A lovely Scandi home in the countryside

After a hectic week, it’s always super relaxing for me to write an article about an interior. I was happy when Viktoria confirmed that I may share her photos on my blog. It means another week with another lovely Nordic nest. The reason for opting for her home was the pieces that captured my attention. Of course, the refurnished treasures from the past. Her kitchen is a 100% Scandinavian kitchen with neutral cabinets, vintage details, and Nordic wallpaper.

This lovely home is in a village outside of Umeå, a relatively small city in Easter Sweden, known for its museums. Viktoria is a photographer, a digital content creator, and a collaborator (having her dedicated blog section) on the Lovelylife.se site. She is living in this house with her husband and their two children, Wilhelm and Julie. Her Instagram feed is full of great inspiration for interior design ideas and for life in the countryside. She even has a nice conservatory that worth checking her feed, not to mention the cute small rabbits 

This pantry door is an original piece reconditioned and placed in a great focal point corner in the kitchen. It’s a perfect match with the wallpaper and the wooden walls.

I fell in love with this cabinetry instantly when I saw it. Its patina is irresistible. Vintage pieces add extra hygge feeling to an interior.

This is a Matisse pendant from Globen Lighting, recently purchased by Viktoria. It adds a delicate touch to the dining area next to the CH24 Wishbone chairs, another love of my life 😉 In my head, the concept of a chair starts and ends with this chair. Period.

The famous Pimpernel William Morris wallpaper, present in almost every Scandi home. If you ever want to buy quality wallpaper, do it from the Wallpaperdirect. These guys are great, they have a HUGE collection of wallpapers and although they are locate in the USA, they have a great support team who answers promptly to your questions. They even send samples if needed and they are shipping world wide. We’ve purchased our wallpaper from the bedroom from them, and I was very pleased with their services.

What a lovely interior, a perfect home tour that makes you cuddling up under a blanket with a hot tea and keep your eyes away from this rainy weather. Spring, where are you? I mean really, where? Where is your refreshing sunshine?

 

Photo credits: @viktoriaholmgren– shared with her friendly permission

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La Belle Vue – a perfect place to start the summer

The summer is almost here so the La Belle Vue B&B is the perfect inspiration for the upcoming sunny days. This place is located in French, but the proud owners, Yvonne and Micke are from Sweden (heh, almost everything on this blog is from there). The house was originally built in 1857 by the wealthiest winegrowers, and in the cellar there is still the completely intact wine system with five large wine tanks. Can you imagine that? No wonder why you can book, along with your staying, for a wine making workshop. Beside this, there are plenty other activities, like yoga sessions, running week, bicycle tours that can be combined with your trip.

What I love the most, it’s that Yvonne and her husband tried to keep everything with in its original format and shape. You know that I love interiors that have a little bit of patina and reflect the time passed. They reconditioned carefully those pieces that were already in the house and they also purchased interior pieces from local flea markets, antic shops and old French ladies. Isn’t this fantastic? This way they managed to decorate each room differently. I guess the only common in the rooms is the comfort. Look at those walls and wallpapers. The floor tiles are the original ones, hand-made decades ago, of course reconditioned during the renovation.

Enough of me, I let you enjoy the French country side and the view to Spain from this great location.

In the dining room there is this vintage closet full of locale, hand-made treasures, all done by ladies. Not that I would be a feminist, but I think that promoting artisanal stuff locally produced adds an extra value to the things. I spotted the lamp shades. How about you, did anything captured your curiosity, or the chandelier took all your attention? It is definitely a strong focal point in this room.

They have an outside pool too next to the exterior summer kitchen, so if you are still hesitating to book a stay, I think this view can resolve your dilemma. You can find out more about this gorgeous location on their Instagram feed, a perfect inspiration for your next holiday 😉

Have a lovely weekend my friends!

