Swedish Kids Rooms: 6 Ideas To Get The Look

Creative Co-op Vintage Metal Laundry Basket $70 Amazon

Crocheted Girl Shaped Pot Holder with Flower, – Amazon

Add a little Nordic flavor to your child’s room, and make it unique. Here are a couple tips to pull it off:

1. Buy A Day Bed- The Swedish Kitchen Sofa is an example of practical Swedish design that originates from the 1700’s. Houses were small, so the furniture also had to be mult-functional. These sofas could be used during the day and then pulled out at night to be used as a bed. Sofas were painted white or different colors. Not all Swedish Kitchen sofas / köksoffas were used as sofas, some were strictly used as beds. Borrow this classic look, and opt for a day bed, instead of a regular bed.

2. Frame Folk Art Prints– Go for framed embroidery, or vintage tourist prints to hang on the wall. Loose Petals on etsy sells art poster prints that combine lots of color with a vintage flare. For a boys room, consider a gallery wall of printed maps, such as the ones sold through O Maps. Vintage Masters also sells a variety of vintage travel prints that are enticing.

3. Include Antiques– Go for something really unique to showcase on a dresser, wall or on the floor. I once saw an antique rocking cradle used as a storage box for a bunch of vintage dolls. Go for an old school desk, which could also function as an area to draw or practice their writing skills. Create a series of frames which a pairs of antique children’s shoes are framed. Create an open shelving wall where vintage children’s books can be displayed.

4. Paint A Chest In The Classic Rosemailing Technique– Search through google to determine which look you are most attracted to. There are a handful of books on Amazon which also teach this classic Swedish painting. Pinterest also has a ton of pictures of this style.

5. Consider Storage Furniture– Consider installing floor to ceiling bookshelves with doors that that can house their endless toys, clothing and knick knacks. Here you can see Christina Aguileras shoe closet that extends from the floor to the ceiling, making the best use of the wall space. Painting the shelves and the walls all one color will allow the bookshelves to appear built in. A nice light blue would be very Swedish. Place their bed right in front of the shelves as if it was a wall. Build gigantic closet doors from plywood to conceal their toys and clutter.

And Finally…………

6. Don’t Get To Serious- Children’s rooms are a time to break out of your gray obsession and go for color. Hang unique toys from the ceiling and make it an area that will get their imagination going.

Additional Articles:

Swedish Kids Room Ideas – Visit hviturlakkris.blogspot.com

Found on atimeforeverythingjournal.blogspot.com

Plan Toys Victorian Dollhouse – Seen on Amazon UK

Create a calm corner with an antique Gustavian daybed and canopy.

Visit pinkwallpaper.blogspot.com

Carl Larsson Children Featured In Art Work

Dala Hast (swedish wooden horse) by Hart Interior photo on Flickr

Artwork In All Black Frames

Kay Nielsen Fairy Tale Lithographs 1983 In by PetitPoulailler

12 Outdoor Pieces Worthy of Bringing Inside Visit casasugar.com

Vintage Baby Carriage- Found on midnightpoem.tumblr.com

Swedish folk art painted chest 1837 Lauritz.com

Childrens Room Decorated In Neoclassical Style From Anne Sage Blog

Vintage Swedish Poster Design From Kate Davies Designs

Create Cut Outs For The Walls – Visit bluevelvetchair.blogspot.se

Antique tricycles are worth looking out for. Every once in a while ebay sellers will list antique or vintage reproductions for great deals.

Consider tricycles that may even need a new paint job. Paint and a little faux work can make anything look antique.

Shannon Bowers Swedish Nursery

Many of us were wowed when Veranda magazine featured the home of Dallas designer Shannon Bowers a couple of years ago, so it may come to you as a surprise that she had it listed to be sold on the market.

“If I have antiques in the living room, I think they should appear in the children’s spaces, too,” Bowers says. “I would like for my children to develop an appreciation for them just as I have as the daughter of an interior designer. Sometimes the value of a home in our lives is underestimated. Home is where your children’s memories are made. I want it to look beautiful, but more important, I believe it should be a warm and comfortable place.”

I have always been attracted to the cover of Childrens Spaces From Zero To Ten as the space showed a rustic appeal based around white. You have a stunning farmhouse tabe painted in white with reclaimed wood, and naturally distressed appeal.

