“After about seven years, I could buy a really nice piece of furniture once a year,” she […]
Tag: Swedish Decorating
You love Swedish style but don’t know exactly where to start. Here are a few ideas for you […]
Lighter Colors are used in this interior, whose picture appeared on the cover of Classic Swedish Interiors 1. […]
Christine Adams Wood Finishing Technical Writer at General Finishes January 6 · 2018 is here and it is […]
If you are looking for an inexpensive way to dress up your walls, this might be it. I happen to adore the 18th century style, but don’t want to spend a ton of money to achieve the look in my home.
Decorative carved plaques were quite popular in France, and eventually Sweden perfected the look. Musical instruments, hunting motifs, and florals seemed to be the most popular carved designs in the 17th and 18th centuries. These wood carved decorative elements were often seen framed within wooden decorative trim and commonly found above doorways, or fireplaces.
Today you can see these beautiful plaques on pieces of wood in some of the most beautiful interiors decorated after the European styles of the past.
I have created a few of these plaques for my house and I really love how they have turned out. They give me the look of a large piece of art, without having to complicate my interior with lots of colors. Best of all, this project is fairly simple to create.
Vintage Syroco
Rococo is a design most popular in the 1730s. The design heavily influenced architecture, painting, sculpture and eventually furniture and decor.
Mirrors made after these styles became popular in the 50’s by a company called Syracuse Ornamental Company who at the time produced ornamental carvings to embellish furniture. The company was founded in the late 1890’s by Adolph Holstein who was a talented Austrian woodcarver.
The opportunity for his business to expand when Holstein developed a casting technique which produced a high quality product without the laborious intensity and time of wood carving. Holstein used Syroco to create perfect replicas of their original carvings.
Many of their molds featured a wood grain within the mold, giving their overall product a higher end feel for less money. As the modern movement hit in the 1940’s their business turned from ornamental embellishments to novelty items which didn’t profit as well, so the company returned to making the highly ornate wall mirrors, sconces, and decorations in the 1950’s which became a huge sensation.
These very same items from the 50’s can be found on ebay, and made to look high end with layers of paint in shades of gray, white and beige paint for a higher end European look.
The Materials Used For My Project
The materials you need are plywood, decorative trim, a decorative element that you want to frame, a miter box and a compressor with a nailing attachment certainly helps.
The pieces that I have purchased for my creations are Dogwall plaques from syroco, and two large vintage burwood musical plaques.
I tend to make my projects as simple as possible. For this project I simply cut a piece of plywood, and made my own miter box to hand cut the decorative edging that was placed around the edges of the wood.
The decorative edging I used was from Home Depot. You can find a picture with the number of the product below. The edging was simple, and easy to work with.
I made my miter box by simply screwing a piece of 2 x 4 wood together with two wood sides. I then took my miter saw, and cut the wood to give me a guide. It was as simple as that. I found that using my saw was not only dangerous with thin wood edging, but also that the wood would be torn apart with using the fast blade. My advice, buy a miter box or make your own like I did.
Next, I used a compressor with a nailing attachment to add the trim and the decorative element. I used wood filler to fill these holes, along with adding wood putty to the sides of the plywood to give it a finished appearance.
In a previous article, I described using Durhams putty to seal the edges between the wood and the decorative relief. You can find more pictures of this project in this post there. The beauty of Durhams putty is that it dries in a shade of light yellow. When you paint your object, what I do is wash off parts of the motif with a damp cloth, and the putty appears to look like wood painted. Working with this product is a perfect way of faking this whole look.
I love this look and these plaques happen to be my favorite pieces in my house. What do you think? Do you love it?
More Inspiration:
- A plaque made by Bliss Studio- here
- Plaster medallions of Carl Michael Bellman & Ulla Hopken – here
-
Swedish Plaster Medallions- here
- Wood Wall Plaques- here
Burwood musical plaques before they were painted
The molding I used from Home Depot
Home Office Chair with Casters, Unfinished$130 (Affiliate Link) Sidetable from International Concepts (Affiliate link)- $84 here Imagine […]
The design of your kids rooms should be an extension of your overall home, and your style. You don’t have to have a room filled with cartoon characters plastered all over the walls to be a fun mom.
Here are a couple quick tips for decorating your kids room with youthfulness, while maintaining a beautiful design.
- Limit The Number Of Pieces In A Room- Free up space. Choose a couple of really nice pieces for your kids rooms, and allow there to be some moveable room for your kids to play. Many modern homes simply don’t have big second bedrooms, so think storage when choosing pieces for their room. Functional dressers, and beds with storage options.
- Add Storage Space For Toys – Teach your kids to put away their toys in a specific space. We made over all the closets in our home using a simple brackets bought from Home Depot. Line baskets in the closet where your kids can put away their own toys. Have one row for their clothes, and use the remaining shelves for their toys. When their rooms are cleaner, you don’t loose your mind over the mess.
- Pretty Up Their Space By Adding Wall Shelves- Their real toys can be housed in the closet, while the more decorative antique toys can be on the wall. If you love design, make their room functional, but use the wall space to your advantage. Use wood that can be painted and then distressed. Rarely do you see people using the full extent of the walls. Create book shelves that go to the ceiling, and use the higher shelves for the decorative toys. So many of the thrift stores today have porcelain dolls for next to nothing. I have picked up beautiful porcelain dolls for our daughter for as little as $5 dollars a doll that she can eventually play with.
- Invest In The Right Fabric- Printed fabric can make a huge statement in a room. If you don’t have time to sew, look for bed comforters that gives you the look you are after. Order curtains in the same fabric for throw pillows, or upholster an accent chair using that fabric to match things up.
- Go For A Really Nice Antique- An antique toy on a shelf, or a nice bed can really make a statement in a room. You don’t need a heck of a lot of furniture, or toys…just one really nice piece and few accent pieces to make a room. The Nordic style is based around simple interiors, so work that look by carefully choosing a few really functional, but nice pieces.
