A homely alternative to hotels combined with Finnish design can be found in a small inn called Kolo in Tehtaankatu in Helsinki. In Kolo Finnish design is life and everyday routine.

Kolo, which opened at Tehtaankatu 19 in the summer, does not look out onto the street. You have to peep from the entrance into the forecourt, where you will find a sturdy two-storey wooden house that was built in 1904. Its one flat - two rooms and a kitchen - has been made into a new kind of overnight accommodation.

Behind Kolo is Mari Vatanen, who works for Iittala, the leading design company in the Finnish homeware sector. "The aim is to create an atmosphere of home for the visitors. In Kolo you can light candles and eat an evening meal with your own friends. You can make a fire in the register stove and go to the sauna in the building in the yard," Vatanen says.

Kolo is furnished with modern Finnish design. In Kolo the design is everday life although the lodging quarters act as a living display of modern Finnish design. Central to everything are the paintings that were made for the premises and the prototype furniture, which Finnish artists have lent and which are changed as time goes by.

When Vatanen is not there, the key to Kolo can be obtained from the restaurant nearby. Spending the night there includes the right to use the bicycle.

>> mari.kolo@elisanet.fi

Kolo's furnishings undergo minor modifications as the year rotates e.g. the seasonal fabrics.