Artist couple revived a colorful wooden house—now their horse and pony can enjoy the cottage life, too

When the door to the colorful wooden house opens, you might have to rub your eyes. A small pony steps out, its colors reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking’s famous horse. It’s easy to imagine that the atmosphere inside the cottage is just as joyful.

Apart from Albert the pony, four dogs and a horse enjoy the cottage milieu with the Hannunens, a family of five. The whole crew has been spending time at the cheerful Finnish wooden house in Keuruu, Finland, since last year. Renovations have been underway since 2019, when Timo Hannunen first set foot on the grounds of the old farm.

“I came to see the place in hopes of finding storage space. It’s pretty important for a sculptor, and the old cowshed on the farm seemed like a good solution. Plus, it’s only a kilometer from our home.”

When the renovation of the house began, the first task was to remove 100 cubic meters of waste from the site. The wooden house has become cheerfully colorful in the hands of its new owners. After purchasing the house, they also acquired about five hectares of land, a field, riverside property, and half a hectare of protected forest.

Albert and Lissu have been best friends for ten years. Albert the pony brings joy during his visits to nursing homes and is even used to riding elevators. Lissu brings joy to children with rides in the garden, both on horseback and in a sleigh. The former cowshed was cleared out for storage: it’s where they keep their horse cart and wooden boat.

Albert the pony occasionally gets to come inside the cottage.

When Timo visited the property for the first time, what he saw was a neglected, sorrowful-looking house. The amount of junk accumulated inside made it impossible to assess the condition of the interiors. The roof of the sauna building had collapsed. Other potential buyers had turned on their heels, thinking the necessary renovations would be too huge of an undertaking.

“Others only saw the piles of junk and a daunting renovation project. I saw only possibilities under all that junk. I can’t help it, it’s just in my nature,” Timo laughs.

The deal was made for a sum of €14,000, which included everything in the buildings, even all the junk and trash. Timo’s purchase caused some heads to shake and chuckles to erupt, since it was well-known that the artist felt a strange need to rescue abandoned buildings. When it was time to clear the buildings, Timo got help from his family members, his mother, and brother Tommi.

“Tommi did say that I might be a bit too old for a project like this. I completely disagreed,” Timo recalls.

“My mother Ritva is adept at detecting the scent of mold. She couldn’t smell any here,” he adds.

The sun always shines in the kitchen. Anita chose the ‘Lovely Branches’ wallpaper by Pip Studio for the walls. The family’s treasure trove, Myllymäen antiikki ja rompe (“Myllymäki Antiques and Secondhand Items”) owned by Anita’s father, provided the vintage dining chairs.

Summer days are spent at leisure. A good day is made of strawberry cake, a hammock, and an intriguing book. The kitchen cabinets are made of reclaimed materials from a cottage in Ähtäri.

The true condition of the main building revealed itself after cleaning: the basic structures were in good shape, but the surfaces needed to be redone. Some other renovations were also needed.

When Timo was repairing the insides of the masonry stoves and doing construction work, he got some valuable help from his uncle Seppo. Timo’s son Luukas also helped out with the renovation.

“I couldn’t have done it all alone. Although the house was in poor condition, it was luckily built firmly on bedrock.”

Initially, Timo and Anita planned to turn the house into a studio, but as the renovations progressed, it became suitable for living. They insulated and re-sheeted the walls of the building. Some walls they painted, while others received a new wallpaper.

The sauna was almost entirely dismantled, and only the foundation and frame of the old structure were preserved. The exterior walls and ceiling of the cowshed were repaired, and the doors were replaced.

Cushions made by the couple’s late friend Maija add softness to the armchairs in the living room. Maija’s woven rugs warm the floors. Timo reinsulated all the downstairs walls using eco-wool.

Before Timo and Anita, everything in the house looked less colorful. Anita selected the colors because Timo’s slight color blindness prevents him from making such choices. She carefully thought out every shade, and then the house was skillfully painted into a work of art both inside and out.

“Timo wanted a yellow porch for the house, which also inspired the color scheme of the outbuildings. We painted them with yellow ocher and traditional red ocher,” Anita says.

“We wanted a cheerful look inside the house as well. The sun always shines in the yellow kitchen.”

The residents wanted to get everything possible secondhand. Most of the furniture and items were found in Anita’s father’s antique shop and storage spaces.

“We both like items that have a story. Timo collects tin cans, and I collect old ceramics,” Anita says.

The house is heated with wood. Anita is planning to paint the masonry stove in the bedroom black.

The dark blue ‘Kiurujen Yö’ wallpaper by Pihlgren & Ritola creates a calming atmosphere in the bedroom.

Anita paints emotions and mental landscapes in her artworks. Maybe one day she’ll paint the house itself into a painting.

The house is called Kurjenkulma, “the crane’s corner”. It likely got its name from the cranes that return to the area each spring. The Lusikkalahti Nature Reserve, which borders the property, also brings the family joy.

“Being in nature is part of the cottage’s charm. The chirping of birds in the nature reserve is incredible. It’s a privilege to walk in untouched nature,” Anita describes.

When the boys visit the cottage, the family grills food, has dart competitions, and bathes in the sauna. In addition to hikes in the forest, the couple fishes on the nearby Lake Ukonselkä. Zander, perch, and pike are cottage delicacies that the Hannunens smoke themselves.

The scent of smoked fish fills the garden. Lissu the horse and Albert the pony are enjoying fresh hay and occasionally neigh with contentment. Kurjenkulma is once again full of life.

Timo makes sculptures from stone, and he’s currently working on carving the stones lifted from the garden path into a new piece.

Timo holding a chick from the family’s own coop.

Lissu is a versatile and trustworthy Finnhorse, adept at Western riding, forest work, sleigh rides, and leading.

Check out Anita and Timo’s cheerful ideas!

1. A large yellow gate welcomes visitors to the house. Timo built it to signify where the garden starts. The design of the gate is a combination of different gate solutions from old traditional houses.

2. The color scheme of the cottage is carefree and bold. So, it’s not a big deal if sometimes the color you chose doesn’t quite work—boldness is allowed to show on the surfaces.

3. This wooden box is a two-liter measure from the 1800s that Anita got from her father. It’s perfect for storing napkins and small items.

4. Timo built a countertop next to the stove to make cooking easier. Anita chose the color for the wall based on the decals on the kitchen cabinets. The shade is Tikkurila’s J442 Menthol.

5. The couple found some leftover pieces of William Morris’s vine wallpaper in a friend’s storage. It fit the living room perfectly. Timo designed a half-wall paneling under the wallpaper so that there would be enough wallpaper to cover the entire wall.

6. This old table set that has naturally grayed over complements the colorful sauna building. When the sauna was purchased in 2019, it was unusable, so all its structures had to be dismantled down to the frame. The couple built new walls and interior paneling over the partially renewed old frame.