- Mix in New With Old- You can get the Swedish look by using new modern pieces. Decorate with pattern, but incorporate new furniture. Go for the classic check pattern with a new bed. Work with ribbon, and bring in color.
- Blow Up A Vintage Print– I bought several picture frames at local yard sales, but the prints were old and outdated. I took a print that my grandmother gave me from a calendar book, and blew it up at Staples. This is a very inexpensive way to fill up large frames with beautiful art work.
See these posts:
My Botanical Print Gallery Wall – Her Site
My Winter Projects- My Nursery And Framing Projects- Part 1
48 Books Of Antique Graphics For Mod Podge Fabric And Wood Transfers
Melissa and Doug Plush Dogs – Amazon
A History of Book Illustration -Amazon This collection of scholarly articles traces the history of book illustration from its first notion in cave art to the early 20th century. It is arranged chronologically with the first section covering the beginning of illustration; the second moves from the illuminated manuscript to the advent of printing; the third and fourth takes the reader from the earliest woodcut illustrations to the beginning of the 20th century; and the final part is concerned with children’s books
This loveseat can be just the piece you need in a room you need to really show off. […]
Alexander Doherty Design Here are a couple modern day interiors which incorporate many of the elements found in […]
The Swedish style is a bright decorating style, in which presents a peaceful, liveable, serene place to live in. The lighter interior looks have always been popular in the Nordic countries for centuries. Pale wall colors, lighter painted furniture, throws and bedding in white, or pastels tended to give the illusion of light, which was particularly welcoming through Sweden’s long winter evenings.
1. Lighter Painted Walls Allow You To Do More With Your Interior
To achieve the Swedish style, consider starting with the foundational walls of your room in a lighter paint tone. Gray, or tones of light green, blue or natural creamy white will complement accessories in touches of warm yellow and gold. Using a neutral base color such as ivory, beige, or light gray will complement additional colors added into the room. Consider soft pink, bold red, for stenciling ribbons, scrolls and gatherings of wheat upon walls.
Like your walls and draperies, keep your floors light and bright. Consider blonde or pale woods, or a lighter hued paint for your floors. If you want to jazz things up, stencil or paint pale designs on the floor’s surface.
- Thinking About Painting Your Floor? Consider These 10 Tips First…. Hersite Blog
- Polish Your Concrete To Make It Look Like Marble- Hersite Blog
- How To Paint Your Wood Subfloor- Hersite Blog
- How To Use Plywood As Wood Flooring- The Swedish Furniture
Floor coverings can make all the difference in a room. Natural fiber rugs, such as berber, jute, sisal rugs are natural and a neutral covering that works with any style and decor choice.
An alternative to painted walls is wallpaper patterns. If you consider wallpaper, work with a neo-classic style with soft colors on a white background. Floral prints, swags, ribbons and bows are a common theme that runs through Gustavian style. A touch of gold gilding is important as an accent, and adds the prestige into your rooms.
- 6 Stencils I have My Eye On- Which One Is Your Favorite? – Hersite Blog
- My Favorite 216 Selections From Wallpaper Direct! The Swedish Furniture
- Wallpaper Used In Svartsjö Palace- The Swedish Furniture
- Spring Summer Checks and Florals For The Swedish Home- The Swedish Furniture
- Buy Floral, Chintz, And Gustavian Wallpaper and Fabrics From My Friend Paula At Lily Oake
2. Pair a Settee At One Side Of Your Dining Table
While many of us may not have the room, a settee at the dining table really looks fabulous if you can pull it off. My friend Stephanie Tuliglowski went for a French Provence look in her house, and paired a large farmhouse table with a French settee. In this photo, you can see she left the settee in it’s natural wood, instead of painting it. It gives the room so much more of a natural, cozy feel.
The “Köksoffa” has been known as the kitchen sofa, and originates from the 1700’s. The idea behind this sofa was it could be used during the day, and then pulled out at night to be used as a bed. Rooms were smaller, and often pieces were created for multi purposes. The sofas were often painted and antique versions often can be seen having a dark patina from the paint aging over time.
3. Rotate Your Collections Through Out The Year
The Nordic style of decorating has always been one to border on minimalism. Invest in pieces that function as storage solutions which can hide away your belongings, while at the same time look decorative.
- Leave Armoire Doors Open- If you have a armoire, paint the inside a different color than the outside, and leave the doors open to display what you have.
- Paint The Inside Of Your Cabinets, Or Bookcases In A Different Color– Spice up your collections by painting the inside of your drawers, or cabinets in a color that will pop. If you are decorating around the creams, consider a darker buff, vanilla, apricot, or saffron for the inside.
- Rotate Your Decorative Accessories through out the year, and mount more of your collections on the wall. If you do collect, consider keeping only the best of what you already own, and discard the rest. Use lighting to draw attention to those items that you want to be seen.
- Group Decorative Items In Pairs, or Collections. Gather your pictures in one spot, and create a collection by using the same frames. Simplify your pictures by working in black and white, or sepia tones. Work with cabinets, bookcases, or wall shelving to give your collections a really upscale look.
- Store Collections In Boxes Which Can Be Painted– In this photo, you can see a picture of Eric Pike’s home office, where magazine boxes, and storage boxes look sophisticated on shelves.
26 Ways To Organize With Shoe Boxes- Kids Room Decor
4. Push Chairs And Side Tables Against The Walls
This is a classic Swedish look that is found in most historical Nordic homes. Chairs and tables were pushed against the wall, creating more space in a room. Furniture was positioned in the center of the room, allowing more room between furniture pieces. Position one chair by itself, or gather your chairs in sets of threes.
5. Redesign Your Closet Space
As soon as my husband and I moved into our new home, I wanted to make the best use of our closet space. You can see some of my closet makeovers at my new website Hersite.
- My Summer Projects, My Garage Makeover-Hersite
Shelving brackets were bought from Home Depot, and wood shelves, which were painted were added to our closets. Paint makes everything so much more inviting.
