Falu Red- A Prominent Color In 17 and 18th Century Sweden
The color red has been distinctive color in Sweden in the 17 and 18th centuries. Falu red (pronounced “FAH-loo”, in Swedish Falu rödfärg) is the name of a Swedish, deep red paint well known for its use on houses, barns and cottages. The paint originated from the copper mine at Falun in Dalarna, Sweden. During the 17th century Falu red was commonly used on smaller wooden mansions with the intention to imitate buildings with brick facing. In the Swedish cities and towns, buildings were often painted with the Falu red until the early 19th century, when many began to oppose the paint.
It was then that other colors were introduced such as yellow, white and the beautiful lighter pastel colors that you see in historical architecture in Sweden. Houses and buildings in Scandinavia are usually painted white or yellow. Red paint was the cheapest, so many of the barns and outbuildings in the countryside were painted red.
Only the noble buildings of the farm were painted in other colors. Falu red saw another surge in popularity in the countryside during the 19th century, when farmers began to paint their houses in the beautiful saturated paint color. Falu red is still widely used in the Swedish countryside to this day due to its effectiveness in preserving wood. Incorporate a little bit of red in your Swedish decorating to get an authentic Nordic look. A wood side chair or commode would look terrific in this color!
Falu red during manufacturing may range in color depending on how much the oxide is burnt. The colors can range from dark red almost borderline black to a bright, light red. The paint itself consists of water, rye flour, linseed oil and residue from the copper mines of Falun. The residue contains silicates iron oxides, copper compounds and zinc. The color to the left in pot is a very accurate hue of the Falu red .
– 18th century architecture Sweden, Stockholm.
– A lovely country Swedish Red house. An iron oxide based wood preserver was used on the timbers.
– A lovely red painted house near Trollesund.
Swedish Red Mike Downey On Flicker
18th Century Home From Country Living Magazine
18th Century Swedish Manor House Lars-Sjoberg Featured on Trouvais Blog
Colonial Red Painted Panelling By Thomas Jayne Featured at Home Beautiful
Dione Herself sold an outstanding late 19th century French Bergere chair that would have worked really nicely with a Swedish styled decor. The chair was upholstered in a red check fabric, while the frame looked to be either painted or white washed.
Check fabric is one of the staples of Swedish decorating. Red along with shades of blue and yellow have always been classic choices for Swedish textiles. If you are looking to do a large project with check fabric, look at NY Fashion Center Fabrics, as they carry fabric in the bolt. A 25 Yard Bolt in red and white gingham checked fabric is $162. Raggedy Ann & Andy sells a brightly colored Flannel ngham fabric in blue. Online fabric store also sells a larger print gingham red fabric.
Red has always been distinctively Swedish. A simple red chair amongst a muted gray background can be powerful all on its own.
Incorporating authentic Swedish colors such as red into your Swedish decorated home can really bring forth a more authentic antique Nordic look.
America Retold has stunning Swedish looking dinner ware in a red floral chintz pattern that would look remarkable up on a plate rack.
Their collection is limited to three pieces; a serving platter which sells for $26.49, a bowl which sells for $12.99, and a dinner plate that sells for $10.49. This set can be grouped with other white table ware, or pair it with glass, pewter, copper or brass for a very regal effect.
America Retold also sells a set of 4 mini dessert cloches that might work just perfect for your dinner parties serving mini 3 tier cakes.
This lovely pictured featured in Martha Stewart Magazine shows an orange Fitzhugh-pattern Chinese-export porcelain inspired the dining-room color scheme. The painted walls match the deepest tone on the china. A quince-colored velvet tablecloth and sunset-hued fabric on the folding screen highlight the richness and depth of gold-tinged reds. This room is based around Federal style decorating, and includes a terrific Empire gold mirror that really makes the space extremely rich!
A Louis XVI-style chest From Charles-Emile Moinat
Villa D’Este Town & Country Red Swedish Looks
Red Gustavian Chair Featured on Karina Gentinetta Blog, Check out this beautiful red Swedish Gustavian Style Dining Room Found Here
Swedish Furniture Ideas- French Commode Lacquered Red From Live Auctioneers
Stunning European Paint Colors For Painted Kitchen Cabinets
The Beautiful colors found in the Farrow and Ball Paint Line
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK shows some beautiful kitchens painted in various blues. The kitchen featured lovely English styled cabinetry with recessed cabinet doors. Recessed doors allows the door to be painted as well as the capability to match wall colors because the cabinet face blends seamlessly with the overall cabinet design.
