A Sprinkle of Colour in an Elegant Stockholm Home

February calls for a little brightness, don't you think? And that's exactly why this Swedish apartment caught my eye! It's sprinkled with colour in the form of art, patterns, furniture and books - yet still feels calm and elegant. Just what I needed to see on a Monday. I hope this lovely home brightens up the start of you week too! 

The Ligne Roset Togo Fireside chair is one to sink into!

Especially when you have a Swedish fireplace like this to sit beside. It's like a work of art! 

A big hallway lends itself to bookshelves and an antique bench! 

Faded kilims are the new favourite here in Scandinavia. But there's no need to do away with your monochrome Beni ourain - they make a cosy wall hanging or headboard! 

The wide windowsills also provide a perfect perch for books! 

To the left and right of the door you can see some wall pockets. Sourced from Norrgavel, these Påshyllor are hugely popular in Sweden as they are great for smaller accessories such as gloves, hats, scarves etc. 

Such a lovely apartment - fantastic bones too! 

It's going on the market this week via Historiska Hem - so keep an eye out for it if you're interested! 

Would you like to see a few other homes with touches of colour today? Check out: 

A fabulous Danish home in a plethora of colours

Lessons to learn from a colourful yet stylish Norwegian home

Home tour: how to add colour the danish way

Have a fabulous start to the week! 

Niki

Photography: Mia Borgelin

Styling: Thomas Lingsell

For: Historiska Hem

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Before and After Vintage Wall Shelf Makeover

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments about our summer cottage master bedroom makeover on Wednesday. Per and I are so happy you like the update as much as we do! 

As promised, here is a post about how I transformed the pine wall bracket.

This wall shelf has been hanging on the bedroom wall in the summer cottage for many years (long before I arrived on the scene!). Needless to say, it belongs here! But the varnish on the pine had yellowed with age and while we all love the shape, the outdated look wasn't quite in keeping with the calm style we had envisioned for the newly revamped room. 

Caveat: I am not quite sure why there's an old mattress leaning against the wall in this picture obscuring the view - but I hope you get the gist as it's the only shot I have! 

So, we took it off the wall and I carried it to my studio where I scrubbed it down with soap and water (an important step!). 

I selected Tidlös paint by Jotun Lady to match the Sandberg wallpaper (the great thing about this paint is that I didn't need to sand down the wood first - but if you are looking to carry out a similar project on a wooden item, it's important to check the requirements first).  

I applied two layers of paint using two different paint brush sizes - one fairly small (featured) and the other very small (the knobs on the drawers were so fiddly!). Afterwards, I lightly sanded the edges of the drawers to ensure they slotted back into place and could be pulled in and out freely. I've learnt this from my childhood home - I had an antique chest-of-drawers in my bedroom and would need to wiggle the drawer for about 20 minutes just to get to my socks, it used to drive me insane! 

Once the paint had dried, we hung it back on the wall using a spirit-level app on the phone (have you tried these types of apps? so handy!). 

Aside from drying time, the entire process took about 2 hours. 

And hey presto! A brand new shelf! 

I hope you like the results and feeling inspired to revamp something unloved too. 

Who knows, perhaps you'll be looking at that piece at home that you were thinking about chucking out with new eyes now? Or maybe you'll discover a tired looking item of furniture in a loppis (flea market) that no one wants this weekend and give it a fabulous revamp? If you do, I'd love to see the pictures! 

Happy Friday friends! 

Niki

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Before and After: Our Swedish Summer Cottage Bedroom Make-over

This blog post is not sponsored. However, it does include some press items that I've received in the past and present (marked with *)! Thank you for supporting the brands that make My Scandinavian Home possible. 

Two summers ago we built a tiny cabin in the garden of Per's family's summer cottage on the Bjärehalvön coast, West Sweden. We love heading up there as often as we can, but this winter we had the perfect excuse: it was time to renovate the master bedroom in the main house! There was nothing wrong with the room per se, it just hasn't been touched for several decades and needed a major freshening up. But you know me, I can't really do things by halves, and this was definitely a case of 'in for a penny, in for a pound!'

I find winter is the perfect time for decorating - do you agree? Plus, Per and I love a project. So, back in October we cracked on in the hope that the room would be ready in time for spring. And it is! I hope you like reading about the transformation today!

The walls were covered in wood chip and since I had my eye on a wallpaper I loved, the existing layers needed to be removed - no easy feat! It was a gruelling, messy job getting rid of it all - but satisfying too! Underneath, we discovered that the century-old walls were also very uneven which meant we needed to plaster over them and then cover with a base wallpaper. 

The original wood floor is lovely but the varnish had slowly yellowed over the years, so we rented a sander to file the wood down, before adding several layers of white soap wash. Neither of us had done this before and the sander was a mighty machine! We had our heart in our mouths as we worked around the room - concerned that we might accidentally burrow down and wreck a plank! 

It all worked well in the end though and this is how it looks now: 

We'd also noticed that the ceiling was coming apart at the seams, and there was no outlet for an overhead ceiling light. 