Why NOT make use of the wall space all the way up to the ceiling? Instead of having one rod in your closet, break the wall up so you can have two rods. Show off those expensive heels you only wear once a year, and coordinate your wardrobe into color schemes. Your closets can look like they were professionally designed.
In this picture of Eric Pike’s home, he transforms an ordinary closet into a beautiful display for his tableware. The interior of the closet is painted in a darker gray, and collections are grouped together.
French Wall Sconces On Ebay
6. Work With Neoclassical Lamps And Mount Wall Sconces For The Classic Swedish Look
Wall sconces can look very romantic in the Swedish setting. We should light candles more often, and working with candles on the wall, than on the table is the safer route to prevent fires from happening.
Decide if you want something simple or ornate in style for wall sconces. Today you can purchase an ornate set of French wall sconces for around $90 dollars on Ebay. Place a set of two sconces on either side of a mirror or painting.
Plain table lamps can be dressed up by recovering plain shades. Purchase simple barrel shades from your local big box store, and re-cover them with the same upholstery material as your accent chairs and slipcovers. Chandeliers and lamps add light to an already bright interior.
- 16 Lamp Updates For My Home In 2 Years- Hersite Blog
Use mirrors to create the illusion of even more open space and to reflect light, and use light colored accents like blue and white china, silver and glass to add shine and style.
House Beautiful- 26 Designers Share Their Favorite Grays
House Beautiful Designer Grays 3: Top Row, 1-Pratt Lamberts Argent 1322, 2-Farrow Balls Light Blue 22, 3- Farrow Balls Green Blue 84 Middle Row, 1- Benjamin Moores Cedar Grove 444, 2-Ralph Lauren Paints Blue-Green GH81, 3-Benjamin Moores Colony Green Bottom Row, 1-Benjamin Moores Heavenly Blue, 2-Benjamin Moores Palladian Blue HC-144, 3-Benjamin Moores Sage Tint
House Beautiful- 26 Designers Share Their Favorite Grays
Benjamin Moore’s Colony Green, Ralph Lauren’s Blue-Green GH81, Benjamin Moore’s Cedar Grove 444
Mora Clock Seen At Bagatelle Antiques, Green Painted Mora Seen On Attic Mag.com, Blue/ Green Mora From Eloquence
19th Louis XVI Gilt Wood Cartel Clock- $189+$88 Shipping From Arek631 On Ebay
Skalin Bell Chime Swedish Gustavian Gallery Wall Clock Louis XV- Starting bid $24 On Ebay
Hau Junghans Rare 19th Cartel Clock $199 From Arek631 On Ebay
Porcher sells a terrific stone top black granite bathroom vanity that has a very attractive Swedish design. These doors feature beautiful reeded wood that bring texture and dimension.The cabinet is made from select veneers and premium hardwood construction. This cabinet is designed to resist moisture and warpage over time making it ideal for the bathroom.
Paint and distress this cabinet with an off white paint. Consider a black to match the black granite top, or consider a red for a country appearance. Distress the cabinet to show off the wood details and add classic Swedish key holes for an upscale antique appearance. Amazon has one for sale from $127.50
Johan and Ingrid Lagerfelt’s Home In Veranda
I have been holding on to Veranda’s November / December 2011 issue which featured an 18th century manor situated in Sabylund, 2 hours west of Stockholm. Built in 1780’s in the Gustavian aesthetic, the house has stayed virtually intact as it was back in the 18th century.
In the red room, chalky white finished chairs with gilt wood embellishments are covered in Chinese red damask. A Swedish day bed functions as a sofa and a bed, and is accompanied by a table surrounded by Gustavian white painted chairs. A Swedish Kakelugn stove has gold painted garlands on the tile. A number of small rectangular portraits hang on the wall.
In the main room, light blue painted walls are framed with wall moldings, and hand painted garlands add a romantic feel to the walls. Sheer drapery allows the light to come into this room. A settee and Louis XVI chairs with a blue and white stripe slipcovers form a seating area with a Empire table and crisp white tablecloth. A pale light blue and white scheme pull together a soft, yet delicate look for this room. A pink rug, and lighter pink upholstery seen on the backs of the chairs offer up a subdued, yet tender room to lounge in. Large gilt oval portraits add a historical feel to the room.
A grand library filled with the owners original books offered a taste of the high life. Books were so much more valuable in the 17th and 18 century, and having a library filled with them, suggests the owners were well off. A 1799 white stucco medallion mounted on a simple wood frame depicts the houses first owner. A Dutch or German table centers the room, with English cane chairs backed to the books. Swedish pewter candlesticks sit on the table, along with a brass telescope for viewing nature. The shelves are painted in a blue/ gray, houses natural leather books adding such rich contrast. Furniture is left in it’s natural wood, which adds a rustic effect.
“The most interesting thing about this house is that it has actually been lived in all these years” says Johan who owns the house. His wife Ingrid Lagerfelt and their two children live in this home currently. Their ancestor inherited the house from the original brother and sister who built the home. Johan is a doctor, and his wife Ingrid farms the estates 2,500 acres of land.
More from Veranda:
- Swedish Design Inspiration – Veranda.com
- Eugenia’s Swedish Shopping Resources – Veranda.com
- Swedish Country Interiors -Book Review – Veranda.com
- Swedish Antique 18th Century Daybed – Juan Montoya
- Winter Warmth – Veranda.com
Johan and Ingrid Lagerfelt’s Home In Veranda
Johan and Ingrid Lagerfelt’s Home In Veranda
An Up-close and Detailed Look At The Wall Painting
Lars Sjoeberg The Swedish Room Photo Credit Ingalill Snitt
If you are wanting depth to your walls, here are some of the very simple faux finishes you can do yourself.
Start by selecting a color theme for your room. In this post you will see a variety of color examples from pale blue, to lighter warm yellows and lighter greens.
Working with glaze, crackle finishes, and distressing techniques can make your furniture appear older than it is. Likewise, layering paint on your walls will also create depth and give you that old world look we all have fallen in love with. Here is how to do it…..