Consider painting your walls a shade darker or lighter than your kitchen cabinets. In the pictures you can see out into another room which is within the same color groups. The natural wood floors breaks up the use of blue in these rooms. The color yellow is also very Swedish and plays off the blue quite nicely. The brass hardware is a nice pop compared to silver which would blend into the blue tones.
Cover Stain in Oil has been my go-to-paint for several years now. It is one of the best discoveries when I used to paint furniture as my full time hobby. Coverstain IS NOT your typical oil paint. It goes on smoothly, than most other oil brands. If the mixture is a bit thick, add a small amount of paint thinner to the paint. The overall finish is levels out when it dries, and it dries to a flat finish which is incredibly unusual for a oil paint.
The best thing about this paint is you can get it tinted almost any lighter color. I have been purchasing my paints at Ace Hardware as we live in a smaller town, and they have been able to tint the paint vibrant colors, and darker shades. If I want something darker, I simply buy a quart size of satin oil paint at my local Sherwin & Williams and mix it in to darken it up.
In addition to the unusual features of this paint, it can be sanded down when it fully dries. The paint dries to the touch within about 3 hours, but I wouldn’t suggest sanding it down. I usually sand my furniture after day 3. The next day you can sand it down, but I find I run through sand paper quickly because the paint is still not fully cured. Because this paint dries flat, you can add any color over top of it, and it doesn’t have to be oil based. What I would suggest is have Cover Stain tinted the color that is close to your ideal choice, and add your ideal color over top. If you do choose to spray this paint on to your cabinetry, PLEASE buy an industrial heavy mask with air filters. I cannot stress that point more.
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK www.remodelista.com
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK
Plain English Kitchen Designs in the UK www.remodelista.com
Butler sells a terrific butter yellow console table that gives a unique Swedish impression. The first time I saw this table, I got so excited as the color and style are so close to Swedish styled furnitre. The soft blue floral set on the butter yellow are both typical Swedish cloors. The Artist’s Originals line is sold through Butler and is a collection of highly desired fine furniture hand-painted by accomplished artists. This stunning table is made from wood construction and features a single drawer. This table is entirely hand painted, and measures 32” H x 35” W x 16” D.
The console table would fit right into the Martha Stewart’s home in Connecticut. The butter yellow is very simular to historical paint colors.
Martha Stewart’s Previous Home In Connecticut , Turkey Hill
Martha Stewart’s Previous Home In Connecticut , Turkey Hill
Martha Stewart’s Previous Home In Connecticut , Turkey Hill
Martha Stewart’s Previous Home In Connecticut , Turkey Hill
Secrets From Suzanne Rheinstein To Pull Off A European Decorated Home
The photos above and below were taken in a room designed by Suzanne Rheinstein at the Greystone Estate, the site of Veranda’s annual showhouse Picture seen on lusterinteriors.blogspot.com
Architectural Digest & House Beautiful magazines both publish annual lists of current successful designers, and Suzanne Rheinstein always is noted as one of the top designers in the LA area. Other established designers such as Michael Smith, Thomas Beeton, Kathryn Ireland, Barbara Barry, and Waldo Fernandez also are all noted to be the best in Los Angeles.
Suzanne Rheinstein is owner of Los Angeles renowned Hollyhock, an extravagant LA Antiques Store. Rheinstein is known for her relaxed, elegant style, and special attention to luxuries. Beyond her store, and her book, Rheinstein also has a fabric line with Lee Jofa.
Rheinstein’s Manhattan Home made the cover of Elle Decor for the month of November 2010 featuring an upscale Gustavian designed residence in New York. After her daughter Kate got married, and grandchildren were too hard to resist being away from, her husband Fred relented and the couple finally found the perfect corner space in the upper east side of New York. Rheinstein tells Elle
“We adore our house in L.A.,” she says. “It’s very forgiving and full of wonderful family treasures. But for New York, I wanted something a little more city, a little more stylized. And I wanted the palette to be a little more calm.”
