A Lovely Swedish Apartment Inspired by Imperfection

I've noticed there are two camps when it comes to rattan  - those who lived with it in the 70's seem to be less keen and those who are discovering it for the first time love it - is this fair?! Having said that, in my childhood home we had a vast peacock chair - and it evokes great memories (so much so that I have had a similar one in my own home for years!). It's also meant that I was pretty quick to jump on rattan's big comeback.  And my guess is that even if you fall into the aforementioned first camp, you can't help but fall in love with the beautiful home of Swedish photographer Anna Malmberg, her fiancé Joncha and their six year old son Sonny Lou. Located in Stockholm, there's a common theme throughout Anna's home and work: her love for imperfection.  She embraces this with items made from natural materials that age gracefully with time including rattan chairs, weaved baskets, wooden chests, and handwoven fabric - many of which have been picked up on her travels. This is also demonstrated in her book 'Feelings of Imperfection'.

Anna is passionate about interiors, travel and music - and all three come together in her home which is documented on her inspiring blog, hosted with the Northern Sisters Collective (even you haven't discovered this yet hop over immediately!). 

Bedding from Midnatt, photography by Anna, source a similar waste paper basket here*.

This storage unit is so pretty - and practical too! I love the use of different baskets for smaller items like scarves, etc. It would look lovely in a hallway!

Anna recently re-designed Sonny Lou's room. Like the rest of the home it's dominated by natural items (Joncha made the bed) which are so pretty against the pale blue wall (try Farrow & Ball's Light Blue). The little house cushions are from Camomile London (also seen in Olivia's bedroom) and the bedding is from Midnatt (loving the pink and brown combination, how about you?!).

Sonny Lou's cute ensemble is from Tiny Cottons (the top) and Oeuf (the dungarees). There's currently a selection of vintage mini peacock rattan chairs like the one seen in the window available here*.

Anna's creativity runs in the family - the sculptures below were made by her Mother and sister, and her Father is also an artist.

Isn't this the prettiest of homes?

I'm re-doing my seven year-old daughter's bedroom next month and have pinned just about every picture from Sonny Lou's bedroom!

Is there anything you'll be pinning?!

You can keep up to date with Anna's latest work here and check out her blog and instagram for more inspiration! 

As mentioned on Thursday, I'm blogging monday, wednesday and friday this week due to the school holidays

Today we're heading to England for a four day adventure with Scarlett in Cornwall. We're total first timers in a VW camper van so if you've got any tips on life aboard we'd love to hear them! You're so welcome to follow our journey on Instagram Stories!

See you Wednesday!

Niki

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Giving My Sister's Guest Room the Scandi Treatment

Paid partnership with Decology (all words are my own):
 

Do you find some rooms just seem to fall into place and you can puzzle over others for years and no matter what you do, it just doesn't feel right? I can be so indecisive that in the same time I've been obsessing over small details of my hallway, my sister Cas has managed to dig out an entire basement (obviously not with her own bare hands!) beneath her South West London townhouse and kit it out down to the door knobs. I'm in awe! But she has come unstuck with one space: the guest room. Admittedly, it's a tricky one. It's situated at the back of the basement and only gets a very small amount of natural light (down a light shaft). I promised to help create a warm and inviting room (considering I'm often the guest in question it was in my best interest!). Plus I'd been waiting for an opportunity to test out Decology - a new online interior design service.



Decology offers two different online interior design services. 'Studio light' is free and provides you with 100+ designer creations organised by style or room. You can visualise them by adding them to a standard 3D model of your space, edit away and chat with a Decology designer if required - and then shop the look!

'Studio Plus' is the whole shebang and comes at a fee. It allows you to upload info about your room  along with pictures showing the look you love and a floor plan (it doesn't matter how rough - it can even be sketched on the back of a napkin) - as  long as there's no ketchup in the way, the professional interior designers can use it to create an actual 3D version of your room as well as a room scheme for you to play around with to your heart's content.  Once you're happy with the space, you'll receive a rendering of the design and get access to the personal shopping concierge.

I decided to give Studio Plus a whirl:

The brief
 
Cas was looking for a Scandi style (can you tell we're sisters?!), light, de-cluttered room with a couple of style statement pieces thrown in (and knowing her husband, the space should be highly practical too!) - I kept this in mind during the Studio Plus survey.




I also uploaded a few pictures which Cas snapped with her iPhone. As you can see, the room is a blank canvas, begging for a little TLC!

 

2. Room Schemes
Once the designers had read through my brief, they put together two room schemes for us to choose from.

A Scandinavian style guest room with a chest-of-drawers found on Decology here.


A Scandinavian style guest room with a wardrobe found on Decology here
 

I was super happy with both (and so was Cas!) - they're pretty nice aren't they?

3. Playing around in the 3D studio
The good news is both schemes were placed in the 3D studio (an exact replica of the guest room) so I could play around with everything and see what looked best. Funnily enough I preferred scheme number one on paper but when I started to play around in the 3D tool I preferred the second scheme - it felt cleaner and more practical (Cassie's man would be pleased - perfect!).



The tool allowed me to rotate the room, zoom in and out and move items around as well as swap them in and out.
 

I could also play around with the colours - going from a lighter look to darker tones.

In the end I opted for one dark grey accent wall behind the bed since I like the contrast, but am aware of the lack of natural light in the room. 

Final Room Design

What do you think? Do you like it?

I showed them to my sister earlier today and she's super happy - yay!

All that's left to do is shop the final design directly through the Decology studio* (so handy!).
 

I've got a feeling I'm going to be a pretty happy guest the next time I visit Cas!

If you're also stuck on a room, I can definitely recommend seeking a little help from Decology! If you'd like to use my schemes as a starting point you can find them here and here. Your space will be ready in no time! 

Niki

Note: I found the Decology site worked best using Google Chrome or the latest Firefox browsers. 

*Shopping service available to UK residents only. 

This post is brought to you in collaboration with Decology, however all words are my own and I only ever work with brands I love and think you will too. Thank you for supporting the businesses that make My Scandinavian Home possible.

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