 

Photo credits: @La Belle Vue – shared with friendly permission

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Compartment No. 3 – when simplicity meets taste

Australia is full of great interiors with great designs. I’m following a few interior design studios for some time now and they always manage to impress me with something that I’ve never seen before. I’m a huge fan of the Never Too Small YouTube channel focused on small, award-winning Australian interiors. I might even get addicted to their videos 🙂

Sophie Bowers’ 50 sqm apartment captured my attention for its calm feeling, clear lines, and simplicity. No wonder why, as she is a fan of Danish design, the color palette used in this interior is proof of that. Danish people are using and combining colors like no one else on this planet. The apartment was built in 1926 and now is the home of Sophie, her husband Josh, and their 2 super duper cute little dogs, Billy and Remy.

The apartment was designed by her own design studio – Strutt Studios – in art deco style. I particularly like the genius solution of storage in the kitchen, especially the pantry. We have a similar one too, a huge one and I’m telling you, my friends, you can store things enough for an army in something like this.

I hope you enjoy the tour as much as I do, Sophie’s voice is simply music to my ears.

 

Credits:
Featured image: Strutt Studios
Website: www.nevertoosmall.com
Produced by: newmac.co

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An eclectic apartment with breath-taking details

Although I’m not brave enough to bring some fancy, eclectic elements into our home, I love peeking inside those homes where owners were bold enough to use 19th century furniture, ballroom chandeliers, colors, or anything else that brings eclectic feeling to the place. This Swedish apartment captured my attention right away, especially for its incredibly beautiful ceilings and stoves in every room of the house, the owners even kept the original doors and windows. This is what I love the most about Nordic people, they see the value of the vintage things, refurbish them and combine them with new ones, this way they end up, in my humble opinion, with the warmest interiors on this planet.

The apartment was built in 1886, it has 3 bedrooms, and a spacious living room combined with a dining area. The kitchen is strategically well structured, with an island in the center, it offers extra storage space. I like how they managed to fit in the washing machine and dryer too.

The ballroom chandelier is a bulletproof element to get an eclectic feeling of the place.

The Devil is in the details…they say, this stove is simply magical, even if it’s not functioning for some reason, I would never ever remove it from my house.

All bedrooms in this apartment are white and pastel color base. This one has a gallery wall above the bed, for similar inspiration check the Desenio site, they have ready-to-be-used collections and they are even offering guidance on how to get a perfect gallery wall. The Formakami JH5 pendant is another great focal point of the room. 

On the drawer I spot a white Carl-Johan lamp by Olsson & Jensen, such a small and cute piece 🙂 It can perfectly fit into the children’s room as well.

And of course, it has a small balcony, all Swedish apartments have an outdoor space, even if it’s a tiny one, but they need to go out somewhere and inhale nature.

If you enjoyed the tour and you are located in Gothenburg by any chance, this 127 sqm apartment is for sale. Do not hesitate to contact the Lundin team for showing you around.

Styling by: @bydecoab
Photo by: @pousard_photography

 

Photo credits: thank you Lundin.se for letting my share these pictures.

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A Swedish apartment with iconic elements

Apartments, where I see hints of historical brands and iconic pieces, always amaze me. When I discovered this apartment, I instantly knew that there are so many classic or vintage elements that I need to write an article about it. This is a 55 sqm apartment in the charming Linnéstaden neighborhood of Gothenburg, with 2 rooms and a small kitchen combined with a dining area. Every room contains at least one iconic furniture, so most certainly, this apartment’s red thread is the collection of the evergreen pieces. The living room has everything a home needs to become original, natural, and stylish. The gallery wall is an instant beauty that can be seen right from the entrance, not to mention the stove that is beyond being beautiful. Imagine sitting here with a glass of wine while the fire crackles. The mirror from the hallway is a vintage piece most certainly purchased on a flea market, I see some patina on it that makes it even more original.

The kitchen is small but cozy enough. I love the shelves next to the window. This is not the first time when I see this genius idea of using a narrow space. I instantly spotted on the top and middle shelves the classic wooden birds designed by the Danish Kristina Vedel in 1959. The dining table is a minimalistic centerpiece combined with the black chairs. The red E60 stools, designed by Alvar Aalto and becomen famous in 1934, are the gem of this small kitchen. If you find these irresistible, you can buy them here or here if you are from my country. These chairs can be used also as side tables next to your bed, so it might worth the investment 😉

The bedroom is relatively small, but this does not mean that a home office, a comfy bed, and a wardrobe are not fitting in. The 3 art pieces gallery wall turns it into a more inviting place.