1. Ragged Finishes
Color washes are finishes that are produced with rags and paint.
Color washing is usually is achieved by a using rags which attach to a roller.
The trick to achieving this finish is to work with translucent glaze. Don’t attempt this finish with solid paint. Using a glaze mixture of (half glaze, half paint), paint is applied over a previously painted wall. The effect it produces a subtle textured finish.
A Primitive Effect Using Green, seen on www.ralphlaurenhome.com
Notice the whole wall isn’t ragged, just a small portion of it. Also painted furniture in the same tones are paired in this room to join together the various looks.
Keep All Tones In The Same Color Family
- One tip that I have learned through ragging finishes is to have the glaze mixture matched to be a few shades darker or lighter than the wall color. If you decide to do three colors, keep the tones quite close in color. The overall effect will be soft, and subtle.
Glaze + Paint For A Final Top Coat
- Another trick I have learned is to go over your entire project with a layer or two of glaze mixed in with a small amount of paint. The entire effect of the tinted glaze dulls the look slightly, and hides the roller effects. The idea behind this is to make your work appear subtle. You want to keep people guessing as to what you used to complete the finish.
2. Dry Brushing
Brushed finishes, is an effect which is achieved by dipping your brush into paint, and then removing most of the paint, on a rag. The small amount of paint allows you to add a very soft effect over a previous layer of paint.
The effect depends much on the brush you use. If you use a badger softening brush which tends to be very large and soft, it will produces a soft effect with paint.
I have used this effect with an old broom handle. The bristles are thicker, and harder, and produces lines than a soft shading.
Again, mixing together paint + glaze will allow you to get the look of an additional layer with a faux effect, and you may not have to wipe off the excess paint.
- In this picture, this effect can be achieved by using a dark brown artists oil paint. Most of the paint must be removed from your brush to achieve this look. This look can be achieved using brown artists oil paint over a muted orange base coat, slightly brushing the which highlights some of the raised details.
- Achieve depth to your furniture by applying a lighter coat over top of a painted finish. As you can see with this look, a lighter shade of green-gray is applied over a darker shade of green. This look could be achieved by dry brushing.
3. Sponge Finishes
Sponged faux finishes are those which a paint mixture is applied with a sea sponge.
Sponge painting is still the best and most frequently used mediums when it comes to classic faux finish painting.
Using a sponge, you can use multiple glazes layered over solid paint which gives the illusion of great depth.
Ideally, like most finishes, you want to start with a base coat, and build on it using a glaze mixture. The overall effect should be soft and serene.
Sponging can also be used on furniture to give an old world Swedish look.
In the past, I would use a base coat of brown, and then after it was dry, I would apply a base of oil paint in butter yellow and use a rag, or a textured paper towel to remove the paint. Within just a few minutes of applying the paint, I would remove it, and the oil paint which was wiped off on the rag I would then slightly dab here and there, on the furniture to create a very soft effect, making it seem as there was more layers to the paint finish. After it was dry, dry brushing with the same oil paint was used to blend in the textured effects.
4. Faux Leather
Terrific faux effects can be produced using a very heavy garage bag. Again working with a wall that has been painted, apply a layer of a glaze mixture on the wall. More than half glaze to paint.
Tape the wall in rectangular sections and apply the glaze in the taped area.
Next apply a heavy weight garbage bag to the wall allowing the folds to be pressed into the wall using your arms and hands.
Take the garbage bag off, and the folds of the bag produces a beautiful faux finish.
This is a very easy way to create a classy effect on the walls.
– Great Article- How To Faux Paint
5. Stenciling
Stenciling can be very powerful if it is done right.
Create your own stencils using a stencil cutter which is a fine heated tip that cuts through the plastic blank stencils with precision. Lay a piece of glass in between the stencil and the pattern, and cut away.
17th and 18th Century stenciling has always been the very best model of inspiration.
Here are a few very well done Swedish stenciled homes:
– Book Review: Jocasta Innes Scandinavian Painted Furniture
–Ted and Lillian Williams chateau in Normandy, France
-Neoclassical White Stenciled Walls-Petit Trianon
-Antique Original Red Hand Painted Trunk with Rosemaling Floral Motif
-This photo shows a great example of wall framing simply made by stencils and paint
-Here we see a stunning Rococo design stenciled, or hand painted on the walls for a distinct Swedish look.
White Lacquer Finish Round Accent Table $321 From Overstock On Ebay 17th and 18th century furniture is still […]
Cannot get enough of gray furniture, Nordic style decorating and the lush interiors of Gustav III? Pinterest can be your best friend when it comes to ideas for re-decorating, painting, and inspiration to get your creative juices flowing in the morning. There are hundreds of pages that have to do with themes of the Nordic Heritage. From decorating, to cultural costumes, to travel ideas; pinterest is rich with ideas.
Here are 75 Pinerest pages that have to do with all things Nordic. Follow these pinterest pages I have listed, and if YOU have a page that fits with the Nordic theme that we haven’t listed, PLEASE leave a comment below in the facebook comments section, or regular comments section with a link to your page. Share the love people! You might discover a new friend.
