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Taking a Look at the Newly Redesigned Hotel Ändra

One of Seattle’s best venues is back and better than ever with a wide array of Scandinavian influences.

February 11, 2022

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The Hotel Ändra is one of the premier wedding spots in Seattle — and in Washington as a whole. With new renovations, the Scandinavian-inspired hotel offers the best in intimate and personalized events. The hotel has leaned into the “hygge” aesthetic by creating a cozy, upscale setting inspired by the Swedish baroque period. And a partnership with the Tom Douglas Restaurant Group allows the Hotel Ändra to work with couples to create incredibly unique culinary experiences — with the possibility to have guests work together to learn how to bring their own meals to life. We sat down with the hotel to learn all about the new and exciting changes.

Seattle Bride: Tell us about the changes the hotel has undergone since 2020.

Hotel Ändra: We have reimagined our Scandinavian design to add brand-new touches inspired by the Swedish baroque period including luxurious furnishing of velvets, wools, and linens, and Swedish cottage influences of warm wood, cane, stone, and glass tiling.

“Rather than look to the mid-century hey-day of Scandinavian design, we wanted to go deeper,” Sharilyn Olson Rigdon of Design Studio Limited says. “Although the Swedes favored neutral tones, muted colors such as yellow, white and lighter pastel colors were more prevalent in historical architecture. We’ve incorporated a neutral palette with some exceptions to include more soft colors.”

Furnishings include custom-designed, locally made leather sectionals, European lounge chairs, table and lighting. The art was selected to reflect local, regional and Scandinavian artists and to evoke the local flora and fauna.

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Seattle Bride: What are some exciting, new elements guests can expect to see when coming to Hotel Ändra?

Hotel Ändra: “The revival of Hotel Ändra captures the spirit of Scandinavia,” says founder/owner Craig Schafer, “and we’re looking forward to our guests experiencing genuine Northwest hospitality in the heart of downtown Seattle once again.”

In addition to neutral hues and soft colors, bright pops of red are seen throughout the guest rooms, including in the desk chairs, the carpet and other small accents. The color, known specifically as Falu red, has been a consistent symbol of pastoral life in Sweden for the last century. Alongside touchstones of simplicity, functionality, and comfort, other cottage influences consist of warm woods and cozy throws. All rooms and suites share this design influence. The guestrooms are spacious, lending themselves to a flat-like experience.

Seattle Bride: How can the Hotel Ändra create a truly memorable wedding experience?

Hotel Ändra: The food and beverage services in the hotel are operated by a division of the Tom Douglas Restaurant Group that consists of the cooking school, Hot Stove Society, and the restaurant Lola.

The spaces available for wedding events include the Loft Bar, the Northern Lights dining room and the Hot Stove Kitchen. The diversity of venues provides multiple options for event flow. Guests can enjoy mingling in a dedicated area and then moving to a different space for cooking or dining.

Brides have the ability to customize their festivities to suit the makeup of their guests and their appetite for active participation or relaxed dining. We recently hosted a wonderful wedding celebration where the guests broke into teams to cook the menu they chose and then we converted the room to a candlelit feast table. The ceremony was held privately the day before, so this was the way they shared the occasion with their friends and family. We encourage couples to visit the spaces to visualize their celebration.

Hot Stove can accommodate 36 guests seated and 50 standing, Northern Lights can host 50 seated and 70 standing, and Loft Bar can host 60 standing and mingling with some seating options.

Seattle Bride: What is the style of the hotel and what are some of the unique offerings and guest amenities?

Hotel Ändra: The newly refreshed lobby designs follow the same Scandinavian aesthetic. The walls are clad in panels of light oak and linen-look wallcoverings. Doors and furnishings have the rustic wood and cane detailing. The feature of the lobby is the full height fireplace influenced by the large cooking fireplaces of the old country as well as the “walk-in” fireplaces typically seen in the palatial architecture of old Sweden. It is clad in Basalt, a local stone from the Northwest.

Flanking the fireplace are full height shelves containing a mix of art, local objects and books. This clean but warm theme, alongside the calming nature of the large, light-filled space makes the lobby feel full of vitality without being overly chaotic.

In addition to redesigned rooms, guests will enjoy upgraded amenities including faster Wi-Fi, in-room Nespresso and tea service, a wet/dry built-in mini bar, plus a flat screen LED and HD TV with STAYCAST™, which allows guests to stream their own content onto the room's television using their own device as the control.