A Swedish interior for a fresh start

Let’s start with something fresh, like a bright Swedish apartment. I don’t do new year’s resolutions, I’m too old for that shit, but I try to find something that motivates me and inspires me. Blogging relaxes me, even if this is a few hours of work every week. It’s good for my soul, so continuing this it’s the best new year’s resolution I can have.

This 3 rooms apartment is a perfect trigger to continue loving Nordic interiors and to get inspired on how to combine old with new (look at those ceilings). The large windows let the natural light flow through the whole apartment, and removing the wall between the kitchen and living room made everything even lighter. This way it was possible to create the dining area between the kitchen and living room, assuring a great socializing spot. I love the vintage floor lamp and the gallery wall around the tv, the subtle bohemian touches like the rattans armchair and ceramic decorations add an extra style to the whole room.

The kitchen is a 100% Scandinavian kitchen. The cabinets, the handles, the light grey color, the built-in electronics, the glass lightings, and the oak floor are the bulletproof elements of this style.

This small room with a balcony turned out to be a combination of home office and leisure. The day bed with the powder pink bedding and the wall art hanging above it are a nice colorful touch in this room. I love the vintage desk and the wall art with cranes. The rug adds an extra texture to the room.

Simplicity always wins. I admire the Scandinavians for finding the simple white tiles so delightful. It’s the simplest way of having a clean design in your bathroom. Good old days when this tile was the trendiest one 🙂

And there is no Swedish apartment without a balcony; connection to outside/nature is mandatory for Swedish people. They learned to love and take in everything that Mother Nature tries to give us.
This lovely 73 sqm apartment is in Linnéstaden, Göthenburg, it has 2 bedrooms and an open living room combined with the kitchen, 2 balconies, and storage space in the attic of the building. It was renovated in 2018 when the beautiful oak parquet was restored too. It has a fresh, clean Scandinavian design, so do not hesitate to get inspired by this interior.

Happy New Year dear reader!

 

Photo credits: shared with the kind permission of Entrance

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Beautiful Christmas trees to admire on Instagram

Christmas is one of the most inspirational holidays of all time. Suddenly or step by step, depending on if you are an early decorator or not, your house turns into a magical place. Candles, wreaths, and lights show up here and there, indicating that Xmas is around the corner. Then the cherry on the top is when the tree is up and shining in its festivity. I think the tree takes it all, so I did a bit of research on the IG to find out how it turned out for the bloggers and Instagrammers I follow.

Like with everything, the tree decoration is very much depending on your taste. In my humble opinion, everything fits well as long as colors, shapes, and styles are harmonized. It’s perfect even if you don’t do any decorations, the Christmas tree can be beyond beautiful even in its naturality, like this one, I love it.

#1 Yes, I do think that investing in a beautiful tree is worth every penny. Look at this miracle by @majasmissionshus with its subtle decorations. This is the tree that inspired me to write this blog post on the Christmas trees 🙂

#2 A tree with elegance and nude minimalism, as the whole home of @villahaven254, I love every corner of her interior, it’s is the pure definition of tasteful minimalism

#3 I follow Peter’s and Karsten’s IG feed for some time now. Their cleaned style is all over the place. This year’s tree is superb, not to mention the lovely sunny living room.

#4 This is the cutest one with its wabi-sabi imperfection, @anangelinmyhome did a great job with only a few simple candles. If you are in the mood for further inspiration, check Mari’s feed, her photographic talent combined with the love for interiors is the perfect source.

#5 I love this tree with the white, paper decorations and very subtle lights on. I’m following @karlas_view a long time ago, and I love her attic home with its pure Scandinavian minimalistic style.

#6 This tree by @t.susanna inspires me for the simple fact that it’s placed in the kitchen. We tend to put our tree in the living room, but this is a fabulous idea to turn your kitchen into a festive place. The white decoration is perfect, and it’s impossible not observing the striped tablecloth. I absolutely love it!

#7 I recently discovered @vicisophie‘s IG profile, and I instantly gave a “follow” to her interior. I love the soft color combination of green, white and brown, it has such refined vibe.

#8 Ah, one of my favorites Instagrammers. @annkristinlhejl surely knows how to turn small or empty places into magical interiors. I would move into her previous or current house instantly. I love the red touches on her tree, she definitely can’t deny her Nordic origins.