Per added panels to cover the seams - which match the panels on the ceiling in the main room of the cottage. And we also gave the ceiling, skirting boards, architraves and door a fresh lick of white paint. 

We're willing to do most jobs ourselves (sometimes with the help of YouTube) but since we value our lives (and respect Swedish law!), we called in an electrician in to re-wire the room and add an outlet in the ceiling as well as power sockets to the wall! The lamp is called REGNSKUR from IKEA. 

We were keen to give the room a traditional cottage feel with a modern touch and a hint of green to match the rest of the cottage, so we looked at samples from Swedish Sandberg wallpaper, eventually settling on Karolina green*. 

We were a bit apprehensive about putting the wallpaper up but it was surprisingly quick and easy once we got going. You definitely need to be two pair of hands for the job - and pay attention to aligning the pattern down to the millimetre with each new section so nothing goes awry! Probably good to double check if it's the right way up to (my wonderful dad once learnt this the hard way!). 

And then the fun part began: decorating the room! 

We were keen to use as much as possible from what was already there. 

The bed is the same  but I added a simple headboard (115 cm high x 180 cm wide) and then added a white linen cover. The bed linen is from HM Home and the blanket and throw are old ones from home. The rug was already there. 

The windows are quite wide (measuring 197 cm) so I picked out the Mozart extendable curtain rod from Åhlens. I had some old-ish white linen curtains hanging around in the loft which turned out to be perfect for the room. You can find similar white linen curtains here. 

I don't go anywhere around the cottage without my well-worn Shephard slippers! 

The chest-of-drawers was already in place and the chair has always been at the cottage! 

Nothing says spring to me like a bouquet of Mimosa! it brings a little sunshine to the greyest of days, don't you think?

We re-hung the vintage mirror on the wall (it had been resting on the chest-of-drawers for years so it was nice to finally put it back up!). 

We also wall mounted two sets of simple wooden hooks from Swedish store Granit (I find hooks so useful in a summer cottage - they're perfect for hanging the few outfits you have with you, plus other essentials like a dressing gown for 'morgondopps' (morning dips) and a sun hat! 

The hooks also provide a great place for other items - including one of my favourite bouquet lamp* by Le Klint and a robe from Humdakin* (bringing a touch of Danish design to Sweden!). 

In this picture you can also catch a glimpse of the new dimmer switch* and power socket* (both from Corston). The electrician also added power sockets either side of the bed. 

The pine wall shelves had yellowed with age so I repainted them in Jotun Tidlös to match the wallpaper. I might write a separate post about this. It's amazing what you can do to give old pieces a new lease of life. Would you find that of interest?

The bedside table is the original one that was already in place. 

I hope you like the results as much as we do! 

Naturally, if you look very closely our DIY renovation it isn't perfect, but that comes with the territory of carrying out a project yourself, and I wouldn't have it any other way! 

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

Would you like to see a few other of my room makeover from the past? Check out: 

Renovating our summer cottage kitchen

Our DIY powder room makeover

Before and after: our attic makeover

All a labour of love! 

Do you dabble in DIY too? 

Niki

PS I am starting a 30 days of Njuta challenge on instagram stories today, come and join me! #30daysofnjuta! 

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An Eco Retreat Stay in the Forests of Sweden

Dreaming of an escape today? Allow me to whisk you away to depths of the Swedish forests, and this fairytale getaway! Nestled by a lake in the southern Sweden wilderness, Urnatur, meaning 'primeval nature' is the brainchild of forester Håkan Strotz and forest biologist and edible plants expert Ulrika Krynitz. The pair are passionate about ethnobiology and the interaction between man and nature and wanted others to experience an eco-retreat where you can get away from it all and go back-to-basics. 

Made up of an off-the-grid treehouse and a series of cabins built by Håkan and decorated by Ulrika, Urnatur invites guests to stay on Sjögetorp and Renemo farms and make the most of everything the surrounding nature has to offer. Sleep in the trees or snuggle up in a cosy log cabin before taking to the lake in a kayak, foraging for berries and other delicacies or cooking supper over an open fire. You might also want to explore the farm shop for lovely local wares too! 

It does look wonderful, I have to say - and a far cry from my studio in Malmö where I am tapping away at my laptop today. 

Could you imagine spending a week or two here come summertime? If so, visit the Urnatur website for more information. 

Thinking of visiting Sweden and looking for more places to stay? Check out the holiday homes, rentals, airbnb and design hotel archives to find somewhere wonderful! You might also like to delve into my Scandinavian travel and city guide archives to plan your trip in full! Välkommen!  

Speaking of escapes, Per and I finished the summer cottage master bedroom renovation this weekend and I took my camera with me to take a few shots! We are so thrilled with the outcome - even more so since we carried out all the work ourselves. I can't wait to share the results with you on Wednesday. I hope you'll like it as much as we do. See you then! 

Niki

Photography courtesy of Urnatur, with thanks.

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