Lina & Martin

Where are we, and how did you end up here?

Lina grew up in Örgryte. When we had children, we moved back from Stockholm. We bought a house, but it never quite felt right for us. One day Martin cycled past this house on his way to work and saw that it was for sale. We went to the viewing, and then it was ours. The ceiling height, the light, the joinery… it’s unlike any other house we’ve seen.

In what ways does your home reflect you and your personalities?

It’s very much a house where form comes before function, or at least before space efficiency. It’s a little self-consciously vain, and that’s perfectly fine. Not everything has to be optimised. After maximising every square metre in several Stockholm apartments, it’s incredibly nice to have a house where the social spaces, such as the dining area, living room and library, can really take up room. We love having family and friends over, and we’ve always thrown parties. Martin once hosted 35 people in his 22 sqm student flat. Now we finally have the space.

What do you love most about your home?

The staircase. Double ceiling height and light from three directions and two floors. The archways in the hall. They create an almost sacred feeling. The built-in joinery. In some places it reminds me of a boat, or almost a cruise ferry from a bygone era.

Which colours have you chosen, and what made you fall for them?

The vision was clear from the start. We wanted a warm, light, neutral base that could work in different compass directions and lighting conditions. That’s why we chose K02 — Linen. The rooms flow into one another, and between the floors too. We like painting the joinery in something other than white, and K67 — Rioja goes beautifully with the floors, the Öland limestone in the hall, the window sills and the fireplace, as well as the teak details. It also follows through every room, even where we’ve chosen a different wall colour, and becomes a kind of “red thread” (pun intended) running through the whole house.

The exterior has a similar colour scheme too, so there was really a theme there to build on. In the children’s rooms we wanted a more playful feel, and here we chose K150 — Buttercup for the walls and K139 — Tundra. Tundra on the ceiling (our son really wanted something blue somewhere in the room). Rioja has come along on the joinery here too.

Is there anything in your home you’re particularly proud of?

We’ve only just moved in, so we haven’t had time to create those details ourselves yet, but the original kitchen from the late 1940s is indescribably beautiful and well made. It’s the kind of kitchen that’s almost impossible to find today, with clever functions and solutions that feel a world away from today’s modular kitchens. It will be a lot of fun to take on the challenge of carefully updating the kitchen to meet modern standards.