Scandi Travel: Our Family Stay in the Beautiful Stockholm Archipelago

Kindly sponsored by Vår Gård Saltsjöbaden

You might recall that Per and I stayed at Vår Gård Saltsjöbaden in the Stockholm archipelago back in February, and we loved our stay so much, we decided to go back with the girls last week! It's such a beautiful part of the world with so much to do. Here are a few snapshots from our four-day trip - I hope it might inspire you to visit this part of Sweden and enjoy day trips to Stockholm, kayaking, bike rides, the serenity of the islands and generally splashing about in the Baltic! 

Vår Gård

Second time round and Vår Gård Saltsjöbaden its starting to feel like a true home from home! The 128-room hotel is centred around a beautiful old manor house, overlooking the Baltic Sea. Located in beautiful Saltsjöbaden, it's an easy 40-minute train ride from Stockholm making it a perfect base to explore the excitement of Sweden's capital city as well as the tranquillity of the archipelago. A perfect balance! 

The rooms are located in u-shaped modern blocks around a central square with an outdoor gym (which the girls loved!). Our family of four stayed in a Junior Suite which had two connecting rooms. The hotel has a design focus (which of course, I love!) and every room is kitted out with beautiful wallpaper, designer lamps, soft linen covers, beautiful coffee table books and board games. 

Day 1 Stockholm

At the start of the summer, the girls had one wish - to visit Gröna Lund - a theme park by the water in central Stockholm. So, we headed into the capital for the day. 

 

I've been to Stockholm many times over the years. It's such a great city with so much to see and do. If you haven't been, leave plenty of time to enjoy the museums, galleries, historical sites and waterside restaurants and bars! This time, we kept it simple and wandered the picturesque cobbled lanes of Gamla Stan (old town) before heading along the waterfront to Gröna Lund.  

Per and I quickly found ourselves screaming our lungs out on Monster, Jetline and Twister - the theme-parks biggest and craziest rollercoasters before somehow being duped into going on the free-fall (did I tell you I'm  afraid of heights?). We all had so much fun, but admittedly I was grateful to be back on safe ground and making our way back to Vår Gård at the end of the day...

...for a refreshing evening dip! 

In the evening we tucked into fresh seafood (you can't visit the archipelagos and not enjoy the catch of the day / prawns / oysters etc) at the in-house restaurant! I also had the most delicious green tomato gazpacho (I have since found a recipe here in case you'd like to try it this summer!). 

Day 2 Cycle ride and SUP

I started each day with a coffee and breakfast overlooking the water. It was a perfect moment of calm before all the adventure! 

We borrowed the hotel e-bikes (they also have pretty classic bikes but since it was a hot day with plenty of hills we decided to go for the speedy variety!) and followed the coastal path around the bay (passing many incredible villas in Solsidan along the way - not to be missed for some 'life goals' dreaming!).  

We made our way to Tattby nature reserve (even spotting a couple of snakes along the way- in Sweden they have adders and grass snakes which are a rare sighting so it's quite incredible to see one, let alone two!) and a picnic and swim at Erstaviksbadet.  

We then peddled back to Vår Gård to enjoy some Stand Up Paddle boarding.   

It's hard to imagine the sea was partly frozen when we visited in February (the sauna offered a wonderful respite from the cold and we even caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights!) - on this trip the Baltic Sea sparkling in the sun and a lovely 20 degrees! 

Even so, Per went out on one of the hotel SUP boards in all his clothes - so confident that he wouldn't fall in. As you can imagine we were all watching from the bank hoping he might just lose his balance (what are families for otherwise?). 

Day 3 Kayaking around the islands 

Action packed holidays are perfect for families with tweens and teenagers (Liv is nearly 14 and Allie is 11) and there was so much to choose from. On day 3 we bought freshly made rolls from the in-house bakery, rented kayaks and paddled off to explore the surrounding islands.

 

We even found our very own island for a picnic and swimming! 

The rest of the day was spent hanging out by the water's edge... some more active than others! 

Spot the different tempo? 

There was ice cream involved too! 

The girls were excited to discover a cupboard full of lawn games, and every evening we rounded off with  'Kubb' - a classic Swedish game allegedly deriving from the Viking times involving wooden pegs you have to knock down. I'm pretty sure every Swedish family has their own rules, in ours, Per insists that you can only win if you throw the final pins between your legs. As you can imagine, it can take a while! 

