A spacious penthouse with a beautiful terrace

What I love the most in Swedish interiors is that, regardless of the apartment’s type or size, there is always an outdoor space, even if it’s a tiny terrace. Being closer to nature is vital for Nordic people, maybe this is one of the reasons that they can have that specific harmony with nature.

This interior sold by Alvhem is dated back to 1924 and it’s a penthouse with a super cozy rooftop terrace. The 101.2 sqm apartment has 3 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, and 2 bathrooms. The living room combined with the home office corner is on the top floor that takes you out to the terrace. The natural light/sunlight flows into the apartment abundantly, this turns the place into an airy and bright interior. I cannot decide if the terrace with its greenery or the curvy walls are more powerful focal points, I adore both of these, that’s for sure.

At the down floor, the spacious dining room, and the kitchen along with the smaller dining area, lets the owner decide where to have a cozy meal in case guests are coming over. The dominant white color and the light creamy tones go through the whole interior, making sure that the red line of the interior design is assured by the color palette. The bedroom itself is a calm oasis where a good rest is guaranteed.

I hope you like this calming tour, don’t forget to come back to my blog next week for another Nordic inspiration.

Photo credits: @Alvhem

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An Architect’s Little Black Cabin

Sometimes we need something more dynamic than pictures, right? That’s why I try to enrich the archive of video content on my blog. This might be a good reason to pour yourself a glass of wine, and start the weekend with some nice interiors.

I’m a big fan of the NEVER TOO SMALL YT channel. Whenever they share a new interior, they show us that small places do not necessarily mean limited living space, and with the right creativity, you have have a fully functional, cozy, homey interior.

The Little Black cabin is located in the Blue Mountains, 2 hours driving away from Sydney. It has only 28 sqm, and believe me, it’s a real charm from the bottom to the top. The owner is an architect that made the entire renovation and reconstruction more challenging. They actually wanted to restore the original shape of the cabin even, if this meant decreasing the living space. The reason for sharing this interior is that it’s close to nature, is built sustainably, is a minimalistic space, and the interior design, along with the color palette, is marvelous. The view from the kitchen/living room is simply breathtaking.

 

Video credits: NEVER TOO SMALL
Produced by New Mac Video Agency
Creator: Colin Chee
Director/Cinematographer: Nam Tran
Producer: Lindsay Barnard
Editor: Jessica Ruasol

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BarnHaus, created for unforgettable memories

Wow, this is a good period, I’m posting another locale treasure lately. This time I found a Saxon barn house, called BarnHaus :), turned into a magical place. I adore those interiors where the owners have the courage to preserve an original idea, but still manage to renovate/re-build into something totally new and modern.

BarnHaus can be rented out for short stays, and it’s located in Jibert village, 1 hour from Brașov city. The property consists of 2 separate buildings: the House with 4 double bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and the Barn with 1 double bedroom, a large living room and a fully equipped kitchen. The place can be booked for min 2 nights and for max 12 persons. You will have the house to yourselves only, the owners are offsite, but reachable on phone. They have a no smoking and no shoes inside policy. Me, like this a lot 🙂 This means that the place will never get overcrowded and cleanness is a vital aspect of their business.

And now a few words about the design. I love the brownish, earthy tones of the interior design. The high ceilings along with the high fireplace gives a real cozy feeling to the place. The original beams kept in the living room show respect to the old times and Saxon traditions. The sitting area, the dining area and the wooden elements are all in a total harmony. I’m all in for the rattan lightings, those are some strong focal points of the place. I envy those people who are bold enough to have black furniture, this kitchen actually adds extra depth to the room. The brick walls here and there seem to be the red line of the property, as you can find those marvelous walls also in the bedrooms. The abundance natural light inside the house is simply beautiful, and the external fireplace is one of the most hygge spots of the property.

Before

After

If you would like to see more beautiful pictures and moments of this property, check their Facebook or Instagram pages and do not hesitate to book a weekend on their website. Your welcome for the inspiration, it was my pleasure 😉

 

Photos credits: 1st photo by @gracegotte, the rest of pictures by barnhaus.ro – shared with kind permission
Design by: @gracegotte

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Nordic Easter decoration ideas

Finally, the long weekend is here. I was looking forward to it as in my country, Good Friday and the 1st Day of Easter (Monday) are public holidays. Yeah! I adore Christmas, but I prefer Easter over Xmas, holidays are nice, but somehow we’ve lost the essence (including me) of the beautiful December holiday by chasing gifts for the family and friends. Everything became so commercial. Easter is much simpler, eggs, bunnies, lamb roast, and that’s about it 🙂

Regardless of the holiday type, it’s important to get your home into the spirit of the holidays. Yes, I am the type who gets the Easter vibes by decorating our home with a lot of bunnies and eggs. To get you inspired, I collected a few Nordic decoration ideas, mostly simple DIY things, so you can create these if you get into the bunny mood. Let’s take a closer look.

#1 Easter Paper eggs

These paper eggs are simple and stylish almost everywhere in the house. You can find a tutorial on how to do this here or buy them from H&M Home 😉

#2 Egg candles

I love these candles for their minimalistic shape. There are many colors on the market, but I prefer pastel colors or white. If you live in Romania, you can buy these from here or from DM (physical shops, not online).

#3 Golden eggs and hand-made candles

This is a bit tricky, but not impossible to do it. It’s hard to find in my region this type of ultra-white egg, not sure why. But if you manage to find some, paint these in golden color and place them in a glass jar to let the color shine. The scented soy candles with natural Baltic amber stones can be found on Etsy.