The Gustavian styled home is filled with hues of grays, creams, taupes and soft greeny blues which is known to be classic Swedish style. “There’s color, she adds, but “it’s just very offbeat, like the pale ochre pillow on the chaise…….”
Beyond the beautiful extravagant 18th century antiques Rheinstein owns, is a stunning mural which has captured the publics attention. Bob Christian, a decorative painter and artist created a gorgeous mural that surrounded the room. The overall effect was a large scale toile look. The room wouldn’t be the same without it.
Her current book At Home: A Style for Today with Things from the Past, features six distinctive homes that express Rheinstein sophisticated elegant style. The book also features both of her own homes in Los Angeles and New York. Rheinstein’s book is beautifully photographed, and shows an inspiring volume of her own work, in which she mixes Gustavian with Edwardian and Regency with ease. The book shows a range of styles including a brick farmhouse in the Virginia countryside to a Beach in Newport Bay.
She has been quoted saying it is better to buy quality one-of-a-kind pieces, and decorate around them “Fewer but better things, painted surfaces, a mixture of furniture styles, a personal art collection and attention to comfort, colors, textures, details and light.”
We couldn’t agree with her more.
This 18th century Antique Swedish Gustavian Painted Bench is the epitome of Swedish furniture. They are almost impossible to find in America, and quite expensive to purchase. Rheinstein’s Swedish bench is upholstered in a dark beige with undertones of olive and grey. The bench perfectly sets the stage to match the paint on the walls which also governs the paint colors on the hand painted floors.
- The secret to design is precisely as Rheinstein suggests- Designing around a few pieces of fabulous furniture.
- Period antiques are well made and often have features that are very hard to come by in today furnishings.
- A great antique usually has one of these qualities
- Great Bones, and Style such as the curvature of Louis XV furniture, or the straight appeal of the Directoire styles of Louis XVI.
- Fantastic aged patina– Gustavian furniture has incredible painted finishes with beautiful ornate painted motifs.
- Quality wood like Empire Furniture , or Lavish wood veneers such as Regency furniture.
- Well made statement pieces truly are show stoppers on their own that all that is needed is a few well chosen accent pieces to finish a look to get a magazine quality highly-decorated home.
See the November issue of Elle Decor For More Pictures of Her home.
Visit Hollyhock’s web site to see antiques, upholstery and decor items for sale
Joni from Cote De Texas has an in depth article on Suzanne Rheinstein’sGeorgian home which is worth viewing. It has been hard to locate any of Suzanne Rheinstein’s work, and Joni seemingly has went out of her way to gather some of the previous rare pictures of her amazing home through the transformations. We borrowed a few of her pictures that really show the Swedish style in its best!
Compare her New York apartment with her LA Home, and you will see so many beautiful painted floors. Paint can completely transform a room. The colors on the floor in the above picture create a calming atmosphere. The detail on the console is exquisite! You would want to float a piece like this in the center of the room. – Picture from Cote De Texas
How To Wash Raw Wood For The Perfect Swedish Finish
Swedish Furniture & Decor Ideas – Directoire Chest By Wisteria
This chest from Wisteria is one of my favorites. The minimal carving paired with a calming hue of a painted wash gives this mango wood chest that Swedish feel.
The Swedish have always been known for their wood furniture and in North America, many people identify them more for their beautiful painted finishes. In the Scandinavian countries of Northern Europe, the day light didn’t last long in the winter, and painting furniture became a natural response to adding light into their homes. Countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, are much like northern Canada, in that the winters seem to last a lot longer, as the sun goes down quite early making the days feel shorter and shorter. Midnight sun is when sun is visible for a continuous 24 hours, mostly north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle. In Svalbard, Norway, the northern most inhabited region of Europe, there is no sunset from approximately 19 April to 23 August.
The opposite effect, which is called polar night, is where night lasts for more than 24 hours. This only occurs inside the polar circles. Some populations in several countries experience these extra long summer days, and extended nights in the winter are those areas in the by the Arctic Circle such as the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut in Canada. The United States of America has a state above the Canadian Provence of British Columbia called Alaska which see these extended periods of night and day. Also we have Denmark, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and areas of Iceland who also experience varied degrees of longer winters and summers.
