The Famous Savoy Restaurant in Helsinki, Finland, has been renovated by local interior design Studio Ilse in collaboration with furniture brand Artek. Married architects Aino and Alvar Aalto completed Savoy's original interior design as early as 1937 to reflect their taste for natural materials and comfortable furniture.However, after more than 80 years of service and piecemeal renovation works, the restaurant had come to look "rather unloved and more than a little corporate".

Studio Ilse work takes its cue from the original 1937 Aalto interior, taking the restaurant back to its original while refreshing it for today. Savoy needed a bit of repair and a bit of love, but it didn't need reinventing.

After nine months of planning, Crawford and her studio went about carefully restoring Savoy's fittings and joinery.The Aalto's had initially fit-out the dining room with diverse types of wood ranging from oak and elm to pine and mahogany.Unfortunately, over time, exposure to sunlight and cigarette smoke had "flattened" their visual differences, resulting in an overall dull appearance.

During the 1990s, all the seating throughout the dining room was upholstered in deep-blue fabric, but this has now been swapped for a soft grey textile.The corners of the dining chairs and their armrests have also been wrapped in brown leather, complementing the new mushroom-coloured carpet that runs across the floor.A cushioned banquette that runs along the periphery of the home has then been covered with a bold black-and-white striped fabric.