New Swedish Style [antikvár]

: r'.I,ll I " ' II''mmmNEW SWEDISH STYLEIntroducing The LookAs a Scot, I share the Scandinavians' love of the clear northern unpretendous look, and that emphasis on light and simplicity, light. It has a cool whiteness that can be dazzling to the eye and There was such clarity and yet it was so cosy.uplifting to the soul. One of the first principles of Swedish style is to bring this light into the home.I first discovered Swedish style - and, in fact, Scandinavian styleWlien I started my career as an interior designer, Carl Larsson's drawings and illustrations continued to be uppermost in my mind as I rebelled against the opulence of 1980s fashion; indeed, Iin general - when I was a drama student in the 1960s, through the became completely obsessed with recreadng the Swedish look.plays of Ibsen and Strindberg. Sparsely furnished and yet still romandc, the sets reflected the Scandinavians' love of nature and their attempts to recreate it indoors. Then, in the mid-'Learn the Swedish art of paring down and keeping things simple.'And at that stage I had not even visited Sweden. When I finally did cross the North Sea, it was the casdes and manor houses that made the greatest impression on me. They were1970s, a theatre designer friend, who often designed ballet sets for more formal and often much grander than Larsson's home, butthe Theatre Royal in Stockholm, started to send me postcards; as well as photographs of Swedish interiors, there were illustrations by Carl Larsson, a painter-illustrator famous for his simple, elegantthat essentially Swedish simplicity was sdll evident.Calm and light, unassuming and uncluttered, the Swedish look is not only attractive to the eye but easy to live \vith too. In my owndrawings and paintings of his family and home in Sundborn,design work, I have tried to use the spirit of authentic Swedish st)'leSweden, who worked at the turn of the twentieth century It wasas inspiration for designing my own interiors today; radier thanreally the interiors of Larsson's home that caught my imagination.slavishly copying all the individual elements, I interpret theIt felt as if I had been searching for years for exactly thatoriginal source. I hope that you too will be inspired.This sitting room in central London encapsulates the key elements of Swedish design: simplicity, symmetry and the maximum use of light.