyday life A home should not only be beautiful to look at. It should work well in everyday life. The project shows how bespoke joinery can create space for both practical needs and personal wishes. Well-thought-out drawer solutions, integrated storage and small details help make everyday life easier, without compromising the aesthetics. Every solution is based on how the rooms are actually meant to be used. Hamran x Smau – a meeting between architecture and craftsmanship Hamran Snekkerverksted has worked with wood and bespoke joinery since 1930. In the collaboration with Smau, this craftsmanship expertise is united with an architectural approach that challenges tradition and allows room for personality. What both share is a belief in quality, good materials and solutions that last. Hamran x Smau is about more than kitchens and joinery. It is about creating space for the life that is lived – with both the head and the heart.

![Overbygget veranda knytter sammen husets to fløyer, med søyle og bordkledning i treverk. Terrassegulvet i heltre møter grusen, og åreretningen tegner lange linjer langs plankene.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/Hamran_X_Smau_B32_photo_Einar_Aslaksen-1345_w.width-1920.jpg)

### Hamran X Smau - a collection where the head meets the heart.

The combination of good craftsmanship and the will to try something new has bound Hamran and Smau arkitektur together for 15 years. Now the collaboration expands with a collection comprising kitchen, bathroom and wardrobe. Clearly visible in an old house in Bærum.

![Kjøkkenbenken i eik har skap med freste grep under stålbenken, og espressomaskinen står plassert på plate i samme material. Åreretningen i frontene følger lyset som faller inn fra vinduet bak.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/HamranxSmau_bow_high-10.2e16d0ba.fill-1920x980.jpg)

- "Do you have an orange carcass?" That's the question we almost always get when we have guests, says Christian Myklebust. He and his wife Camilla Svanberg make coffee at home in the kitchen in Billingstad, Bærum. The family moved here a year and a half ago to get some distance from an otherwise busy life in the city - she as co-founder of the coffee chain Hakone, he running the agency Noveltease. From the outside, the kitchen looks both timeless and quiet - drawer fronts and round handles in walnut, worktops in steel. But then they open a drawer and an orange colour pops out. The joinery is the result of a collaboration between Hamran and Smau arkitektur. It becomes a conversation starter, something people haven't seen before, and it's not something you notice right away either. We think it's fun to be a bit different, the couple say. Today the kitchen is a natural heart of the house, but it has always been that way.

![Kjøkkenbenken i eik strekker seg langs rommet, med skap i furu over og under. Åreretningen i treet trer tydelig frem der sollyset faller skrått inn.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/7d057869-282d-42bd-b7ae-87d61d202716.width-1920.png)

### The house nobody wanted

- There was grass right up to the windows here, says Camilla, pointing out towards the garden. When the couple came across the house, it stood as a nearly forgotten project: an old brick house that was originally meant to be demolished in favour of apartments, but never got approval. Instead, it was left standing and falling into disrepair. Most people who saw the house had probably thought the same thing: too big, too expensive, too much work. Christian admits he himself came close to dismissing it. - I thought this would be too big a project, but I was still like: let's do it! says Camilla. It was the shape of the house, the location and the garden that tipped the scale. Even before they put in a bid, the couple had sketched out a plan for how they wanted it. But the evening they got the winning bid, the plan was scrapped.
- We sat down, had a glass of wine and sent an email to Smau arkitektur: "When do you have time?"

![Vindusfeltene i heltre rammer inn utsikten mot hagen, der en person leker med en hund på plenen. Post og foring i varm trefarge deler glasset i smale felt, med en bokstabel og en kopp i vinduskarmen.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/HamranxSmau_bow_high-20.2e16d0ba.fill-1920x1080.jpg)

### A bespoke home

The solution was to give the architects free rein. - When we invested in an architect, we couldn't pick and choose what we wanted and what we didn't want. We went along with what they proposed along the way, says Camilla. Smau arkitektur has specialised in exactly this type of project - old houses lacking a bit of identity, which are to be restored for a new family without losing their anchoring in their own time. - We like the minimal, but it still has to be warm, says founder and architect Bjarte Sandal about Smau's philosophy. - It's important for us to blend past and future. We like to mix craftsmanship and natural materials and add something unexpected. The result is a house where almost nothing is as it was, even though it looks as if it has always stood there. The kitchen, windows, doors and fireplace have all been given new places. Only the front door stands where it has always stood. - The house is bespoke and adapted to our family, says Camilla. - It feels much bigger than it actually is, because the flow of the house works so well.