#9 Helen’s interior is a recent discovery of mine, oh boy, oh boy, what a beautiful minimalistic home. I’m totally into this black & white decoration on the tree, it surely looks very fresh and trendy. Do not hesitate to go for it, Christmas decorations are not necessarily only about red.

#10 Our tree 🙂 It wouldn’t be fair not showing ours in this tour of Christmas trees, right? We usually go with Scandinavian colors, using a lot of matte white and dark green, boosting up the whole decoration with a touch of orange. The majority of the decorations were sent by my sister living in Germany, the rest is hand-made by my mother.

If you are here today, reading this article, I am thankful to you for spending time on my tiny little blog. I hope this collage of beautiful trees inspires you to get into the winter holidays mood.

Have a very Merry Christmas my dear reader!

 

Photo source: 1. majasmissionshus, 2. villahaven254, 3. house_of_peter_and_karsten, 4. anangelinmyhome, 5. karlas_view, 6. t.susanna, 7. vicisophie, 8. annkristinlhejl, 9. helen_wizemann, 10. focalpoint.ro

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Xmas inspiration by H&M Home

Let’s turn the Winter holiday mood ON on the Focal Point blog, as the internet is full of “jingle bells” for weeks now, and all I did so far was to give you some cleaning tips before the holidays :)) Is there any other way to be even more boring? Don’t think so.

This year’s winter holiday collection from the H&M Home is the ultimate winner, in my opinion. I’m more than happy to see a lovely, nude, black and white collection from H&M, using mostly earthy tones in their 2021 Christmas collection. It feels so close to my style and to the simplicity I like. I’m not a fan of overcrowded decorations, not even during Christmas, however, I love some red touches here and there, and at H&M I can even find these red spots as well. I could not decide which one is my favorite, the cushions, the pillows, the candles? I guess there are no “enough candles” in a home, regardless of the season, one of the most certain bulletproofs that give a hygge feeling to a home. The vases with their nude colors and shapes are simply beautiful; the tree decorations in brown and green are the perfect match to a Scandinavian interior.

And of course, there is no Christmas without a touch of red. Get inspired by the wonderful table setting and candles from H&M.

What a nice feast to my eyes, finding everything in place, simplicity, minimalism, coziness, hygge, and subtle festive touches with Nordic vibes. Although we don’t have an H&M Home shop in my town, everything is accessible via their website, and they ship across the whole country. Do not hesitate to check their Christmas Shop. It’s still time to get your favorite piece for the Winter holidays.

 

Photo credits: H&M Home IG feed

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A Norwegian fairytale-like home

What I love the most about my blog, it’s that with time passing, it becomes a platform where you can “travel” to lovely places and interiors. If you read my blog, so far we’ve been to Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Germany, Romania, USA, France, Australia and now we land in Norway, isn’t this nice? I’m more than grateful to all those people who let me into their homes.

Elisabeth’s home is the perfect match to continue the Advent. When I discovered her IG feed, it fascinated me right away, being a fairytale-like house without any exaggeration. You know that I love sneak peaking in people’s homes, rather than sharing newly built houses for sale where nobody lived before.

Many things from this home remind me of my childhood and my grandparents. What is super fantastic is that Elisabeth is a firm believer in sustainability, everything (furniture, ceramics, textiles, decorations, etc.) in this house is pre-owned/second hand, bought as used, and redesigned by repainting, remodeling, or sewing. This principle requires huge talent to turn randomly purchased items into a good fit for your home’s style. If something is new, it has been given as a gift, such as the tea/coffee pot from @jettestuen.no that you can see in a couple of pictures. I don’t think that the term “hygge” covers 100% the lovely feeling that this home has, so enjoy the tour, my friend 🙂

The kitchen and the living room are full of beautiful laces and textiles, as Elisabeth thinks that textiles are softening a room. Candles, the cracking stove, and hot tea are the ultimate extras to this warm interior.

The gallery wall on the staircase is very creative due to the combination of things (heh, who would have thought that a pair of shoes can be so artistic) besides the paintings or photos. The wall arts with insects are by @emmasjodindesign.

