An artist's home in a former factory

Iiiiit's Friday - yaaaay! It's been a very relaxed-bohomian week here on My Scandinavian Home with so many exciting homes full of personality - I hope you've felt inspired? To round up the feel of the week I thought we'd head to Melbourne, Australia and the home of artist Saskia Folk in a converted factory. Think industrial with a relaxed vibe and the odd splash of colour. The perfect home to complete the week!

Photographer: Derek Swalwell shared with kind permission. Stylist: Heather Nette King , found via House of C with thanks.

How I'd love to have a home in a converted factory like this - high ceilings, exposed bricks painted white, graciously worn wood floor, industrial pendant lights...that freestanding bath?!

Get the look: similar vintage industrial-style pendant lights here,  Source beautiful Boucherouite rugs here.

Also love these factory conversion homes here, here and here.

If you feel like dropping it all and moving to the Swedish countryside - this stunning mansion has just come on the market - oh the things you could do?! Or perhaps go one step further like this young Norwegian guy who quit his job to go hiking across Norway with his husky - beautifully captured here on Instagram.

Back tomorrow with a very exciting give-away set to brighten up your weekend (there's a clue in there...).  Oooo, what could it be?!

Hope you have a wonderful Friday! See you tomorrow...

PS I've had a few questions about the beautiful colours in yesterday's home and have since updated the post with some paint colours which are a good match.

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Cosy Danish Outdoor Lights - Handmade Using Recycled Glass!

Partnership*

Determined to make this autumn and winter as cosy as possible, I've added some new lights to our little backyard. After all, once the sun sets, it becomes very dark, very early, very quickly, and there's nothing like the warm glow of lights to lift your spirits! These beautiful ReUse light chains are from Pernille Bülow - a small atelier on the Danish island of Bornholm.  Regular readers will know that Pernille Bülow is a big favourite of mine and I have SO many beautiful handmade pieces from this atelier around my home (including SKY lamps and Odin tableware).  But there's something EXTRA special about these outdoor ReUse light chains, and the clue is in the name. Read on to discover more! 

True to Pernille Bulow style, each of the 9 pendants are mouth blown and handmade in the workshop in Svaneke, Bornholm (if you're ever on the island, you must pay a visit - I love the shop!). This means that each glass light is ever so slightly unique - one of the wonderful hallmarks of handmade pieces. 

I used two sets in our little back yard to create a little extra glow (the chains are three metres long and attachable, so you can easily string together as many sets of lights as you wish which is really handy).

Best of all? The ReUse collection is made of waste from Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company that has large amounts of excess borosilicate glass from their diabetes drug production. Rather than going to waste, Pernille Bülow remelts and moulds the glass into beautiful objects, including these ReUse light chains and a pendant lamp! 

The light chain also come with 9 2 W energy optimised LED bulbs which are CE marked. 

In order to really put them to the test, I invited a few friends over from the neighbourhood for an autumn evening alfresco - (any excuse!).  

It was a bit of a 'knytkalas' - where everyone (including my dear friend Ullis - above - and interior designer Jessica Ward - below) brought whatever they had in their fridge and wine cabinet! 

We had such a mysig (cosy) evening under the warm glow of the lights - even if coats were a must! Brrrr!

Roll on more autumn evenings al fresco! And even when it's time to move indoors, we'll still enjoy the twinkle through the window! 

If you'd love these lights for your outdoor space, the ReUse light chain is available to pre-order here  - and will be available from mid-November. There's a list of countries Pernille Bülow ships to here. 

I'm curious - can you still sit outside in the evenings in your country? 

Wishing you a great day! 

Niki

*This post is a paid partnership with Pernille Bülow. All words and images are my own and I only ever work with brands I love and think you will too! Thank you for supporting the small Nordic businesses that make My Scandinavian Home possible.  

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Bright ideas: Lighting up our Cabin and a Friend's Bathroom

Paid partnership with Hudson valley Lighting Group, all words and pictures are my own

There's nothing like the autumn and winter darkness to make you realise you don't have enough lighting at home (yelp!). Put simply, you need at least 5 different types of lights in a standard size room (a mix of ambience, overhead and task lighting). Outdoor lighting is also important to extend the alfresco season, brighten up an entrance and create a welcoming vibe! Last week, Per and I headed to the cabin to install two lights in the fading autumn light. 

The first one we installed was the District pendant by Troy Lighting which is made from hand blown glass with soft black detail. The cabin has a 4-metre ceiling height, so we borrowed a ladder. Here's me checking the length (for someone who has a slight fear of heights, this was a brave moment!). The light comes with a black ceiling canopy which looks super smart once in place.  

As with all handmade pieces, the handblown glass has subtle imperfections which give it a lovely vintage feel. It comes in two different sizes (this is the smaller one measuring 40 cm high x 20.32 cm wide), and three different glass finishes: clear, topaz and smoke. Since it's a fairly small room, I chose the clear glass for a 'barely there' feel. 

I love the closed concave bottom - it's not unlike a fine bottle of wine! But more than that, it catches and reflects the light in a lovely way. 

Outdoor lighting 

Meanwhile, outside it can be pitch black (save for the moon and stars) at this time of year at the cabin. 

I've learned good garden lighting is key for three reasons: it means you can still be outside and enjoy mild evenings after the sun goes down, it creates a welcoming feel when you arrive home and finally, there's something unsettling about looking out into a black hole of darkness through the window, and good garden lighting can do wonders to lighten up the outside world - highlighting your deck, a tree or other parts of the garden, helping you to feel less 'closed-in'. 

Note: try to steer clear of lights that emit light directly upwards as this can disorientate migrating birds.  

