Villa Inkognito: A Luxurious Urban Villa in Oslo’s West End

The newest jewel of the city offers visitors the ultimate private retreat by fusing luxury and subtly escapism.

The first premium neighborhood hotel in Oslo, Sommerro, will debut in September 2022. Today, the establishment announced the opening of Villa Inkognito, an exclusive 11-suite hideaway right next door. Villa Inkognito is a rare find offering a blend of luxury and escapism in Oslo’s thriving West End. It is unique to Oslo as the only urban villa accessible for full or partial booking. Villa Inkognito is an elegant hideaway that has been painstakingly designed to be the ultimate home away from home, with highlights including beautifully designed bedrooms and exceptional personalized service.

Villa Inkognito, designed by Thger Binneballe in 1870 as a private home, has seen numerous changes over the years. Most notably, the building housed the Algerian embassy starting in 1980 after serving as office space for the Oslo Lysverker administration, the city’s initial electricity corporation, in the 1950s. This historic structure is now a part of Sommerro and has a new lease on life as a private villa. It provides the utmost solitude and has a dedicated hidden entrance. The Sommerro pampers guests with a personal host to make their stay as smooth and easy as possible. Guests also have full access to all of the hotel’s amenities and services, which include seven restaurants and bars, 150-person meeting rooms, a 100-seat gilded theater, a landmark wellness center with old-world public baths, and the city’s first rooftop pool, sauna, and terrace.

Villa Inkognito is brought to life by the concept of GRECODECO, the New York and London-based company that also oversaw the interior design of Sommerro’s living and social areas. Villa Inkognito was created to recreate the atmosphere of a highly sophisticated private home. In order to create interior areas that were adorned with a mixture of antiques, original artwork, ornamental features, and traditional Scandinavian furnishings, the GRECODECO team dug deep into the building’s historical history. The bedrooms at the villa, which range in size from small Standard Rooms to roomy Suites and the ultra-private Tower Room, are designed in a variety of styles, including Classic Norwegian, Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, and a little touch of Japonisme. The bedrooms feature lavish textiles and sumptuous details, including hand-knotted rugs, beds from the ground-breaking Swedish sleep brand Hilding Anders, and dreamlike bathrooms with unique tile designs. Custom-designed furniture with marquetry elements evoking 19th-century Norwegian motifs is also featured in the bedrooms.

The common areas of Villa Inkognito are divided into a number of various themed rooms, both visually and conceptually. The private entrance, which is apart from Sommerro’s main doors, features an American-made vintage wallpaper and a black and white color scheme. Like Dorothy’s experience after her house crashed into Technicolor Oz, the guest journey advances with each room having a drastically different color scheme. In addition to a fitness center in the basement and outdoor space, guests can congregate in a number of tastefully furnished living spaces, including a library, lounge, dining room, and open kitchen where a private chef prepares breakfast dishes for every taste. Those staying at Villa Inkognito can plan private meals, order room service from the finest restaurants in Sommerro, and take advantage of in-room spa treatments from the professionals at Vestkantbadet.

A priority at Villa Inkognito is seclusion. From the pre-arrival stage to the end of each stay, confidentiality and politeness are maintained. To provide a unique and memorable stay, the Lady of the House makes sure everyone feels like a personal visitor of the villa. Private hosts are available to help guests plan an experience that makes the most of this amazing refuge, whether that means mixing up a few drinks at the retreat’s cozy bar, Spectre, or individually showing them everything that Frogner has to offer. In addition to receiving personalized treatment in the villa, visitors will have priority reservations at the hotel’s Nordic-Japanese rooftop restaurant TAK, run by award-winning chef Frida Ronge, and at Sommerro’s sociable bistro Ekspedisjonshallen, Izakaya Bar & Terrace, etc.

Villa Inkognito, which sustains and strengthens Nordic Hotels & Resorts’ dedication to eco-sustainability, is following in the footsteps of Sommerro, which made history as Norway’s largest-ever preservation project. All efforts were taken to rebuild, refurbish, repolish, and repurpose all of the old building’s original materials, flooring, and fabrics because the villa’s interiors were remarkably intact. Additionally, GRECODECO was able to preserve the intricate plaster ceilings with their intricate moldings and central medallions that were specific to each room, as well as the original room arrangements on the public floor. The renovation’s original stone that was left behind has been transformed into decorative accents like stone vases, and extra textiles have been reused on the villa’s lively common areas and cozy suites.

The “Sommomero Standards,” are a group of nine benchmarks that the hotel utilizes to direct its daily operations, alliances, and rules that extend beyond Villa Inkognito, and expand sustainability beyond the tangible. The criteria put a special emphasis on time-honored methods of environmental conservation including recycling and cautiously choosing the kinds of food used in the kitchen and guest facilities, as well as the materials used in the restoration of the villa, right down to the staff uniforms. Along with promoting regionally owned businesses and community initiatives, “Sommerro Standards” also place a strong emphasis on the need to preserve and protect the mental health of its employee. To guarantee that work-life balance is always taken into account, Villa Inkognito adheres to Sommerro’s 8-hour rule for employees: 8 hours of work, 8 hours of play, and 8 hours of sleep. The hotel takes pride in creating an environment that is equally welcoming to both staff and guests, collaborative, and fun.

Sommerro is a celebration of Norwegian design, blending form and function to become the city’s first art deco hotel and a contemporary tribute to Norwegian cultural heritage. It is located in a landmark 1930s building that has been renovated in Frogner, one of Oslo’s oldest neighborhoods, in the city’s West End. The hotel has 231 rooms and luxury suites, four restaurants, three bars, a large wellness area that recreates the city’s public baths, a number of antique meeting and event spaces, and a rooftop terrace. It was once the home of Oslo Lysverker, the city’s first electrical company. The hotel also occupies a newly designed addition to the original building. Sommerro is conveniently located among some of the city’s most popular attractions, including the Oslo Opera House and MUNCH, and is just a two-minute walk from the neighborhood train station, which offers quick access to Oslo Airport and other locations. Local electric transportation and renewable energy power Sommerro. The hotel belongs to the Preferred Hotels & Resorts group.