I’m not fully ready yet to get into the Christmas mood on the blog, but feel free to check Elisabeth’s IG feed to see how nicely she dressed up her home into the winter holidays’ atmosphere. I’ve mostly chosen pictures from her home that show the house in a non-holiday mood, but this interior is already full of winter magic for sure. Ah, and by the way, I love every season in her home, summer, autumn, Easter, you name it.

 

Photo credits: @skogmesterboligen – shared with friendly permission

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Before you start decorating your house for the holidays

Advent just started and the internet is full of wreaths, candles, and Christmas decorations. Indeed, this is one of the most pleasant periods of the year, however, I don’t see too much content about how we are preparing in reality for this festive period. Maybe I’m old fashion or totally boring, but in my head before decorating you should start cleaning your house first 😉

A few weeks ago I’ve discovered Hamimommy’s vlog, an incredible YT channel about slow living, sustainability, and daily routines. I’ve shared in the past a similar vlog, Benita Larsson‘s minimalistic YT channel, that has the same effect on me as this one. I could watch Hamimommy cleaning her house all day long, it super relaxes me. Plus I love her home, her warm and almost scandi style, her housewife lifestyle turned into a creative vlog with 1.5 million followers on YouTube.

Important: please turn on subtitles (CC) on YouTube in order to understand the Korean text.

What is worth knowing about her is that she’s a mother of a 4 years old sweet little girl, living with her husband in a house outside of Seoul, the Korean capital. She likes to cook being very creative also in the kitchen, not only with her video content, she’s in her mid 30′ and always open to learning new stuff. While doing this nice YT channel, she’s taking a drawing class to improve her skill set.

Lately, I start my Saturday mornings by watching one of her videos; this is a great combination with the weekend’s first latte macchiato 😉

 

Video credits: Hamimommy YT channel
Cover photo credits: @hami.mommy IG

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The Charming cottage in the Carpathian Mountains

It’s been a while since my last blog post about a Local Treasure from Romania. When I’m looking for inspiration, I pay great attention to avoid kitsch, I rather go back to basics instead of presenting something that hardly fits into my “interior principles”. When I found this “Charming cottage in the Carpathian Mountains” (literally this is its name, how lovely, isn’t it?), I knew that this should be my next local treasure, especially that it’s located in a region from where I’ve never posted any interior, more precisely in Dâmbovița county, in Râu Alb de Sus, a small border village between Transylvania and Muntenia.

The owners, Cristina, and his French husband are living in Bucharest with their children keeping this as their own vacation retreat place. The country cottage consists of 3 small houses on a 15,000 sqm land, all 3 being separated with individual bathrooms, having a common, fully equipped kitchen and a hygge living room. In total there are 4 bedrooms, and the cottage can be rented on Airbnb.

The most beautiful part of this place is that once purchased, the owners made a huge effort to recondition the old wooden elements, windows, doors, beams, and porch. They bought pieces from demolished houses and recycled old doors here and there, some of these doors are used as wall decorations instead of paintings.

Originally the living room was the barn where grain was stored in old times. The couches in the living room are from Ikea, the rugs and textiles are all specific to this region. Wooden decorations on the wall are objects from the original house kept by the owners.

The tiles from the stove are hand-painted by a craftsman from Sibiu, who seems to be the last Mohican in creating these types of handcrafted tiles. I also know Teracota Mediaș, a company specialized in handmade terracotta tiles that are beyond being beautiful.

The beds from the bedrooms are the Leirvik models from Ikea available also in Romania. The walls are whitewashed and painted with ecological paints, keeping the authenticity of their surface.

The kitchen is furnished from Ikea, having a very original dining area, you know, those types that our grandparents had back then. So, if you are looking for some nostalgia, this is the place you need to be.

The main bathroom is fully functional, turned into a bathroom from the original kitchen, that is why the stove is there. By the way, this can be very handy during cold winters, listening to the fire cracking while you take a shower might be priceless.

The guests have a free pass to the garden full of seasonable vegetables and fruits, the breakfast is included in the price, and it consists of local goodies like cheese, bacon, bread, fresh milk, etc. Isn’t this a lovely “back to basics” place? The owners have my deepest respect for their great effort in keeping the place’s authenticity. Thank you, Cristina for letting us into your lovely country cottage 🙂

 

Photo credits: @Charming cottage in the Carpathian Mountains – shared with kind permission

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