#4 Mix and match different eggs

Buy all kinds of eggs, different colors, and sizes, and place them in a glass jar to boost the effect. You can paint them or let in their natural colors, either way, they will look gorgeous on the Easter festive table.

#5 Splodge patterns with black ink

This seems a bold idea, but I like it a lot. The same story, buy ultra-white eggs and use black ink to paint them. Try using a brush to get those stains effect.

#6 Wall or door wreath

This will require more creativity, but it’s not a complicated thing to do it. Buy wooden beads, black paper for the bunny, 2 wooden clothespins, and some greenery. You can hang it on your door or in the house almost anywhere, for sure it will look super nice.

#7 Black&white patterns with marker

This is such a simple idea, just take a black marker (preferable a water-resistant or permanent one) and some white eggs, and do some minimalistic patterns, like dots, lines, or points. When all these eggs get together, they will look so funny and minimalistic.

#8 Spring flowers in a glass pot

Last but not least, this is one of my decorations from last year 🙂 I got it as a present, and I was very pleased with it. Take a closer look to see that in the pot there is moss and the spring flowers are planted in this. It is a nice, natural way of bringing Spring into your home. You need 3 things: glass pot, moss, and flower bulbs. I love it for its transparency.

That’s it from me for this week. Feel free to come back next week when I’ll share another hygge Nordic interior.

For those who are celebrating Easter, I wish you Happy Easter Holidays!

 

Photo credits: #1. thegentlejournal.com, #2. nordichouse.co.uk, #3. Etsy.com, #4. ladydecluttered.com, #5. archzine.net, #6. lavendelblog.de, #7. blog.drummondhouseplans.com, #8. focalpoint.ro IG

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Irina Neacșu, my favorite Romanian designer ever

It’s been some time since I posted a local treasure, although my region is full of talented people who end up creating handcrafted art. I’m not very much into Romanian interior design (I have my reasons, folks 😉 ), so I could not tell the same about that. However, there is one Romanian designer, Irina Neacșu, to whom I would hand over my home to create an interior design proposal without any hesitation (not that it would need a redesign).

Irina Neacșu is a designer and botanical artist, a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, and founder of the Romanian Society of Botanical Artists. She drew my attention many moons ago with her botanical textiles, pillows, and upholsteries. In the latest years, she focused more on botanical art and painting. Since I’m totally in love with botanical art, I continued following her and admiring her works on her online Shop. Back in 2016, she moved from Bucharest to Brașov, she opened her own Irina Neacșu Studio and founded an art school, Cembra School of Botanical Art and Design, where she organizes courses and workshops in painting, drawing, textile art or design.

What I love about her work is that she managed to come up with a large palette of ideas, having wall arts, graphics, herbal teas, greeting cards, and even plantable paper (wow!) and wellness products. I gathered a few favorite items below, enjoy!

 

Ilex, watercolor on paper, 900 RON. Available here.

Wallnut still life, watercolor on vellum. Not available at the moment, but follow up here.

Primerose, watercolor on paper, 2.151 RON. Available here.

Pine and chamomile bath salt, 50 RON. Available here.

Lost Mountain, raw plant mix for herbal tea, 45 RON. Available here.

Pine&bergamote gift box. Not available at the moment, but follow up here.

Plantable paper with various seeds, 60 RON. Available here.

Greeting card printed on recycled paper, 14 RON. Available here.

Pine wrapping paper, 12 RON. Available here.

 

Photo credits: cover photo by @deersphotos from Irina’s IG feed; all product photos from irinaneacsu.com

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An industrial apartment with a sense of history

Ahoy, my friends! It’s a new week with another eye-catching interior. This is an 80 sqm apartment built in 1878 and renovated a few times since then, but with the maximum sense of history. The owners kept all the historical decoration elements giving a magical feeling to the interior. Believe it or not, this house served as a brewery, bakery, mechanical workshop, and dairy over the centuries. For many years, this place also served as a warehouse. The traces of the various activities still exist today in the form of iron and wooden beams, industrial windows, fastening devices, etc. The apartment has an open plan kitchen, living room and dining area, a bedroom, and a small home office.

Take the tour as I shared below a few useful links as references.

The lighting above the dining table is by Tom Dixon. I love the big windows and the rolling door (see below a closer photo of this) to the small home office. The chairs are the ever-green classic CH24 Wishbone chairs by Wegner. With this dining area design, you cannot go wrong for sure 🙂

The kitchen was renovated in 2019 and the cabinetry was done by the Swedish company, Ballingslöv. Check out their website, they are designing some marvelous kitchens. Take a look at the floor of this kitchen, it’s a real patinated beauty.

The living room’s sitting area is the absolute focal point of the open plan. The brick wall and the Butterfly chair (see a similar one in this interior) give a rusty feeling of the place. Check out the historical decorations on the left-hand side hung on the wooden beam.

The rolling door is a guaranteed design element in an industrial interior design. It’s also super practical as you don’t need extra space to open it. I suggested a similar door in one of my design projects shared in this article. The home office is a cozy place of this home, the vintage desk is beyond beautiful.

I love these candlesticks. The Devil is in the details. Small decoration elements make the whole “trick” in this apartment.

The bedroom is small, but it’s very functional. It has a decent size of the bed, wardrobe, some arts on the wall, and a few beams to keep the red line of the whole place. Every corner of this interior kept at least one wooden beam from the past.
The apartment is in Linnéstaden, Sweden and if it captured your attention, check it out on the Alvhem site as it’s for sale and there are some heavy biddings on it, you might want to hurry up 😉

 

Photo credits: @Alvhem
Styling: @heymansciarrati

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