It’s rare for older adults to make big life changes, but this couple’s story is an inspiring exception to the rule.
They met in their 50s, both carrying the weight of tough pasts—struggles with work, challenging relationships with former spouses, and financial hardships. Yet they decided to take a chance on each other and start fresh in a completely unfamiliar place.
His name is Ilkka Peräoja, and hers is Arja Heinilä. They live in the small Finnish town of Kuhmoinen.
Kuhmoinen is home to about 2,000 people. It’s not exactly a tourist hotspot, but its countless nearby lakes make it a summer haven for vacationers. Every summer, 7,000 to 8,000 visitors flock here from all over Finland.
Ilkka first came to the area in the mid-2010s when he bought a little summer house. For the first few years, it was just a vacation retreat, but three years later, he decided to move there permanently—because he met Arja.
The old summer house Ilkka purchased.
And here are the homeowners themselves—Ilkka and Arja, together for five years now.
“When Ilkka and I found each other, it felt like stars lighting up a pitch-black sky. Like a never-ending winter finally gave way to summer,” Arja says of their relationship.
They’ve divided household tasks: Ilkka handles the heating (the house is warmed entirely by wood stoves), while Arja takes care of cleaning and creating a cozy atmosphere. Cooking? That depends on who’s feeling inspired—it’s a shared duty.
Some details about their home: it was built in 1925 and is about 1,300 square feet. It has five rooms, a kitchen, a basement, and an attic.
“The house originally served as a store for a bustling little village up until the 1970s. After that, it was just a summer home for many years before it ended up in our hands,” the couple explains.
The house also has two entrances, so in the summer, Ilkka and Arja rent out two rooms to visitors who don’t yet have their own summer cottages.
The living room is the largest space in the house, with four doors leading to other parts of the home.
Their interior is simple but filled with heart. Most of the furniture and decor comes from flea markets or friends. Arja has a passion for vintage items and even runs a tiny antique shop in the summer, catering to vacationers.
Take the chest in the living room, for example. Arja found it abandoned on the street. She painted it a deep burgundy, added acrylic designs, and placed it beside a bench. It now serves as their coffee table.
“I’m drawn to furniture with dents, scratches, and layers of peeling paint. I love giving a second life to things others have thrown away. We’ve barely bought anything new for the house—just the plumbing and some appliances. The older and more used the furniture, the better. Plates, rugs, beds, sofas, tables—all found at flea markets.”
Arja sits at their dining table, located in the living room.
The home features plenty of red accents—even the stove is painted a bright crimson. Red is Arja’s favorite color, along with pink. The wallpaper in the living room is from Tapettitalo, a Finnish store specializing in wallpaper since the 1970s.
“Every room in our house has its own color, but red is my favorite. It ignites a fire within me,” says Arja.
Their kitchen, with its abundance of pink, looks like it belongs in a Barbie house.
The pink SMEG fridge was a gift from Arja’s daughter and set the tone for the kitchen’s color palette. They also have a large freezer in the basement for storing groceries, meat, and other supplies since they only shop for food every couple of months.
Every corner of the kitchen has a quirky touch: the base of a rusty rake serves as a mug rack, while vintage cups, a sugar canister, and colorful candles add to the charm.
Though they have a modern electric stove, Ilkka and Arja often cook on their old wood-burning stove, especially in winter when it helps heat the house.
The hobby room is a space for reading, playing the piano, knitting, sewing (Arja enjoys crafting), and even exercising (there’s a pull-up bar on the wall). The dark accent wallpaper is by Boråstapeter.
Their bedroom is turquoise, with soft, calming colors that remind them of winter, rivers, and lakes.
One unique feature? The headboard is an old attic door they found in the basement.
Each room has its own stove. During fall and winter, Ilkka starts his mornings not with coffee but by lighting the fires, and he enjoys the ritual.
The restroom is small but warm and located inside the house.
The section of the house they rent out to visitors has its own entrance.
The guest rooms are upstairs, accessible via a steep staircase. For a decorative touch, Arja used leftover wallpaper scraps to line the steps.
She shows off one of the guest rooms, which are unheated in the winter.
A few more details from the home.
The figurines on the left were collected by Arja’s children (she has a son and daughter from her first marriage). The suitcases belonged to her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather and now hold craft supplies and paperwork.
And this is their sauna, which doubles as a bathroom. It’s shaped like an igloo and was brought from Estonia on a truck.
This concludes our tour of a 100-year-old home in rural Finland. I hope you enjoyed it!
Before we part, here’s some decorating advice from Arja:
“Use your imagination to repurpose old things. Breaking the rules can lead to something extraordinary. For instance, I turned a broken ski pole into a flower shelf for the living room window. We took apart an old TV to make a cozy house for our cat, and a metal tray became a great magnetic board.
Photos: Satu Nyström
