Katrin Cargill & Carol Glasser's Swedish Interior Tranformation

Carol Glasser; one of one of Houston's finest interior designers immediately sought the insight of renown interior designer Katrin Cargill and author of Swedish Style: Creating the Look to create the overall look of a Huston Townhouse. Katrin Cargill who is one of the leading authors on Swedish design, publishing more than 14 books on interior design, transformed this Huston Townhouse along side Glasser, which landed on the the 2007 issue of Home Beautiful . Katrin Cargill shares her secrets along with Carol Glasser to Home Beautiful's Christopher Petkanas.

Carol Glasser Interiors Directoire Style Table From Cote De Texas Blog

Cargill tells us that room-to-room views are a hallmark of Swedish style, and that they created that look in the Huston home by taking out a number of the doors to create the open look of classic Swedish homes.

Enfilade the formal architectural term is actually a series of rooms aligned up with one other commonly seen in museums and art galleries. Ideally with this arrangement, a person can get an eye view into 2 or three rooms, as the entry doors are aligned perfectly with the the connecting rooms. This European architectural feature was a common design in the Baroque period.

House Beautiful Carol Glasser & Katrin Cargill's Swedish Transformation- Swedish Furniture Style

Swedish Mora Clock House Beautiful Carol Glasser & Katrin Cargill's Swedish Transformation- Swedish Furniture Style

House Beautiful Carol Glasser & Katrin Cargill's Swedish Transformation- Swedish Furniture Style

Close up Picture of House Beautiful Carol Glasser & Katrin Cargill's Swedish Transformation- Swedish Furniture Style Thank you to Joni From Cote De Texas Blog

Joni from Cote De Texas tells us the inside story on this home, being that it belonged to a personal friend of hers. Joni also holds the story of the same house which appeared in Country Living magazine a few years prior. She tells us that the owners sold everything from their former house and only kept everything they absolutely loved, which they then designed around. They wanted to design the home to be as authentic Swedish as possible.

It was pleasing to hear the owners spent years acquiring a house full of furniture - piece by piece. Buying authentic swedish furniture or reproductions could cost an arm and a leg if you didn't collect over time. In addition, swedish furniture is very hard find in the United States. As you see in this Huston home, not everything is antique. The standard swedish cotton check gives an antique look to the modern sectional. Combining authentic textiles with antiques can give you the genuine look while making it affordable.

If a person has a draw to a particular style, over time your most priced pieces will fall into a category of design. She tells us that each purchase was deliberate and thoughtful, as she didn't mind waiting years for just the "right" table or the "perfect" lamp to turn up as Joni tells it.

Cargill tells us the key to this design is not having any heavy upholstery, rather furniture that has graceful legs. The house was finished with wide Canadian pine-plank flooring were installed and finished in a chalky limed treatment typical of classic Swedish flooring. The family room featured a beautiful antique French fireplace that had a beautiful aged faux finish. The rustic paneling gives a feeling of a Swedish home that might have the wood walls painted. The walls were graced with Italian oil paintings, backed with light blue painted walls. Faux painted yellow and red walls, toile wallpapers lined bedrooms. The Swedish Mora clock was the first to inspire the entire house colors which were the classic pastels such as pale blues, pinks and reds.

Grape dining chairs from The Blue Door, covered in Ralph Lauren's Taconic Stripe. Walls were glazed in Pratt & Lambert's Arrowroot, the trim picked out in Martin Senour's Linen Weave. Photo Credit:Karyn R. Millet