So here we go:
1. Furniture: Gustavian – Meranda Devan here
2. Interior Design: Nordic – Meranda Devan – here
3. Interior Design: Swedish Meranda Devan –here
4. Poutres Blanches- Anne Magnier – Here
5. Jeanne d’Arc Living Magazine Photos- Here
6. Swede Blog- Swedish Antiques- Here
7. Nordic Style From White Lace Cottage- Here
8. Gustavian Style and Inspiration Kristin Fägerskjöld- Here
9. How Swede I am- Judy English- Here
10 Sweden – WP- Daily Themes Group Board- Here
11. Beautiful Pins From antiqbr.blogspot.com here
12 Marie Antoinette Vanna H- Here
13 Day Bed Love Jane Love Here
14 French & Belgian- Anna Tausend- Here
15. Swedens Red Houses Kristin Fägerskjöld- Here
16 Scandinavian Themes -Susanna Nykänen Here
17. Interiors Gustavian Cornélie Polderman –Here
18. Norwegian heritage, foods, crafts Bette Calderone Here
19. Mäster Henriks Blog Kristin Fägerskjöld- Here
20. La Maison de Mes Rêves- Hanna H Here
Carl von Linnaeus home, Hammarby 18th century Swedish Today Linnaeus’ Hammarby is one of Sweden’s most accurately preserved […]
Elements of the 18th century Gustavian style still find their way into our decorating magazines some 200 years […]
In the March 2013 issue of House Beautiful Magazine, featured a home with a unique flair for the […]
Mary Mulcahy’s designs, first developed for her block-printed textiles, now grace the wall with the Les Indiennes collection by IVM Prints. The 12 hand-screened wallpapers include Rayure, left, and Veronique, both in indigo; additional colors are offered, Seen in Elle Decor April 2011
The company Les Indiennes is known for their beautiful hand-blocked textiles. Founder, Mary Mulcahy had a desire to find naturally dyed cotton, with large scale single colored motifs, but was unable to locate fabrics close to what she had in mind, so she created her own. Her concept started to take form after running into a craftsman in southern India, who knew exactly what she was after. In fact, the craftsman was one of the very few artists who still practiced the ancient art of kalamkari, which was an extremely complex and rare method of printing on fabric.
The Kalamkari Process:
1. Fabric Preparation- Cotton fabric is initially softened and bleached. This process needs to be done before any printing takes place. The process involves bales of organic cotton which are repeatedly rinsed and beaten against large rocks, then laid out on the grass to bleach in the sun. These steps ensure that the fabric will feel soft and luxurious, and so that the color application remains bright and vibrant.
2. Block Printing- After the fabric has been softened and lightened, printing begins. Craftsmen dip hand-carved wood blocks in dyes and presses them into the cotton. The dyes are derived from plants, roots, earth, and rock. One can only imagine the great care, and measurements taken to ensure the patterns are straight and line up with one another. Today we take for granted large printing machinery, when at one time, much of this work was done by hand. At Les Indiennes, the fabric is printed by hand, and hours go into each fabric panel. After the patterns are applied, the printed fabric is air dried for at least two days.
Drop leaf table made in Stockholm, Sweden. Details according to the periods highest fashion such as lion feet […]
Garbo Interiors was founded by Anneli Ullman and Barbro Sahlin. After training in design and decor, both in Sweden […]
French Commode Lacquered Red From Live Auctioneers
The color red is grand, and is a color everyone considers for their home at one time or another. The color red is a symbol of privilege and wealth. Official seals often use the red, as a gesture of confidence and authority. Red can make a statement in your home in a very powerful way, although it can be hard to execute. We show you 5 ways to pull off this color with success.
5 Ways Of Using Red In Your Home
1. Use Red In The Kitchen Or Entry Way
Red is the color of passion and has been known to stimulate blood pressure and heart rate. Red also sparks passion, love, and enthusiasm, so it is color often used in romantic restaurants. What better place to encourage conversation and hunger, than at the dinner table.
Consider painting your dining room table red. Instead of painting the whole table red, leave the top untouched, in it’s natural wood state. To add a Swedish touch, consider painting the details in gold. In this post, you can see how lovely a red can look in a country provincial style.
2. Use Red In A Pattern on Decoupaged Furniture
There are many ways of decorating with red other than painting your walls. One way of doing this is decoupaging furniture. Decoupaging is rather easy, and you can execute the process a number of ways.
One way is to use cut outs. Simply find an image you like from a magazine or on the Internet, and photocopy it several times over, which you can then cut out, and apply it to a piece of furniture. This Swedish tiled stove would be an excellent example of how lovely a red floral pattern would look on a chest.
You can even take fabric and glue it to a chest, with modge podge glue. Add pattern into your home, or finish off a room based around patterns by decoupaging your furniture.
Inspirational Posts On Decoupaged Furniture
How To Decoupage Furniture– The Swedish Furniture
Louis XV Style Red Lacquer Side Table From Hastening Antiques – Provincial Furniture
4 Easy Steps To Decoupage Beautiful Furniture– The White Dresser
Decoupage Is Simple! Update Your Kids Furniture– Kids Room Decor
Swedish Interiors: How To Decorate With The Color Red– The Swedish Furniture
3. Use Red In Acessories
-Add a bit of a modern glam using abstract art with bold touches of red. Consider using a heavy ornate frame with a modern poster. Modern Styled Paintings or Posters would add a modern touch in a home with plenty of antiques.
–Juju wall hats are a perfect way of adding a bold touch of red in a room. You can purchase these hats in a number of vibrant colors, which can be placed above a dresser, a console table to add in a bold touch of color into your room.
-Below you see the Stockholm apartment in Sweden with the red room. Below it shows a picture of the living room based in white with natural wood furniture. If you want a room based in lighter colors, consider a large area rug in red, like they did. An over-sized floor rug can make a bold impression.
– Another way of adding saturated color into your rooms is to accessorize with red wool blankets. Point blankets can add a rustic touch to your home, and can be thrown over the sofa, or used on the bed, or stacked on a shelf.
– Chairs are a great way of implementing red into a room. Chair frames can be painted red, or upholstered in red fabric.
-If red walls are a bit too risky for you to consider then why not consider red and white bedding? Paint your bed-frame red, with touches of gold, and consider getting a comforter, sheets,a pillowcases all in red. Or paint the frame gold and red, and go with an all white sheeting as you see below.
To start thinking about how you would like to include red in your home, here are a couple […]
Lars Bolander: Interior Design & Inspiration offers a fresh take on Swedish decorating. Lars Bolander has been referred […]
If you have seen the previews for the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it features a captivating estate many Nordic lovers would instantly recognize as Swedish. This striking castle featured in the movie is “Yxtaholms Castle”, located on an island in Sörmland, just like it is seen in the movie. Yxtaholms Castle was built in 1753 by Baron Gustaf N. Clodt.
