Hope you are enjoying your summer.
We arrived in Sweden this week to an almost finished house I couldn’t be happier. Living in two houses that are being renovated while renovating and designing for others can put you over the edge! You might remember the water damage disaster that ruined our country house.
Furniture sources here in the country side are sparse and contractors work on their own schedule (which drives me crazy!) so you have to go with the flow. As far as interiors you don’t strive for perfection, just simplicity and functionality. Honestly when you are in the business of always trying to make things perfect – imperfection is actually refreshing.
The kitchen is almost done. The walls are now a bold yellow. I love super strong more modern tones of colors as a backdrop to old things.
All the old furniture pieces stayed.
The sofa is an old Swedish bed sofa that people in the 1800’s used for guests and often it was the place where farmhands and maids slept in the country houses.
The fur pillows, pendant and vase are from Ikea. The flowers are handpicked. The pillows are the Sunshine Embroidered Monogram designs from my line Jill Sorensen Lifestyle.
The strong yellow color is the perfect antidote to the moody blue skies outside.
The cool air and the sunny inside is a fun contrast.
The chairs are antiques, and the table we found in the barn and painted it white.
As I said…around here simplicity goes.
I love checked Swedish floors so I decided to make it easy and install a vinyl floor from Tarkett.
In case you missed it this is what our kitchen looked like last summer….
As you can see a big improvement!
We have a floor.
The counter top is temporarily just resting as Ikea sent the wrong depth. Ikea birch counters are my favorite.
Love the Ikea pendant – basic but cool.
I headed over to my favorite local store….my recycle obsessed brother’s Återbruket in Karlstad.
There you can buy people’s discarded furniture and landfill dropoffs. Aterbruket repairs everything then resells it. In a country who values nature above anything and recycles 99% of their trash it’s popular. If you are local you should pay it a visit. Saturdays they serve fresh baked bread and coffee and I promise you it’s the perfect treasure hunt.
It’s mostly tech and lighting but I always manage to find some furnishing items I like.
This yellow vase was someone’s trash….
Not sure what this can be called…Landfill chic?
The carpet it my Monogram cotton carpet in Sky Blue from Jill Sorensen Lifestyle.
The older I get recycling and caring for the earth becomes more and more important.
Someones trash can be your treasure.
Do you by recycled stuff?
In our attic I found this cool old Swedish print and framed it.
The kitchen is now a fun place to hang and I was happy to have my cousins Susanne and Hans here from Denmark to enjoy it.
Bottom line is, don’t take decorating your place to seriously.
How important is buying vintage to you? Do you have any good steals you want to share?
Leave a Reply