### "It sounds a little crazy, but we still don't feel like there's too much going on."

Camilla Svanberg

![Hakone coffee. Bespoke kitchen in walnut veneer.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/HamranxSmau_bow_high-5_9rE7MvA.2e16d0ba.fill-1920x980.jpg)

"It sounds a little crazy, but we still don't feel like there's too much going on."

### Dream collaboration

When the family finally moved in after a long renovation process, it was without a finished kitchen in the house. - We had built a makeshift kitchen counter, because the money had run out, says Camilla. The dream, however, remained clear the whole way: a kitchen from Hamran. That was also what the architect wanted for the house. - That was the dream. But there wasn't room in the budget for it. So we thought we'd just have to go without a kitchen until we could afford it, says Camilla.

But at the same time, Smau and Hamran had a collaborative collection under development; kitchen joinery and wardrobe and bathroom cabinets. A dream solution at exactly the right time for the couple: - The timing was absolutely perfect for us to bring it in as a prototype at our place, says Camilla. - We went "all in". The collaboration suited our budget, and not least the house.

![Benkeskapet har skuffer i eik med sinkede hjørner, og en åpen skuff viser et innrede rom for bestikk. Grepet er frest inn i fronten, og åreretningen følger skuffens lengde.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/last_ned.2e16d0ba.fill-1920x1080.jpg)

### A love story

The collaboration between Smau and Hamran has deep roots. 15 years ago, the architect discovered a small joinery workshop in Snartemo. - Since then it's been a little love story, says Bjarte, who has worked with Hamran on several of his projects over the years. The new series is their first collaborative collection. What he appreciates most is the combination Hamran has of tradition and, at the same time, a will to try something new. - There's both city and country in Hamran, something I value highly. They're keen to do things differently, while at the same time being very grounded in the way they've done things for many years, he says. In Camilla and Christian's kitchen, it's exactly that combination that comes to light: walnut drawer fronts, calm and traditional on the outside, but with a surprise hidden inside - the orange colour that appears when the cabinets are opened. Instead of routed grips, Hamran has turned round knobs in wood, a simpler approach in production, without compromising the expression. - It's an example of the head meeting the heart, says Sandal. The collection comprises kitchen, bathroom cabinets and wardrobe in walnut or pine on the outside, and three colours to choose between on the inside of the carcasses.

### "We like to mix colours and natural materials and add something unexpected."

Bjarte Sandal

![Garderobens hyller i eik og furu bærer solbriller, nøkler og capser, mens en hånd legger sammenbrettede klær på hyllen under. Åreretningen i trevirket går i rolige striper langs hyllekanten.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/HamranxSmau_bow_high-31.width-1920.jpg)

### Several ways home

At Camilla and Christian's, the play of colour continues throughout the house. In the wardrobe cabinets, a light, almost greyish blue tone appears. In the bathroom, they have chosen mirror cabinets with a pink interior, as a contrast to the blue bathroom tiles. - It sounds a bit crazy, but we still don't feel like there's too much going on, she says. In everyday life, everything revolves around the kitchen. After a long renovation process, it has been given a new place in the house, and has become the place where everyone meets. - You can actually take three routes from the bedroom to the kitchen. That makes the house feel very big. On Monday you can go one way, on Tuesday the other, on Wednesday the third. For Camilla, the kitchen sums up the whole project. - We've got a kitchen that radiates Hamran, with a touch of Smau.

![Kjøkkenøya står med skuffefronter i eik og benkeplate i stål, foran et vindu som slipper inn dagslys. Åreretningen i frontene følger skuffenes linjer, uten synlige beslag.](https://hamran-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/ed945911-4efe-43a0-a133-ff16dbe7bb72.width-1920.png)

_Source:_ Hamran Snekkerverksted AS
_Canonical:_ https://hamran.no/en/articles/hamran-x-smau-a-collection-where-the-head-meets-the-heart/
_Locale:_ nb-no