From time to time, we allow advertisers and friends to supply articles for inclusion on Hewn & Hammered; the following was contributed by our friends at furniture seller Argos.

I went to Norway last March with my brother Jack and two friends – between getting lost in Oslo and seeing the Northern lights, we spent two weeks eating prawn paste in the drizzle and getting ice-burn from ski-lifts. It was wonderful.

I’m moving into a new flat next month and have been looking to Jack’s photos for décor inspiration. Norway’s distinctive style is big, bold and homely, a nice mix of fixed-up old stuff and modern conveniences. And it’s colourful: the tradition in Norway is to paint the wooden panels of your house red, blue, green, or yellow – every shade has a shape and size. The country’s alternately startlingly white with snow or lushly green – every season creates a perfect backdrop for their rainbow roads.

I want to bring their outsides inside, have the same bright white and colours with natural textures. The marriage of cold winter white and warm yellow wood is celebrated in Oslo’s opera house, finished 3 just years ago. It was designed to look like an iceberg, floating on the Oslofjorden, and this inside wall represents a wave.

I’m already the proud owner of an eclectic mix of vintage and crafted tables, shelves and cupboards. What I need is modern colour to offset all the warm woody tones - large blocks of deep sea blue, red and turquoise. I’ve bought one of Argos’s bright sofas, and am currently on the hunt for the haphazard details that make it cosy: floral cushions, a woven blanket, a pale sheepskin rug, an intricate glass vase – and some tubes of prawn paste for the fridge.