The prevailing style of decor in the capital of Sweden has been a topic in this blog several times. My apology and explanation is that I – during my four months long search and hunt for an apartment to buy – glanced through countless real estate ads and visited numerous styled Stockholm homes. It has been summed up in Scandinavian style and the “colour” Stockholm-White (its definition and colour code is disputed, some holds it’s S 0502-Y). Now, I stumbled across the (very fine) blog Splendid Willow, written by Monika, who is a native Swede living in the US. She has recently listed the design elements you can be sure to find in a Stockholm apartment:

* White. Swedes embrace gallons and gallons of white paint.
* Hardwood floors with individual rugs (Swedes stopped using wall to wall carpeting decades ago).
* State of the art kitchens.
* State of the art bathrooms.
* Books! Books are prominent, we surround ourselves with books and display them with pride.
* A great mix of old and new. A true Swede will rather have no furniture at all than to get rid of historical elements such as old wood burning stoves and the old beams.

I endorse all the points and add to the list:

* Naked windows. A fear of curtains lives inside the city homes.
* Stylish lighting. Lighting is a crucial point. Right now, two trends stand out: large round lights hanging from the ceiling (the IKEA Maskros lamp probably sell like crazy) and chandeliers, preferably crystal.
* Well-arranged wardrobes. Again, you’ll never escape IKEA, that company has distorted our brains showing their shelving systems with thousands of practical options. (The dream of a walk-in closet is intrinsic but not always pronounced.)

Proof. (Exhibit A to F)

|photos from Skeppsholmen|

And that’s the lamp I’m talking about.: Isn’t it great! The good old Anglepoise lamp has been around since the 1930s (invented by British motor car designer George Carwardine) and I bet most of us will have had some version of this lamp illuminating our desks at some point. The Giant Anglepoise Lamp is three times the size of the original lamp and was created in celebration of the 70th Birthday of the Anglepoise.

I really like this lamp! It’s so deliciously out of proportion and would make a cool design statement in any room (I want it in my study). Handmade in England, this lamp doesn’t come cheap however… prices range from £1,200 to £1,990 depending on colour (check out the range at Anglepoise)

Right, now all I need to do is go and convince my husband that we need to spend two grand on a giant desk lamp… erm… Just in case this should fail, I would consider settling for this one designed by Muno available at RockettsStGeorge. It’s actually rather nice as well and only costs £249!