Ingrid and Steedman Hinckley´s daughter Annalisa Savin & family!

SWEDISH HOMES ON LONG ISLAND

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Already as a little child Annalisa used to dream 
about the house by the water. She thought it was 
so beautiful surrounded by greenery and with a 
portly gravel walk towards the entrance and with 
the water and the boats very close by. 

Little did she know then that she and her family 
would be living here. Annalisa grew up with her 
older brother Steedman Jr and younger sister 
Katherine just a few blocks away. The family 
moved away from busy Manhattan when she was five 
years old. The closeness to the city and to JFK 
Airport were the main reasons for choosing this 
place of domicile in Lawrence, situated on the 
south side of Long Island, barely an hour´s drive 
from Manhattan. 

Her father Steedman worked with recruitment of 
crews for his airline Overseas National Airways. 
And it was during a trip to Sweden to hire 
airline hostesses that he hired Annalisa´s mother 
Ingrid Mjornell Hinckley. 

The couple got married after a year. And Annalisa´s 
parents stayed on in Lawrence til ten years ago at 
which time they choose to live in Virginia at
 her father´s family´s house. Unfortunately he 
benefitted from living at their new abode only a 
short period before his demise. Annalisa´s mother 
still lives there and runs since some years back 
the interior design and antique business Skandina.

After college Manhattan beckoned and soon Annalisa 
met her husband Adam Savin who is in the finance world. 
Adam is a Philadelphian but the couple love 
metropolitan life in the Big Apple. 

It was as their first child George was born that the 
longing back to the countryside started to take over.
- To begin with we just thought we´d get a summerhouse 
in Martha´s Vineyard. 

But that was too far from New York. Therefore the best 
thing to do was to try and find a place within 
commuting distance and they started looking for a 
house in Annalisa´s earlier homeground at Long Island. 
First they rented a place in the area.

The diningroom is mostly used during winter 
for dinners. Annalisa enjoys cooking and often 
invites friends for dinner parties. 

The table is a Swedish antique one and the chairs 
are newly produced in Gustavian style. 
The armoire is also a Swedish antiquity as is the 
mirror and the electric chandelier.


One day they found out that Annalisa´s dream 
house was out for sale! There was one big 
obstacle: it was far too expensive - but the 
couple decided it was what they wanted and 
bought the house two years ago! 

The architect Edward Jenkins and one of USA´s 
most wellknown interior decorators, Katherine 
McCallum, who is with the prestigious interior 
decorator business McMillan, made sure every 
inch of the house corresponds with the taste 
of the married couple. Annalisa herself 
attended the New York School of Interior 
Design  during two years and thus has 
knowledge and interest for the art of interior 
decoration, inherited from mother Ingrid. 
Just like her mother she has a flare for 
Scandinavian design and the house has 
a Swedish feeling to it. Swedish help was 
also provided by a Gothenburg Sweden cousin,
whose husband came over for one and a half 
month and fixed wallpaper and carpentry.
Annalisa is proud of her Swedish roots and 
speaks Swedish. 
To be able to exercise she has a Swedish 
nanny, Jessica, all summer. Also her husband 
Adam also likes Sweden and enjoys Scandinavian 
design. 

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"Blue is my favorite color"

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The kitchen has a Swedish touch 
when it comes to coloring. 

Annalisa´s artistic aunt has decorated 
the kitchen tiles. The table and the chairs 
Annalisa shopped at IKEA.










The sofa in the sitting room is made to 
order as are the cushions, the chairs 
originate from Sweden. The curtains, as 
all curtains in the house, are made by 
Bolivian interior decorator Rene Arelleno.









The furniture in the bedroom comes 
from Country Swedish and 
is a newly produced piece in Gustavian 
style.









Furniture dated 1790, from Denmark, 
has been transported across the Atlantic 
by mother Ingrid. The antique lamp is a 
gift from Annalisa´s mother, it was as 
if it was made to be placed on top of 
this beautiful furniture!

In son George´s room there are twin 
beds originating from 1890, Denmark.


- Blue is my favorite color. There are so 
many stupendous blue nuances. My first born 
being a boy also contributed to blue becoming 
still more popular as a color and also that 
we live by the sea, says Annalisa.

A year ago the daughter Ingrid was born. They 
were in the midst of renovating the house back 
then and everything was upside down. 

The family had to take all their meals at 
restaurants. But it was worth it. The dream 
house is theirs and they spend all the time 
they can there. The family have permanent 
residence in an apartment on Upper East Side 
on Manhattan. But as soon as summer sets in 
Annalisa and the children move out to Lawrence 
and Long Island. Husband Adam spends all 
weekends there and also tries to come out
 one or two days midweek to be with the family.

Copyright: The entire article was published 
in Swedish Magazine Svensk Damtidning 
October 6, 2004.


Text and photos: Catarina Lundgren

Translated from Swedish to English by 
Elisabeth Gyllman