Do you have a similar game on your country? 

All in all, such a lovely, relaxing few days simply being together as a family - I wish I could do it all over again. 

Could you imagine spending time here? If so, exciting news, I'm offering the chance to win a stay at Vår Gård this August! It's super quick to enter the prize draw over on my instagram (going live in the next few hours) and open to all. 

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Now that I'm back at my desk, I'm looking forward to sharing some beautiful Scandi interior inspiration with you on Wednesday. And then on Friday - I can finally share our new cabin bathroom! I hope you'll like it as much as we do! See you then! 

Niki

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Taking a Short Summer Break!

Friends, the sun is shining and it's finally time for our family to have a little break and go out and enjoy it!

We'll be spending some time at our little cabin and also heading North to the Stockholm archipelagos for a few days. I'll be sharing snippets in my instagram stories in case you're curious about summer in this neck of the woods! 

For lots more Scandi home inspiration while I'm away, why not delve into the archives? I particularly love the summer cottage, rural retreat and country home archives at this time of the year. You might also be looking to pep up your outdoor space (no matter how tiny) or even get in inspiration for adding an outdoor bathroom, kitchen or small pool - I hope you find what you're looking for! 

Wishing you all a wonderful, relaxing week! I'll be back Monday, 25th July for a week. See you then! 

Niki

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10 Idyllic Scandinavian Summer Cottages

There is nowhere I'd rather be in summertime than Scandinavia, it's a magical time which everyone embraces it with every fibre of their being. Being up at the cabin, I love to cycle around the village and take in the atmosphere. There's a certain joy in the air when everyone is leading a simple, yet joyful life with the same rhythm of sleep, swim, eat repeat (with a cool glass of rosé thrown in the evenings!). In honour of this, here is a round-up of some of my favourite Scandinavian summer cottages, I hope they will also have you dreaming of summers in Scandinavian and that you'll visit some day! 

1. A dreamy Danish cottage with an outdoor bathroom

2. Before and after: a rundown cabin becomes a vibrant Danish summer cottage

3. A charming little Swedish Sumer cottage by the sea

4. A beautifully simple light-filled Danish summer cottage

5. A light and airy Danish summer cabin 

6. A magical rural escape by a Norwegian fjord

7. A charming summer house in Finland 

8. A charming open-plan Swedish summer house

9. A fairytale Swedish summer cottage 

10. Glimpses of my very own little cabin - which I'm hoping to share more of soon! 

I hope you enjoyed this tours - and  this post might have inspired you to spend a summer in Scandinavia - it's a beautiful place to be. Just make sure you're prepared for every weather! 

Was there a particular cottage that really resonated with you? I'd love to hear which one and why! 

By the way - the top image is 

Nik

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Christina's Light-Filled Danish Cabin is Available to Rent!

Do you remember Christina Krabbe's beautiful Danish home I featured earlier this year? I have just discovered that Christina and Jonas also own a dreamy summer cottage in Mols Bjerge national park with the forest, beach and a small farm shop on their doorstep. It's also near Ebeltoft, a picturesque old port and market town on the east coast of Jutland.  The cottage measures 142 m2 / 1528 f2 which means there's plenty of space for extended family and friends (although sometimes it's lovely to just to be your own little unit too, don't you think?) and in true Christina style, it's filled with light, subtle colour and secondhand finds. Oh, and did I mention it's available to rent? Let's take the tour! 

Maybe a trip to the Danish East coast is in order? I've never been to Mols Bjerge - it's now on my travel list! 

See more pictures of Christina's summer cottage and city home here. It's available to rent through Landfolk here. 

You can find a load more Scandinavian summer cottages in this archive. 

Thank you SO much for all your lovely comments on the feature about our little cabin kitchen on Friday, it really meant the world! I hope I can share more room tours from our 'smultrönställe' soon! 

Wishing you all a great start to the week! 

Niki

Photography: Christina Krabbe / @glimtvist 

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Our Little Cabin Kitchen (with an IKEA hack!)