A classic 7 series Arne Jacobsen chair and a green banker’s desk lamp assures the continuation of the red thread throughout this room.

I love the fact that Nordic people keep their bathrooms as simple as possible. You can rarely see floral tiles or crowded patterns, they prefer to go with basic colors and simplicity.

At the entrance and in the hallway we can see the marvelous wooden flooring that has been nicely preserved in the whole apartment. The carpet on the wall is an instant focal point of the place, I like it when people are bold enough to throw a carpet on the wall and turn it into a decoration.

This apartment is inspiring with its 3.10 meters of ceilings, it lets your creativity finding its way both horizontally and vertically. Don’t forget that original, iconic pieces can turn your home into a special place. The flea markets are full of valuable pieces, and let’s hope when all these pandemic things will take over, we can enjoy again the magic of these markets.

Have a lovely start to the week.

 

Photo credits: shared with the cordial permission of Entrance

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The Wolves’ living room inspiration

A couple of my good friends, let’s call them the Wolves couple, asked me to help them with some inspiration for their living room. Luckily I know them well, so right from the beginning, I knew what kind of style and mood I should recommend for their living room. Usually, interior designers start with getting to know better their customers, their lifestyle, current homes, etc.

I did something similar with the Wolves too, regardless of how well I know them, I needed more information on the functionality of the living room, color palette they would like to use, style, and everything that is currently used in the room and should stay there even with the new design. As a first step, I requested the husband and the wife to send me separately (without consulting with each other) 3 photos that would reflect the feeling of the room. This could have been about anything. It was a fun exercise, and the result came out nicely. The below mood board was created with these pictures, and the color palette became obvious.

After the mood board was ready, it was easier to decide on the furniture, carpet, sofa, coffee table, gallery wall, bookshelf, and everything that had to be included in the room. I created a mood board plan to visualize the recommendations, along with a price list and URLs from where they can purchase the things suggested by me. The coffee table is just an inspiration, the Wolves have an old bench that was a butcher’s table, they found this on the flea market, and we decide to use it as a coffee table. With a little bit of restoration work, this table looks gorgeous with its vintage shine. For the main wall, instead of a regular bookshelf, I suggested a huge wallpaper and nothing else…a real focal point of the room.

They provided me the exact sizes of the room, stairs (there is a stair from the living room to the upper floor) and windows, so I could create a 2D and a 3D plan for a better understanding of the redesign proposal.

I work in Floorplaner, and navigation is possible (as in all 3D rendering software) in the room, so you can feel the proportions and see the actual big picture.

It was important to have a bookshelf, even if this wasn’t on the main wall, where the wallpaper was imagined. I decided to put this on one of the corners of the room which is an open space leading to the kitchen. This way the empty corner is used too, without interfering with the rest of the design plan.

To have a Tv in the room was important too. Don’t hate me for this, but I recommended one of the most beautiful Tvs in the world, the Samsung Frame. It is the perfect camouflage for hiding your Tv. I know, it’s expensive…I know it. This goes perfectly on a gallery wall, but in our case, we will have to find the right combination of the art displayed on the Tv and the wallpaper’s pattern, as the Tv will be placed on the main wall.

As an inspiration for furniture and Tv, I used this Finnish home found on My Scandinavian Home. We also managed to squeeze in a reading nook next to the window where I proposed a bunch of pillows and Roman blinds of Mendola Fabrics from Nobila Casa. No curtains this time.

The Wolve’s house if full of vintage stuff (real vintage pieces from flea market or from their grandparents) and Nordic pieces from Ikea. The general feeling of their home is very hygge and warm, and I did my best to stay in this mood with the living room’s design as well. They are in progress with this, I will come back with the actual results when they are ready with it (hopefully they won’t kill me that I just promised to show around their living room).

I hope you get inspired by this. In case something specific captured your attention, drop me a message and I will provide more information on that.

 

Photo credits: 1., 2., 3. & 4. Created by me/focalpoint.ro, 5. Pinterest, 6. Danila’s @indivisualstyle IG feed, 7. focalpoint.ro

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