The rustic grey antique painted finishes are why most people love Swedish ANTIQUE furniture. The muted paint colors which have been naturally distressed over time have an ornate feel to them with layers of beautiful patina. These old time paint finishes have become popularized by Restoration Hardware to Wisteria, and have become one of the most frequent emails we receive on our Painted Furniture site asking us to show how to achieve them.
Rustic distressed furniture has become incredibly popular as people turn towards the comfortable primitive looks for their homes as they settle down, moving away from the modern interiors of the upper city looks that tend to be cold and uninviting. Today people still want the upscale furniture, but they also want the heirlooms of natural worn woods, and painted finishes that have been passed down through family generations. There is nothing like throwing a log on the fire and cuddling up in a wool blanket with a cup of hot chocolate as you enjoy watching the kids run around with their toys, not worrying if a nick or scratch is going to ruin the look of a piece.
This Directoire Dresser By Wisteria is bleached and the naturally distressed acacia wood is accented with diamond patterns and antiqued metal federal styled hardware
One of the most common and easiest ways to achieve a Swedish distressed finish is simply by watering down paint and applying it to raw wood.
Most of all Swedish paint colors are muted grey and beige tones. Other classic antique colors blues, greens, yellow, but they are all muted tones with some sort of black or white mixed in. In the late 17th and early 18th century there was a limited amount of colors compared to our vast selection today so painters would either add black or white into the main colors they had available, which is why you see darker shades of green, yellow and blue, and then really milky white versions of basic colors.
The KEY to re-creating antique looking finishes are to work with the period colors, and not brights. Bright white is never a color you find in antiques, and is often the number one mistake when people white wash furniture. You want to stick with the undertones that have green or beige, as these are common undertones in antique furniture.
The best way to achieve THESE particular wood finishes that Restoration Hardware is so famous for, or Wisteria’s Directoire Chest looks is to work with bare wood.
I find that finishes that have a polyurethane top coat do not work well, because the paint needs to soak into the wood, so if there is a top coat, be sure to sand the finish down so the paint has something to grip on to.
Take some beige, or green-gray paint, and a small bowl with water in it. With your paint brush dip the brush into the water, and then into the paint. Your brush should contain a water down version of the paint. As you can see in the primitive wood basket below, I used Painters Touch in the color Fossil, brushing on the paint, leaving it for a few minutes and then wiping it off.
I took a really weathered bench which had been eroded by the rain over several years and painted on a greenish beige over the entire bench. I painted the entire bench on my front lawn within just 5 minutes. It was a rather sloppy job of painting, but after 10 minutes, before the paint was really dry, I took the garden hose and washed it down with a small amount of pressure, which left only a watered down wash of the paint on the bench.
The paint should essentially penetrate the wood like a glaze, and reveal the wood below, leaving a wash. You can use any shade, so long as it is not white, but either has natural undertones such as green or beige.
Additional ways you can add time-aged character is to add marks to your piece of furniture manually giving the look of wear and tear. Use a canvas bag that closes, or a natural type of cloth bag and fill it with bolts and nuts. Hit the surface of the wood with the nuts and bolts, which will produce indentations in the surface of the wood. Don’t go over board with a hammer or chisel, because they often don’t look realistic.
Painters Touch in the color Fossil is a color I use often. You can buy it at Home Depot, although strangely enough I haven’t been able to locate the quart size on Amazon or at Home Depot. (Maybe it is just popular) So I scanned in the formula I had Sherwin & Williams Make for me.
Behr Paints – My Paint Suggestions For Swedish Furniture Finishes
Here are some of my suggestions with the Brand of Behr Paints. My suggestion is to go with a color you really love. I do enjoy working with Olive colors such as the top color UL 180-1, but I also use colors like UL200-18 in the middle. The color I used leans towards for this project is the color in the bottom right hand corner, UL200-19, as my basket turned out darker than the pictures portray. The key is to work within the natural colors, and within colors you really enjoy looking at.
The other paint suggestions I have are:
Martha Stewart Paints- Heath MSL212
Martha Stewart Paints- Mourning Dove MSL210
Behr – Sand Fossil 770C-3
Ace Paints- Dried Fern D23-6
Ace Paints – SW 6158