Guess what? Our little cabin kitchen (or should I say kitchenette) is finally finished! The cabinets have been in for a while, but the devil is in the detail, and all the hooks and doorknobs are now in place too! I'm looking forward to sharing all the details with you today!  

(See all the design plans for our 30 m2 / 322 f2 cabin on the Swedish West coast here). 

Inspiration

I love everything about the kitchen above by Nordiska Kök -  the grey-beige tone, clean look, the stone and the open wood shelves. I was also keen to bring in some dark grey stone to match the dramatic rocky shoreline in this part of Sweden. 

Floorplan

The designated kitchen area is small and centred around a mid-height window (174 cm wide). Even so we had several criteria: we needed a sink, fridge, small freezer, plenty of food storage and a recycling area. Notice that I haven't mentioned a stove or oven. 

We learned early on that installing a stove would mean it would become a property in its own right and would have electricity / water bill implications (gaaaah!) so we decided we'd use the stove in the main cottage for now. However, there are several options moving forward which include a gas barbecue, outdoor kitchen or even one of IKEA's pop up stoves. We'll see! 

Design

We explored many different kitchen brands, but to be honest, we simply couldn't believe how much even the tiniest of kitchens cost (have you found this too?) and since this is our second (little) home, they were all over our budget, so we had to get creative instead! 

When you're on a tight budget, I think IKEA kitchens are great. I'm a big fan of using them for the basics and then pepping them up by splurging on the details like the tap, handles and worktop. This is what we did in the main cottage kitchen several years ago, and I've been so happy with it! 

I also think the free IKEA kitchen planning service is great (no, this isn't sponsored by the Swedish giant, I promise!)  However, I was hoping to add a few personal touches, so I turned to my dear friend and interior designer Helen Sturesson for advice on how to incorporate hand-built shelves etc. And she sketched the above design. 

Ready to take a look at the results and find out more about the details? 

Results

We chose the Veddinge kitchen and then had it professionally spray painted by Swiss Metod / Lackera Köksluckor (my absolute go-to guys in Malmö) in Blek Sand (NCS S2005-Y20R). 

Worktop

I'd have loved a real stone worktop, but again our budget didn't quite reach for that now. I was really happy to find this laminate worktop at Hornbach. One day, maybe we'll swap it out for real stone, but I love this one for now! 

I think a high quality, beautiful tap is one of the most essential elements of a kitchen. It makes such a difference to the overall experience! We opted for the CRISTINA Rubinetterie CRIKT501 under window kitchen mixer in brushed old brass to match the bathroom taps. I love the finish!  

The sink is HAVSEN from Ikea. 

Handles

I was so happy to find these Cabinet Knob Helix - with a modern industrial vibe by Beslag Online (they have a load of beautiful knobs, hooks and furniture legs in their collection and sell throughout Europe).  The antique bronze matches the tap perfectly too! 

Shelves 

The open shelves were built by hand with oak slabs from Hornbach. I have to say, despite the faff, these are my favourite part of the kitchen - and so handy for cups and glasses and other items we use all the time. 

If we had installed a stove to the right, we wouldn't have been able to have these shelves there as we'd have needed to add a fan (I just wanted to point this out in case you're planning to do something similar). Maybe in the future, if we decide to get a stove, we'll have to do away with the upper right ones (sniff, sniff!). 

Lighting

An essential element - good lighting! In the above picture you can catch a glimpse of the subtle, Strömlinje LED light from IKEA which is connected to the wall switch and also has a remote control. The lighting is excellent, I have to say! 

We made one mistake. And that is that I should have used one panel instead of two on the front of the fridge (lower-centre). I got myself into a bit of a pickle with door handles - and may have used some photoshop trickery with this to show you how the end result will look with the knobs! However, in the long term I think I'll swap the two drawer fronts out to a single unit. What do you think? 

A few other things: 

We do have a kettle (hence all the teapots etc) - it's just not in shot!

The extendable table and chairs are from Danish brand Skovby (see my post about them here) and the ladder - which can be moved across to the kitchen, was built by a local carpenter. You can find all the information about the wood floor and panelling (by Norrlands Trä) in my post here. 

I hope you like our little kitchen as much as we do! 

If you have any questions, please give me a shout in the comments below and I'd be happy to help. 

Have a great weekend all, see you Monday! 

Niki

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