swedish furniture Archives

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Meet the muse – Eva Ekestern

It has been a long time since I shared a ‘meet the muses’- interview. I had a chat with Eva Ekestern from Ekesterna Furniture Restoration in Uppsala in Sweden.

When I first saw Eva’s Instagram account, it was brand new, but it was high quality from the start. The colour choice, furniture choice, staging and photography blew me away. I’ve been in the business of painted furniture for many years now and I know that many people go through a learning process with their painted furniture business, one little step at a time. Social media, photography, staging, … learning everything takes time. The fact that Eva delivered such beautiful results right from the start made me curious about her talent, background and her inspiration. Read more →

From Belgian neutrals to Scandinavian black

There’s no such thing as one Scandinavian or Nordic interior style, but there are a lot of elements I’m starting to recognize as Nordic. One of those is black. I was never into black, not a single bit. Growing up around Belgian homes, I dreamed of linen curtains, oak wooden floors combined with neutrals, neutrals and more neutrals. Never black. I have changed though, on more than just one level. Interior design is one of those. I’m getting into black. Seriously! Read more →

From Swedish stuga to shop: the renovation

I’m finally ready to share pictures of our shop renovation. The plan to renovate was there since we bought our Swedish house in April 2016. It had an extra (small) building (a stuga), full of charm on the outside, but old and dark on the inside. I was so focused on the end result that I didn’t even bother to take before pictures (which I regret now, ofcourse!). At that time it was very dark in general in Sweden, so that didn’t really help my motivation to pick up my camera. Read more →

Bucket list of furniture pieces: the Swedish bench

Oh the Swedish bench, something I had been dreaming about since we bought our first home in 2005. Around that time there were some antique dealers in Belgium and Holland that offered them, but the prices were not for my budget. Later a lot of dealers started to sell Hungarian benches, and though similar in shape and style, let’s be honest: it’s not a Swedish bench! I also wanted to find one myself. That spark of adrenaline when you hit the perfect piece for a good price on a market, that was also something I was after. Read more →

The Dream Collector Workbook

When I woke up this morning I snapped pictures from the birds and bees in our front yard. I put a picture on Instagram and decided it was going to be a take-it-easy and slower day. One to enjoy the sunshine, draw a little and develop a few coaching exercises.

But … sometimes the urge to work hard, finish projects and forget about everything else shows up unexpectedly. It’s a wonderful feeling and it happened this afternoon. It’s that zone I wrote about a few weeks ago, where I have a challenge, a clear goal and I can use my skills. If you missed that post about creative flow, you can read it here. I would have never guessed that by the end of this wonderful, so-called slower day, my Dream Collector Workbook would have been finished. Read more →