For us, the first step was to install a light in the decked area so we can sit outside on autumn evenings (when the weather allows for it of course!). The Atwater Wall Sconce by Troy Lighting caught our eye as we liked the vintage brass finish and the warm glow. 

Specifically designed for outdoor use, it's available in three different sizes. This one is 45.72 cm high x 16.51 cm wide. 

I particularly like the finish - it's a tone I've used throughout the cabin. I also really appreciate the golden glow, it creates a really welcoming, cosy vibe! 

It's so much cosier to sit out here in Autumn now. Maybe we'll invest in a fire pit next, what do you think? 

Lighting up my friend's bathroom

And finally, it would be mean spirited of me to keep all these wonderful lights to myself. My friend Ullis (who I've known since I was five and lives a few doors down) has recently completed her bathroom renovation and it's amazing! There was just one piece missing - mood lighting! 

Ullis already has spotlights in the ceiling, so the overhead lighting was covered, what was needed was a warm mood light. Which is where this beauty came into the picture!

Made from solid cast brass, the Diggs wall sconce by Hudson Valley Lighting Group is small but fairly weighty (you do need a good, solid wall for this one). It looks great all over the home, but I also love that it can be installed in the bathroom. 

It has a hooded design with a handcrafted look and feel which looks equally pretty switched off or on.  

It gives off such a lovely warm glow, don't you think? I love it when a plan comes together! 

I'm considering installing this in our stairwell too (a dark area of our home that's in need of more light!). 

I hope you like these lamps as much as we do. Do you have a favourite? 

You can see all the lights have selected from Hudson Valley Lighting Group in the past here, here and here. 

This weekend is perfect timing to do a light edit in your home and ensure you have enough each room. Is there somewhere in your home you need to work on? 

Have a great weekend friends, vi ses på måndag! 

Niki

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6 Subtle Festive Ideas to Steal from Alexandra's Swedish Home

Why, hello there! The big chill in Sweden continues and the Christmas lights look so pretty against the snow - even if it does make for treacherous cycling conditions (yes, Swedes cycle in the snow - with varying results I might add!).  

The minus temperatures also mean we only really go out if we have to - and homes are being transformed into cosy sanctuaries. This also means Christmas decorations come out a little earlier than they might do in other countries. However, I'm not talking the full monty - instead, I've noticed Swedes start out with subtle festive touches with a natural wintery theme and then continue to layer their homes throughout December (something I touch on in my new book Njuta*!). 

In Alexandra Löfgren's family home in Mölndal, south of Gothenburg is full of lovely, subtle touches and nice ideas. I especially love her son Matteo's room with it's brown, rust and blue colour scheme and a mini Christmas tree all of his own! So magical! Here's a glimpse of the rooms and six ideas to steal. 

1. combine amaryllis with other foliage from the garden such as branches with berries and eucalptus for a beautiful bouquet. 

2. A simple touch of pine in a vase draws the winter season inside without going all out 'Christmas'. 

3. Swap out your usual pendant light for a star pendant such as this one. It can easily be stored the rest of the year!

4. A mini undecorated tree in a pot can be decorated as time goes on - and kept until the following year! 

5. Add a mini Christmas tree in unexpected places - such as in the hallway or in a children's bedroom to sprinkle a little magic all over the home! 

6. Wreaths can be placed anywhere in the home, but I especially love seeing them over the bed, as seen here! 

I hope Alexandra's home has given you some cosy ideas! 

If you're looking for more Christmas decorating inspiration this weekend check out these home tours:

15 small festive touches to steal from a Swedish country home

A Copenhagen home full of festive cheer

A colourful vintage-inspired Christmas themed home in Denmark

Inspiring Christmas touches in a Swedish family home

11 Christmas decorating ideas in Mari's lovely Swedish home

And also, scour the Christmas decoration archive - for a ton of beautiful Scandi ideas to be found! 

If you'd like a virtual tour this weekend, Per and I will be heading to a Christmas market on the island of Bornholm, which has a focus on quality goods and creating a magical atmosphere - and I'll be covering it in my instagram stories! 

Have a cosy weekend! 

Niki

Photography: Alexandra Löfgren, shared with kind permission.

*promotion of my own work. 

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The clean, calm Swedish home

Well hello there! I hope you had a great long weekend? (if it was one where were you were of course, otherwise short is good too....!) - we're busy tidying up here from a hectic, yet really fun couple of days with family and friends who were over to help me celebrate the release of my book (I've learned it's so important to celebrate little things in life, otherwise it's easy to just keep going without stopping to enjoy the moment, don't you think?). Since I'm still dusting down the cobwebs this morning (mostly from my own head!!) - I thought it would be apt to share this beautiful Swedish home. The designer has kept to a combination of white, cream and black throughout for an incredibly clean, calm home - and the perfect place to relax and drink in the natural daylight. Oh how I'd love to be padding about here today, how about you? There's even a cup of tea waiting for u

Credits: photography Jonas Berg, for sale via Stadshem. 

Oj oj oj - as they say in Sweden! What a lovely home!

Note to self - keep it simple.

I love the linen bedding in particular - (this duvet cover and pillow case are similar - and I love this coverlet too!).

How about you?

Get the look: sitting room - Karlstad sofa from ikea, Karin chair - DUX, PJ wall light, Ant chair, kitchen / dining area: Gubi semi pendant light, 'The People's Chair' . Hall - black sheepskin throw. Bedroom - reading lights.

If you're loving this white look, you'll definitely want to settle in for the morning and explore this archive....

Oh and it's an exciting week here on MSH. Look out for the give-away in a few days time in collaboration with Danish brand Nordal. I can't reveal the prize yet - but it'll be one of the items seen in this corner of my home.... oh the suspense!

Have a great day!

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