A historic house on the Stockholm archipelago decorated for Christmas
For interior designer Marie-Louise Sjögren and her husband Mikael, the idea of buying a house on Stockholm’s archipelago came about on an early morning skinny dip in summer 2018. The couple, who live mainly in Stockholm with their three young children, were considering a holiday home in the South of France. But when they visited Mikael’s father’s island summer house, they had a change of heart. ‘We suddenly realised that what we were looking for existed so much closer to home,’ recalls Marie-Louise. ‘It is just so calm and quiet, and it made much more sense to have somewhere just an hour by boat from our flat.’
With their attention on the 30,000-plus islands that make up Stockholm’s archipelago, they quickly stumbled, rather amazingly, upon the ideal house – in fact, the first they saw – on a small island 28 miles north east of Stockholm. Perched above the sea on the southern side of the island, it was built in 1917 as a gift from a man to his wife. ‘It’s unusual in that the ceilings are really high,’ explains Marie-Louise of the two-storey building. ‘Apparently, his wife wasn’t all that keen on the countryside, so this was very much a house designed with the city’s architecture in mind.’
For the previous owners – a family who cherished it as a summer house – its rustic charm was part of its appeal, but Marie-Louise, who had recently renovated their Stockholm flat and was gearing up to launch her eponymous interior design studio, was under no illusions how much work would be needed. ‘Wallpaper was hanging off the walls, the ceilings were damaged and all the decoration was tired,’ she recalls. The exterior was no exception: though built from timber, it had been fitted with a red metal cover in the Sixties, which had kept it watertight but was aesthetically incongruous.
The initial focus was sorting out the inside. Marie-Louise wanted to make sure the house could be used all year round, so heating had to be introduced to supplement four beautiful traditional kakelugn stoves, which are original to the house and provide warmth in two sitting rooms and two of the bedrooms. ‘The house had never been used in this way before,’ says Marie-Louise, who called on Stockholm-based architect and heritage consultant Paul Wilund of Wilund Arkitekter & Antikvarier to help her rework the space. ‘I wanted it to feel fresh, but didn’t want to lose its original spirit,’ she explains.
Work began in early 2019. With the sea frozen, all the materials had to be brought in by helicopter, along with the builders, who were in two teams, each working for 10-day stints at a time. The space was totally stripped back, allowing new pipework and wires to be concealed within the walls. Upstairs, the layout remained the same, with four bedrooms spilling off a central hallway, but the layout was reconfigured downstairs to create a better sense of flow. The rooms now lead from one to the next in a square arrangement. A pair of glazed doors – based on originals between the hallway and main sitting room – was added to separate the kitchen from a small television room, while another pair was installed at the other end of the kitchen-dining area to connect it to the main sitting room, reinstating a former opening.
A modern stair banister and spindles were replaced with a Shaker-style design, based on drawings by Marie-Louise. ‘We kept the steps, because they were beautiful old Swedish pine,’ she explains. The floors throughout were all in the same material, so she decided they should be retained and simply sanded down: ‘I liked the idea that they would set the tone – and retain the smell of an old house.’
The only room that has been largely untouched is the tongue-and-groove-clad dining room, where the original paint remains on the walls. ‘It’s slowly falling off, but it is just so charming in here,’ she says of the long room, which sits at the corner of the house and is flanked by windows on two sides. Marie-Louise bought the three-metre-long dining table and Swedish dining chairs from the previous owners and left them where they were. ‘I like it that they are a reminder of the people before us,’ she explains.
When it came to the decoration, she had a clear vision: ‘I wanted the house to almost feel as if it had been standing still for 100 years.’ As soon as they bought the house, she started scouring Swedish auction houses and antique shops for pieces, stowing her finds in a storage unit in Stockholm. Was she worried about how it would all sit together? ‘It was quite hard to convince my husband, but I had visualised the whole interior in my mind and I knew it would all layer up well,’ she says. She was not wrong and was able to put everything in place – curtains included – in two days in the summer of 2019, a year after buying the house. The metal exterior shell was removed later that year and Marie-Louise also replaced an unremarkable Seventies guest house in the grounds with a charming pavilion-type building, which now contains two spare rooms and bathrooms.
While the house has an undeniably Scandinavian feel, it is far from predictable. Arts and Crafts references appear throughout: from the scenic mural in the sitting room by artist Pontus Karlsson, which is based on the summer view from this room and takes its stylistic reference from the work of Swedish painter Carl Larsson, to the Svenskt Tenn fabrics and furniture. This includes the Josef Frank-designed sofas in this room – among the few new pieces bought by Marie-Louise – covered in William Morris’s ‘Pink & Rose’ print: ‘I liked the idea of bringing in Arts and Crafts patterns, as they reflect the age of the house.’ The colour green weaves its way through the rooms and was the starting point for the whole space: ‘We chose a warm green paint for the stairs, window frames and panelling, which lends a softness.’
The family come out here most weekends, but winter is their favourite time of year: ‘We love being here over Christmas and New Year – it’s just so quiet.’ They haul in a couple of Christmas trees from their land and enjoy going for long walks and sessions in the sauna in the garden, stoking up the stoves and settling down for long lunches. ‘It’s such a peaceful place,’ says Marie-Louise.
Paul Massey1/5A La Cornue range and claystone sink add to the rustic feel, while bespoke ceiling-mounted glass shelves make the most of the space and provide storage, without blocking the light or views from the window.
Paul Massey2/5Curtains in Josef Frank’s ‘La Plata’ and rugs from Svenskt Tenn, and a shearling-covered armchair and stool, sourced via Auctionet, soften a bespoke metal four poster.
Paul Massey3/5A valance in a bold C&C Milano stripe is teamed with curtains in Morris & Co’s ‘Honeysuckle’.
Paul Massey4/5An antique Swedish pine chair from Bukowskis sits beside a simple concrete fireplace.
Paul Massey5/5Marie-Louise designed the headboard, which is upholstered in a James Hare silk. The curtains are in ‘Textile Anakreon’ linen by Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn.
