Inside a Swiss Chalet Where Designer Linda Boronkay Gives Classic Alpine Style a Contemporary Twist
This month, for Design DNA, we delve into how a living space designed by Linda Boronkay is both rustic and refined
Why do some rooms instantly make you feel at ease? In Design DNA, we uncover the design decisions behind exceptional spaces, revealing how layout, color, materials, and styling work together to create successful interiors that are as livable as they are beautiful.
Rustic doesn’t have to mean rough around the edges. In this Swiss chalet, Linda Boronkay took the familiar language of alpine design – timber, texture, and the ritual of gathering around the fire – and reinterpreted it without the usual clichés. The result is what Linda describes as ‘contemporary alpine living with soul’: a timeless rather than trend-driven space designed for coming together, slowing down, and reconnecting.
The room’s greatest transformation isn’t visible: long before selecting fabrics and finishes, she completely removed the boundaries between the kitchen, dining, and living areas to create an interior that feels far more fluid. ‘Mountain homes have a very different rhythm from city living, and we wanted the interior to reflect that,’ says Linda. ‘The vision was always to create a space that encourages people to slow down.’
Rather than designing a formal living room, she reimagined the ‘rituals that would take place there’ – returning from skiing, gathering around the fire, reading, sharing meals, and having conversations. ‘Everything was designed to encourage those moments,’ she explains. ‘Comfort became just as important as aesthetics.’
Having opened everything up, Linda needed something to bring the newly connected areas together. ‘The fireplace became the emotional heart of the room,’ she says. Clad in glossy, chocolate-brown tiles that catch the changing mountain light, it serves as both the visual and social anchor of the space. Rather than orienting the seating toward a television, it’s arranged from several directions, allowing everyone to stay connected to both the conversation and the fire.
The chalet’s original timber, meanwhile, is treated less as a feature than as a foundation. Rich in warmth and patina, it wraps the room from floor to ceiling, yet never feels overwhelming, thanks to Linda’s decision not to compete with it.
‘It already carried so much warmth and character,’ she explains. ‘Instead, we treated it as the architectural backdrop,’ introducing clean lines, softer silhouettes, and carefully considered materials to create balance. ‘Contemporary design doesn’t mean removing character,’ she says. ‘It means allowing traditional materials to breathe by surrounding them with restraint rather than decoration.’
The key is contrast. Rich, tactile materials such as linen, bouclé, and glossy tile help ‘create relief’ and soften the expanse of wood. ‘If every surface shares the same texture and tone, a room can quickly feel visually heavy,’ says Linda.
The same sense of restraint extends to the color palette. But rather than defaulting to neutrals, Linda chose ‘confident colors’ that would complement the timber rather than compete with it. Inspired by the surrounding landscape, she selected deep forest greens, warm ochres, burnt oranges, and rich burgundies to ‘capture the richness and vibrancy of mountain life,’ layering in textiles and artwork that create ‘moments of surprise and delight.’
Nothing competes for attention in this scheme. Pattern is introduced sparingly – ‘some are more graphic, while others almost disappear into the texture’ – while shelves are styled with a collector’s eye, and moments of negative space allow everything to breathe.
‘I like leaving negative space,’ Linda says of her approach to styling. ‘It makes objects feel far more considered and allows each piece to be appreciated in its own right.’
For Linda, however, the room’s greatest achievement isn’t any single piece of furniture or dramatic design gesture, but its overall composition and rhythm. ‘A great deal of time was spent refining proportions and sightlines,’ she explains. These are the invisible design decisions that quietly do the heavy lifting, creating a room that instantly puts you at ease.
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