Released in December 2011, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, tells a murder mystery family saga, a love story, and adds political intrigue to produce a multilayered story line.
The movie sets around a charactor- Harriet Vanger, whom is from one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, and had disappeared over forty years ago. Years later in the film, her aged uncle (billionaire Henrik Vanger), continues to seek the truth of her disappearance. He engages Mikael Blomkvist (a journalist ) into his quest to find the truth, by offering to financially back the struggling Millennium magazine if the journalist will solve the mystery.
The thriller, set in Sweden, shows the beauty of the Scandinavian cold winters and elegant interiors, which are highly contrasted by a pierced and tattooed punk Lisbeth Salander, who is a computer hacker with photographic memory. She joins forces with Blomkvist to uncover the truth about the 40-year-old disappearance.
The Yxtaholms Castle Website tells us that the castle, stables and wings were built in 1753. Yxtaholm began to flourish in the 17th century and today it is a modern hotel, restaurant and conference centre. Design Guy University Blog tells us that the castle is now owned by owned by female Polish millionaire Iwona de Jong who bought the property for $35M in 2010. Today it functions as a hotel, and has been
updated. The conference center is now located in the large stable building. Yztaholms castle has 79 rooms and is about an hour and a half drive from Stockholm.
Additional Pictures of Yxtahoms
-A picture of Yxtaholms Castle on Flicker
–Design Guy University Blog– Historical Details on Yxtaholms with great pictures!
–Lovisas Guldkorn Blog– Showing pictures of the suite in one of the wings, and in the hall where an amazing wooden ceiling is painted.
-Another picture of Yztaholms Exterior- Flicker
-Another look at this hotel from John Haudi’s Flicker
-Another picture of Yztaholms Exterior Halsokallan.blogg
Yxtaholms Castle – www.svenskamoten.se
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In a corner of the living room, a 1940s mercury glass lamp stands on a rough, round Empire-style table next to two 1920s Scandinavian painted chairs. The graceful wing-backed chaise dates from the 1930s and is upholstered in simple white canvas duck, with natural linen pillows from Ruby Beets.- House Beautiful Magazine
If you haven’t ever seen Ruby Beets home, you are in for a treat. Featured in House Beautiful Magazine back in July of ’06 , this house has the perfect mix of old world charm,and rustic surprises that make it very interesting to the eye. The raw painted furniture, iron decorative items, wood panels and paint color choices are particular elements of the interior styles found in Sweden.
If you enjoy the country cottage looks, but want something more upscale, borrow ideas from this home. Here are a couple suggestions from this interior.
1. Have Slipcovers Made- Spend the extra money and have tailored slipcovers made that will give you the comfortable feel like this home. Swedish textiles were mostly made from organic materials. Consider materials like muslin, duck, or canvas. Many people are taking drop cloths sold in hardware stores and bleaching them. Today you can buy pure white duck or canvas cloth in off white, and various shades of cream, and blue amongst other colors.
2. Invest in Great Antiques– I am not one of those people who are afraid of touching antiques. My best advice, is if you find a sensational chair, improve it and make it your own. Buy the upholstery fabric that makes you happy. Buy the hardware that you will enjoy looking at day after day. Make it YOU!
It is amazing what a strip job will do for your wood furniture. Taking off the varnish will allow the paint to sink into the wood, that when you do to distress the wood, the overall finish looks so much better than painting it alone. For years I have used a chemical stripper until I bought a heat gun, and I never knew that stripping furniture was soooooo easy and fast! If you want to get a rustic look for your furniture, working with the bare wood is the ticket to high quality Swedish looks.
3. Use Black Somewhere- Swedish interiors are usually based around light colors such as blue, light greens, gray and so forth. You would be amazed how nice black stands out against a lightly colored wall. I used to love black painted furniture, that everything was painted black until I fell in love with lighter painted furniture, and all of our furniture was repainted in white or gray. Our walls in our house are painted a light blue, and after debating what color to paint a hallway floor clock, I decided to plunge for black, and was it ever a great decision! Everyone comments on it, because it sure stands out against the lighter colored walls. Contrast can be a surprise! Black colored furniture looks exceptionally well in lighter interiors. Even if you have just one piece in black, it can look sensational!
Here are some of the comments from Ruby Beets featured in Home Beautiful that were particularly interesting
“I was a vintage clothing dealer in the’70s. I’ve been buying old stuff forever. Ruby Beets used to be about the found object school of antiques. My partner and I would buy a dresser and it would have peeling paint and we thought that was romantic. But now we want the drawers to work—enough with the drawer bottoms falling out! The new store is a cleaner, more modern and edited version of what we used to do. My house is too. Life is irritating enough at a certain age. Anyway, I like a lot of white, you can see that. All the furniture is slip-covered in muslin or cotton duck so I can remove it and wash it, which I do every six weeks. I guess, unless something horrible happens. I like big graphic shapes. Those white dishes and things in the kitchen cabinets, some are vintage and some are new ironstone, which we carry in the store. That cabinet we
bought from the local hardware store here. It went out of business, and they had 52 feet of glass cabinetry that we took and put in the kitchen. ”
“When you walk in, you don’t know what age the house is, but it feels like something old. I love it because it feels transparent inside. Hie boards are painted gray like the sea in winter, and because we have no near neighbors we have nothing on the windows—you can see from the front door all the way through to the water at the back. You can see a lighthouse in the distance. The girls used to say they lived in a lighthouse.”
“My husband is an obsessed fisherman, but he’s catch-and-release. He also collects taxidermy fish. He probably has 50 or 40 in his office.”
What is the significance of the name, Ruby Beets?-“Oh. I don’t know. I made it up years ago. But it’s catchy, right?”
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Gustavian Trågsoffa, via Skona Hem
Wood floors are one of the most recognized design feature of the Swedish Gustavian look. Rustic planked wood is a top choice for flooring in the design industry. Wood floors are easy to maintain, and they are associated with the utmost quality and taste. Hardwood flooring will outlast carpet in any competition making it a smart investment.