A long lenthy wall bench is also painted in white and made from clap board. Above the very adorable children is an oversized distressed wall mirror. Beige linen accompanies the bench and the children are dressed in blue. With a cover like this, it is no wonder it has sold 100,000 copies sold in hardcover.

Judith Wilson, mother of two, shows how homes can be adapted for children without surrendering order and good taste while also ensuring that children have their own wonderful spaces to enjoy.

This is a truly beautiful book. No more circus animals painted on walls and other run of the mill decorating ideas. These are beautiful – modern ideas for creating spaces for children. Look out Martha Stewart.

Any girl would be so blessed to have a desk like this in her bedroom. A desk like this is a timeless piece that could be purchased for a young girl and be sophisticated enough to be taken with her as she moves out and on her own for college. This desk sells for $319 and comes in white, a natural cherry wood, green and the blue you see above. If you decided to order blue fabric, and want to match the desk up with the fabric, all you need to do is paint over the manufactures blue to match up with your fabric swatch.

If you decide to do any other Swedish color such as Scandinavian orange, yellow, green or red, order the desk in cherry which allows you to distress down to the wood having a neutral color show through your distressed finish.

This picture shows that you can create the ornate patterned Gustavian wall finishes easy and inexpensively with over sized wall stencils. All you need is paint! The best thing about stencils, is they can customized from room to room. Use a light tone of blue and white for your childs room, and white based backgrounds in your main living areas. Stencils can be customized from one room to the next, and any color combinations can be used.

Swedish Gustavian Wall Stencils

Guidecraft kids furniture is great looking wood furniture that you should consider for your child’s room. They sell beautiful solid oak furniture that is beautiful all on it’s own, as well as painted furniture that has a whimsical nature. Guidecraft prides itself on fourty years of manufacturing quality products that put children first. They design their products with kids in mind and continually test their products to meet or exceed mandatory safety standards. They also batch test their paints prior to production for the presence of heavy metals through independent US based third party testing laboratories. They uphold these quality standards to provide you with a safe, durable, and lasting product that will bring years of enjoyment.

Guidecraft has a long history of receiving Toy Awards for their product’s innovation, creativity, and adaptability.
Guidecraft Block Cart $62
Hideaway 4-Section School Locker $450
Guidecraft Classroom Unit Blocks – 170 Piece, Classroom Unit Blocks – 170 Piece
Guidecraft Double-Sided Book Browser $170
Guidecraft Easy – View Storage Bench $260
Guidecraft Stacking Bookshelf $80
Toy Storage – Big Book Storage Box – Guidecraft – $73
Guidecraft Mission Baskets – Set of 5 $34
Audio Center Chairs Set of 2 $80
Guidecraft Single-Sided Book Browser $139
Guidecraft SOUND BOX Games $36
Guidecraft WEIGHT BOX Games $44

D Is For Dala Horse– Illustrated by Renée Graef. Beautiful pictures of scenes from Scandinavian countries for every letter of the alphabet. The rhyming text makes the alphabet recital pleasant and additional information on the featured word is also presented.

The Dala Horse was first produced in Sweden in the 1700’s (or so), and has become Sweden’s most recognizable symbol. The original Dala Horse (Dalahäst) has been around for many centuries, and probably was created by Swedish woodcutters.

During the long winters, woodcutters would pass the time by carving little toys for their children. These carved wooden toys, made from the scraps of the men’s wood were mostly horses. The most enduring of the little creatures remains the Dala Horse.

The bright, happy little animal as we now know the Dala Horse probably originated in the 1700’s. The carving of the stocky little tailless horses had become a well-established tradition, but up until this time they had been unpainted.

Legend has it that in the winter of 1716, while King Charles XII of Sweden waged war throughout most of Europe, many soldiers were quartered in private homes. Because of the severe winter and the war, all suffered from lack of food and warmth. Tradition has it that one such soldier, carved a Dala Horse from some scrap wood in the home where he was staying. Before presenting it to the child of the home as a gift, he painted it a bright red, a color readily available from the copper mine at the nearby community of Falun.

He also decorated the horse with kurbit painting for the harness and saddle. In return for this bright toy, the woman of the house gave the soldier a bowl of soup. He made another horse and received another bowl of soup. When word o his success in bartering for food reached the other soldiers, they too began carving and painting horses in exchange for food. Thus the Dala Horse is credited in part with the army’s surviving the cruel winter.