A few weeks ago, I was pet-sitting for a Canadian friend who, like me, lives and works in Sweden. She has a beautiful old house in a small town in northern Skåne (not far from where we work in Älmhult) and what I loved about it is that she isn’t afraid of pops of colour.
Even though the walls are white, there are vibrant Iitala, Marimekko and IKEA prints everywhere. Plus, she has filled her walls with colourful original paintings and lithographs which add so much energy and character to her home.
Some wall colours are better than others
I count myself lucky that my Swedish husband loves color. He hates white walls and beige everywhere. When we bought our first condo, he told me that the white walls (which the previous owners had splashed everywhere) made him feel like he was in a mental hospital. Neither of us could sleep properly. We absolutely hated the absence of any color. In fact, thinly color in the apartment came compliments of a hideous mural in the kitchen (a poorly done tribute to a Joy Division album cover) and the hardwood oak floors in the apartment. When we couldn’t take the cold white walls any longer, we experimented with color.
Some experiments were more successful than others.
The chocolate brown accent wall paired with in the living room? Two thumbs up from both of us. The deep red wallpaper in the bedroom that made it feel lsexy and warm and inviting? We both loved it. The yellow hallway that was supposed to be pale but looked more like Big Bird? Hated it. We ended up painting it white again but we chose a warm shade that was more like ecru than white-white.
Instead of being neutral, be vibrant
Too often, as we’ve moved around Stockholm, Älmhult and now to Malmö, we have seen way too many houses and apartments where it’s obvious the owners were afraid to even try with any color. The walls are white or a flat and boring shade of grey. The floors are whitewashed or grey.
They’re so careful to NOT make any mistakes that they make the worst mistake of all – being boring. When you walk into these homes, they don’t feel like anyone made any memories there. They feel like mausoleums of “lagom” in the worst way. Like they’ve spent too much time worrying about if they’ll make a profit on the sale (newsflash: you will – just hide some of the clutter) and let people feel like you actually *lived* and *made memories* there.
Our palette at the moment
We are in the slow process of painting our apartment in Malmö. It’s going a little slower than expected, mostly because I am still going through the grieving process.
But I found three colours I love from Klint: Santa Fe, Pigeon Blue and Verdure.
We’ve used Santa Fe in our kitchen. Verdure will be the color of our hallway and Pigeon Blue will be in our bedroom. The kitchen is done – will post images soon. Once we are back from Sicily, I will begin painting the hall and the bedroom.
I’m finding painting to be very therapeutic. Unfortunately, I injured my right shoulder back in late-February/early-March, so I have not been able to get as much done as I’d hoped. My shoulder is finally starting to feel better, so I can focus on painting again.
In the meantime, I’m working on a new novel. Not sure when it will be done, but I love the story so far. I will share a bit of it with you soon.