If you have children or pets, carpet gets dirty. Pets that come in and out of the house bring dirt back into the home, and over time, the carpets become soiled. In this situation, carpeting only looks good after they are shampooed. While I am not here to beat up carpet, as there are many styles of carpet that are elegant choices, wood flooring maintains better over the years. Even if you decide to go with one of the less expensive wood alternatives, you are assured that this look is easier to maintain than carpet.
It wasn’t until the Baroque Era began, that wood flooring became an option for the home. Before 1625, most European houses continued to have dirt floors. Wealthy families utilized elm or oak boards which were held on joists. Once wood floors gained popularity, it became known as a more affluent design choice. Throughout the 17th and 18th century wood flooring flourished. Solid wood plank flooring, was installed in many homes, and many trend setting homes painted their floors. Upscale homes installed the richer designs such as parquet and marquetry wood patterns. Wood flooring today is still the most desired flooring, surpassing stone flooring.
Gustavian Trågsoffa, via Skona Hem
Gustavian Trågsoffa, via Skona Hem
Gustavian Trågsoffa, via Skona Hem
Gustavian Trågsoffa, via Skona Hem
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Pine Plywood | Design Build Love
I stumbled across a DIY trend out there where people are cutting their own “planks” out of plywood. It seems rather unusual at first, but the results really surprised me. You get the look of real wood flooring which you can sand, paint, stain, varnish, or white wash, for fractions of the cost.
“We tore up nasty old carpet, then cut grooves in the plywood that was under the carpet to replicate plank flooring with a skill saw – and used a dremel to get closer to the walls. This worked better than the router which was recommended in the web article I got this idea from. We stained and then did three coats of poly. Everyone’s amazed that this isn’t ‘real’ plank flooring! We varied the width of the planks, using a 2×4 as a guide.”
There are a couple of links I want to share that might move you in the direction of considering this look.
1. Layers Of Learning Blog Flooring Transformation
Layers Of Learning Blog posted absolutely stunning photos of a room that they used plywood cut into 6″ strips of wood.
They mention in their article that plywood floors allowed them to transform their WHOLE house because of the low cost of the materials. This certainly a reason to consider this option. Many people can only afford a couple rooms with the other options. Plywood is so inexpensive, that you can do it yourself, and it is affordable.
Plywood gives you the option to cut wide planks with real grain. For those of you who want the REAL thing, this would be an affordable way of getting the look for less.
Buying plywood allows you to do one room at a time. It doesn’t matter if your project takes you a couple months to a year to complete, because plywood is practically the same from store to store. The finishing process allows you to dent, distress, and apply paint or stain which unifies the space.
Another plus to plywood floors is if something is spilled on the floors, which ruins several boards, all they would have to do is rip up the damaged boards, and replace them with the same finishing paint, stain or varnish!
PLY Wood Floors By Layers Of Learning Blog
Here are some of their costs:
Living room – 20′x13′ which equals 260 square feet.
$13.97 each on 9 sheets of 11/32″ “CD” grade plywood = $125.73, See the rest of the break down on their blog Layers Of Learning Blog
Here are some of their tips to consider.
Don’t Buy the Premium Brand Of Plywood
“There are different grades of plywood. “A” grade is the nicest, it comes with one very clean and sanded side. This is not what we went with because, as the guy at Lowe’s said, we can sand it ourselves and save big $$$. A sheet of “A” grade plywood costs about $28 in our market, but a sheet of “C” grade plywood is only about $14.”
Let The Wood Adjust To The Temperature Of The Room
” After the plywood is cut, stack it in the room where you’ll be laying it for a couple of days.”
2. Quarry Orchard Blog
Quarry Orchard Blog also put together a beautiful floor made from Plywood. In their “Plywood To Plank Flooring Tutorial“
They decided to tackle a redoing the room above their garage with a square footage of approximately 533. They decided to go with 6 inch strips that were all 8 feet long. They were shocked that it only took them an hour and 45 minutes to cut the sheets into the planks.
A Couple Tips From The Quarry Orchard Blog
– They started with the first board and squared it with the wall, leaving a 1/16 inch gap between the first board and the wall.
– Be sure to use a nail punch to make sure that the nails at least flush with the flooring.
– Clean up the look by being sure the nails are all in line and evenly spaced. Have a helper that can measure and mark the wood. They measured every 16 inches for each nail. Consider making a jig to help with the measuring and marking for where the nails are to go. This will enable you to line up the previous board and mark rather than measure for every single nail.
Check out the final pictures of this room! What a transformation!
A Break Down Of Their Material Costs:
16 sheets of 15/32 pine plywood @ $16.49 per sheet
9 gigantic tubes of Liquid Nail @ $4.75 each
10 lbs of cut nails (ordered from Tremont Nail Company) @ $69.63 (includes s&h)
4 gallons of Varathane polyurethane @ $37.46 per gallon
2 quarts of stain @ $9.99 each
3. Tidbits From The Tremaynes Blog
For their stunning transformation they used 4×8 sheets of plywood; cut into 8 inch strips, and laid it like a regular hardwood floor. They used an old nailgun, some pennies to space out the wood, for the old farmhouse-style look. The cost was $60. Fabulous!!
About to open a shop in Newport, RI, store owner Jordan decided to tackle the outdated carpet flooring that came with the shop. Being that the shop was a historic home built in the early 1700′s, she wanted something more period appropriate.
She decided to go with the standard 1/2″ thick 4′ x 8′ sheets at a cost of just under $20 each. In order to have zero waste, she chose to have the boards cut into 8 inch by 8 foot lengths, giving her six planks per sheet of plywood.
When she got back to the shop, she laid them out, and sanded all rough edges and splinters, and decided to white wash them before nailing them down. She mixed up 1/4 CeCe Caldwells Simply White Chalk Paint and 3/4 water. She then used a roller attached to a broom handle to apply a coat of the white washed paint to all of the planks.
