Today, the winner of the contest “Sweden’s Most Charming Home” (held by real estate agent Fastighetsbyrån) was presented. The most charming home in this country is inhabited by Pia Qvist, who describes it as “Charming and personal, with a consistent style. A home filled with personal things, full of history”.

A lovely, Swedish, country style. Above is my favourite pic. Can’t recall I’ve ever seen a sweeter fire place / wood stove area! The very definition of charming and very well in the spirit of decor guru Pippi Longstocking. Of course it’s too much white for my (and I guess, also Pippi’s) tastes, but a bucket of paint for the dining set and I’ll move in, oh and one for the walls too; it’s indeed very homespun and nice. I like the pic below also, especially the rug and the adorable blue mirror display. The fact that the vintage door and the candlestick seem rather haphazardly thrown in – although they perfectly match the beautiful chandelier – makes it all more interesting. Or maybe it’s the parallel story going on with the cupboard (almost a Christmassy vibe there) that makes it intriguing. Either way, I like it!

More pics, and the other finalists, here.

Welcome to my place! And where better to start off a housetour than in the hallway? My favourite items here are the quirky clown bust and the vintage-find mirror.

Another view. I really enjoy the colour infusion from the purple wood floor (painted in Farrow and Ball’s “Pelt”) and the roughness of the diy branch chandelier – which casts great shadows in the nighttime.  Still a lot of unfulfilled decoration potential and empty walls around, but slowly and surely I aim to fill them up!

Finally, a glimpse below of the living room… The glam flowers in the Chinese urn are from my husband on our wedding anniversary last week – regrettably not a permanent fixture in this room! :) That’s it for now, but the housetour will continue shortly. Next up, dining room and kitchen!

| photos by mia @ trendey |

The retro trend shows no signs of cooling off – quite the opposite! In 2011, we love things retro, calling on 50s and 70s mainly it seems, but all decades from 70s and further back are having a groovy revival. One single retro detail (like a vintage radio, retro phone, etc), some pices of retro furniture or full mid century nostalgia – all variations are present. I love this space, from the home of Hilda Grahnat. It’s interesting, laidback and pretty – and smashingly trendy.

I even spy a rag rug! And I love the license plates. I actually have a really nice German temporary license plate saved from when I went to Germany in 2006 and bought myself a car. It has been hanging in my father’s garage since but some time ago I brought it home and it’s now standing on a kitchen shelf! (And actually, my father revealed Henen had taken the other one!! Had no idea, cool we were both hunting number plates. And Henen, of course you can have my other plate, good there are always two)) Also, I really like this wallpaper below from Sanderson‘s 50s collection. It reminds me of the beloved Granny-style wallpapers I used to hunt (without result, may I add. Though I still dream of finding an old house with original wallpapers intact). Anyhow, a nice composition this one.

Lastly, a fresh retro-ish space via Style by Emily Henderson. Rarely have whiskey looked this neat! A great and so harmonious display on the sweet retro cabinet. And the tree/greenery – I love it that houseplants and flowers are visiting interior scenes again. Not a decade too late!

Friday it’s Midsummer’s Eve! I will go the midnight-sunny North and I will collect seven different wild flowers and put under my pillow to sleep on. Always have. (and never remembered what I dreamt!) See you when I see you.

In the meantime, while Trendey sisters focus on their regular careers & professions, we have the greatest blog tips for you: Dos family. As always, you might already know all about it, but if not: this is a blog by decorator (slash designer, columnist, TV-presenter, etc)  Isabelle Halling McAllister and photographer Jenny Brandt (who also has the sammy rose blog + shop) The lovely pics above are shot by Jenny at Isabelle’s. I think the black wall display is fabulous! And there’s loads of more inspiration on playful and charming kids’ rooms (like the one right) on their site. It’s undoable (and unnecessary) to define their interior style tastes, but I’d summarize it Happy Scandinavian :) Clearly creative, retro, personal, arty, homey, free-spirited and fun. Below is a really nice example of a ‘Dos Visit’, photographer Jenny Brandt visits Lisa Grue’s home. More of this lovely retro charm can be found here.

I think these two rooms below are very interesting! The decor is simple, yet the Josef Frank wallpaper looks nicer than ever together with the retro/vintage caramel sofa. The bathroom could have been downright boring but the pink pastel door (and a photo display or something hidden behind it) and the orange rug on the grey patterned floor is ‘all it takes’ to give the place some interesting character.

| all photos: Jenny Brandt @ DosFamily |

Now, lastly, I will join DosFamily’s upcoming blog battle – no idea what it will be about, but I will take the challenge :)

Rag rugs have gone from being a standard element in (at least Swedish) homes, to almost oblivion, to newly awakened wide popularity. Just have a peek though our rag rug tag, there’s quite a lot of fresh decor scenes with this feature. Like well, our hallway! ;) Of course, rag rugs are right on target in today’s passion for reusing and recycling. Personally, I have always loved – and lived with – these handicrafts, which are often a hodgepodge of old t-shirts, bed sheets and other scraps of fabric. And I’m happy I managed to save the ones woven by Grandma from being thrown away. And also, that we got some – beautiful blueish ones – form Mike’s Grandma. Fine as stuff, as we say in Sweden.

A neat manufacturer in this rag rug wave is the Swedish company RugCycle, with the (from the name obvious) concept of recycling rugs.  Their new 2nd collection is actually a homage to rag rugs, designed in collaboration with the TV-profile and Northern Swedener Linda Lindorff. The staring point has been simple, countryish rag rugs, crafted by local women, often with local designs and techniques. These traditional rugs are hand-picked in Northern Sweden and sewn together in various combinations. The fascination of the craftsmanship and female force behind the rag rugs was crucial throughout the design process. So, the most Scandinavian of flooring traditions is here adapted to modern homes and needs by reusing the old and beautiful crafts. Available for purchase this Autumn. Hurray for this!

Update: And I just need mention this other new rag rug – product. From Danish super-brand Nordal‘s summer 2011 collection: rag rug placemats !

Round is my favourite shape. I really like to have round going round – in a room. In our living room we have a round rug and a CYRK poster with a round motif and a lamp with round wood beads. And a curvy sofa. Everything else is of course squary, including the TV (but hey, isn’t this a great new design idea – round tv’s? Would look wonderful…) My point is the round shape can be a unifier just like colours and other themes. And the roundness adds some kind of movement, which I like. Anyhow, the round shape is all over the walls these days!

We’ve seen the a lot of plates…

…maybe they are starting to come down.( and broken china is an excellent material to reuse).

The ethnic and globetrotterish trend brought baskets, which are the new plates.

| both pics via vtwonen |

Another cool, round, detail is the convex mirrors.

Abigail Ahern has someultra-stylish ones in her collection (one featured bottom left) and Graham & Green has some really nice ones too (all the others in above pic.) Well that was all the roundness I had for tonight, now I’ll rotate to bed :) See ya!