After all the planks were dry, her fiance Brett, started working on nailing the planks to the flooring. They used Bostik flooring adhesive to the backs of the plywood planks, which were then laid into place and nailed into the floor. Brett used 1 1/2″ nails and shot them in on an angle. The nails were spaced out about every 12″, placing two all along either side of each plank. Brett used a metal straight edge for a spacing guide, which gave the perfect distance between planks. As Brett went on nailing down the boards, he used a table saw to cut some of them into different lengths so that the boards would have more of a staggered look.
Onni Hotelli Kuvia Picture Credit Ranskalainenpatonki.blogspot
Painted wood floors are making a come back, and we believe that painted floors will become even more popular than we see today. In the past, finer homes installed decorative parquet floors and inlaid patterns. In the 17th and 18th century paint also was the means to create these decorative patterns on the floor, many which mimicked parquetry. Painted wood floors made it possible for more light to enter into the home, as the winter season in Sweden was quite dark. Rustic unfinished wood over time, darkens, and painting the wood just seemed like a practical approach of having a brighter home without spending a bundle.
Raw wood accepts paint so much nicer, and allows the paint to distress beautifully over time. Sanding wood, allows the paint to soak into the wood, compared to painting over varathane floors which may scratch easier with foot traffic. Homeowners with existing floors often have to carefully think carefully about how they go about re-finishing their wood floors,because the process can be pretty involved. Refinishing wood floors can seem more labourous than painting, and often times it is. Sanding wood floors can be a time-consuming task.
There are a couple steps that cannot be skipped and we list them out below:
1. Prep
This involves removing your furniture from the room. Once you start belt sanding the floors, there will be dust everywhere. It can be a bit time consuming sealing off the house with drop cloths, or plastic tarp, but it is necessary for a great finish.
2. Sanding
The most time labourous part by far is sanding. Using a belt sander will kick up a ton of saw dust, and cleaning up the dust, which ends up everywhere becomes a tedious job. Sanding an entire floor can take up to 4 hours or several days depending on the size of the room.
Renting industrial professional tools saved my husband and I a lot of time when we refinished parquet floors in a rental in Virginia. Drum sanders are large machines that can handle large floors, and are very easy to operate. Drum Sanders can be rented at around $40 to $50 per day. I would highly recommend it than using a small scale sander that you can buy from a Hardware store.
Most homeowners choose to rent the specialty equipment and then purchase the more standard tools at their local hardware stores. Edge or orbital sanders are terrific for sanding the edges of the floor that the drum sanders cannot reach. A handheld power tool lets you tackle the tight corners, and are worth purchasing outright from Home Depot or Amazon. They allow you tools for additional furniture projects in the future.
3. Staining, or Painting
While everyone in the design community has their favorite paint brands, I would highly suggest going with a oil based paint. Oil holds up longer and has a tougher finish than any water based brands.
I would highly suggest sanding your room down to its bare wood, before painting. Painting over an existing paint is always possible, but the extra work pays off when the paint naturally distresses over time, which shows the wood through rather than an unsightly under color.
Sanding down to the natural wood also allows you to pickle the floors. White washed floors in my opinion are much nicer than painting the floors, because the wood gives the room a bit of depth and natural appeal.
In this post I show a photo of the Behr Wood Stain that is highly recommended. The stain is available in a number of colors, and evens out nicer than just paint that is mixed with water. Behr has a number of colors available that are off white, gray, beige that would work nicely with the Swedish interior schemes. Mixing paint with a bit of water or stain work rather nicely.
Many people suggest applying paint with a professional paint brush which gives a smooth finish, rather than with a roller, which creates a stippled finish. Today you can purchase smooth rollers which can be used with extension pole to apply paint. Rollers are inexpensive ranging from $4 to $7 per pack. A pole will be anywhere from $5 to $40, depending on length and material.
You can choose a variety of different approaches with your paint choices….
If you decide to work with an existing painted floor, a great oil based primer is “Coverstain by Zinsser” This paint can be tinted almost any lighter color, dries very fast, and can be mixed with most other oil paints. Coverstain is in fact a primer that will adhere to almost anything, and would be a fantastic choice for the floors.
One gals review of Coverstain -“Zinsser oiled based primer is like gold”
(Please note that Kilz or Coverstain primers should never be used on concrete floors. Go to Lowes or Home Depot, and buy stain or paint made just for concrete floors. Concrete stain doesn’t flake off on concrete like paint does)
As a top coat on your wood floors, you can purchase a Water-based polyurethane clear varnish, to seal in the tinted paint, or purchase water based, or oil based paint for your top coat. I have tinted this paint many shades of gray, blue, green and yellow. It is marvelous on furniture. This primer dries flat, allowing almost any other paint to be applied to it. It serves as your primer and your base paint, allowing you to just then seal the color in with a water based sealant.
If you are working with a previous painted floor, floors need to be sanded for the paint to stick properly. The worst is when you skip sanding, and the first time you move a furniture piece only to have the paint come off in sheets, or scratch. You will have regretted not sanding.
Sand first, and then paint the floors with a paint formulated for the flooring. We had painted our deck with paint formulated for the outside, and we are so glad we spent the extra money, because rain or snow, the paint hasn’t chipped.
4. Sealing
Polyurethane is an oil based sealant, that is NOT suggested for lighter colored paints. If you use this over your floors, in a week or a matter of days, the floors will have a tinge of yellow. You might then have to consider re-painting your white floors.
Polyurethane works perfect on unpainted wood, or on darker paint colors such as red, navy, black and so forth. A water based varnish is required for lighter based floor colors such as light gray, white, or cream.
You’ll have to wait 6 hours for each coat of polyurethane sealant to dry. It is recommended that most floors require at least 3 coats to achieve best results, and many professionals suggest 24 hours in between each coat of urethane. It also takes up to 3 days before you can move furniture back into the room and walk on the floors again.
Onni Hotelli Kuvia Picture Credit Ranskalainenpatonki.blogspot
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