Houzz Tours
My Houzz: Two Chefs' Raw and Real Stockholm Apartment
The owners of this Stockholm apartment used heirlooms and secondhand finds to fit out their industrial-style home
After a spell overseas, chef and pastry chef Dorotea ‘Tea’ Malmegård has now returned to a tranquil life in her hometown of Stockholm, Sweden, living in a creative, eye-catching, industrial-style apartment in the central district of Östermalm.
“I lived in London when I was 19 to 21 years old and then in the United States between the ages of 24 and 25. It suited me perfectly to be in London while young and then to be a 25-year-old in New York where you could just work yourself into the ground, because everyone else was doing the same thing. I’ve now been back in Stockholm for five years and I really like it here, it is the world’s best city.”
“I lived in London when I was 19 to 21 years old and then in the United States between the ages of 24 and 25. It suited me perfectly to be in London while young and then to be a 25-year-old in New York where you could just work yourself into the ground, because everyone else was doing the same thing. I’ve now been back in Stockholm for five years and I really like it here, it is the world’s best city.”
After moving back home from foreign lands, Malmegård and her partner Viktor Lejon settled in Östermalm – funnily enough, right next door to where they live now. And that’s not Malmegård’s only connection to the area. “I grew up in another house on the same street, so really I’ve just moved in a triangle,” she says. She and Lejon followed the renovation of the house closely, and when they moved it was over only about 36 metres – any homeowner’s dream scenario.
Photos by Kronfoto/Adam Helbaoui
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Dorotea ‘Tea’ Malmegård, her partner Viktor Lejon and two-year-old son Truls
Location: Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
Size: About 120 square metres
Architect: Kristina Munck
The whole apartment was built from scratch for the couple when they moved in four years ago. “The top floor was the old attic,” Malmegård says. “It’s my father’s property so we were very quick to say we wanted to move in and get involved in the whole process. We collaborated with interior architect Kristina Munck.”
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Dorotea ‘Tea’ Malmegård, her partner Viktor Lejon and two-year-old son Truls
Location: Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
Size: About 120 square metres
Architect: Kristina Munck
The whole apartment was built from scratch for the couple when they moved in four years ago. “The top floor was the old attic,” Malmegård says. “It’s my father’s property so we were very quick to say we wanted to move in and get involved in the whole process. We collaborated with interior architect Kristina Munck.”
Clockwise from top left: Truls’ bedroom, office, closet, master bedroom, balcony, breakfast area, kitchen, entrance.
The lower floor originally consisted of an open living room, the kitchen and a bedroom, but the couple created several new rooms with dividing walls, which appear on the floor plan here.
The lower floor originally consisted of an open living room, the kitchen and a bedroom, but the couple created several new rooms with dividing walls, which appear on the floor plan here.
A new steel-and-glass wall separates an office and guest room from the kitchen and dining area. “It’s from Edlund smide. We just Googled and then went ahead and got quotes from a few different companies. Edlund did the job quickly and really well, and it was half the cost of everyone else,” Malmegård says.
Both she and Lejon are impulsive when it comes to interior decorating, but the colour schemes of the built-in fixtures and lamp shades were deliberate. They are grey so that they will not seem dated after a while. Instead, colour comes from details like pillow cases, which are easy to change seasonally.
“We definitely have over fifty pillow cases,” Malmegård says. Blankets are also in abundance. “It’s perfect, as we have lots for when we have friends stay over. We have the type of home where people like to stop by.”
Lejon made the bedside tables himself from boards and copper pipes.
“We definitely have over fifty pillow cases,” Malmegård says. Blankets are also in abundance. “It’s perfect, as we have lots for when we have friends stay over. We have the type of home where people like to stop by.”
Lejon made the bedside tables himself from boards and copper pipes.
The wallpaper adorning the kitchen wall is an example of Malmegård and Lejon’s penchant for industrial design. “We like a raw look, with copper tints and dark tones. The wallpaper extends from the kitchen to the hall – we were very skeptical when we first saw it in place but fell in love with it after about a month. I guess you have to just get used to certain things,” Malmegård says.
The kitchen island is only three months old. “Before that we had a freezer around which Viktor had placed a book shelf, but that was too big once we renovated.”
They put in an S-shaped partition to separate the kitchen from their son’s bedroom. “The layout of the apartment is much smarter now – previously we had a one-year-old sleeping in the kitchen,” Malmegård says.
Of course, the kitchen plays an important role in their home, as Malmegård and Lejon used to run their supper club DoMa from here. Guests booked online, and the couple hosted them right in their living room, serving a menu inspired “by the Swedish seasons, the world and pure serendipity – like what we happened to be craving at the time,” she says. “You could put it this way: a great deal of food has been made in this kitchen.” The couple also has a second, smaller kitchen upstairs, next to the guest dining table.
They put in an S-shaped partition to separate the kitchen from their son’s bedroom. “The layout of the apartment is much smarter now – previously we had a one-year-old sleeping in the kitchen,” Malmegård says.
Of course, the kitchen plays an important role in their home, as Malmegård and Lejon used to run their supper club DoMa from here. Guests booked online, and the couple hosted them right in their living room, serving a menu inspired “by the Swedish seasons, the world and pure serendipity – like what we happened to be craving at the time,” she says. “You could put it this way: a great deal of food has been made in this kitchen.” The couple also has a second, smaller kitchen upstairs, next to the guest dining table.
The couple have tried to make their home as unique as possible. “Viktor builds furniture and comes up with other interior solutions. For example, he built the big table upstairs. Every piece of furniture should have a story and a patina,” Malmegård says.
Most of the furniture in the apartment was bought at the auction house Lauritz, and some of the lights are from Nordiska Galleriet.
Most of the furniture in the apartment was bought at the auction house Lauritz, and some of the lights are from Nordiska Galleriet.
This is the entrance to the apartment. Lejon made the hall table himself out of marble slabs and copper pipes. The shoe rack is a kerbside find sprayed in a copper colour. The chair on the staircase landing had belonged to Malmegård’s parents and was reupholstered by her aunt. The cabinet is from old barn wood, bought on Blocket, the Swedish Gumtree. The checkered floor in the stairwell is original and dates to 1911.
The front door opens to the building’s staircase, which leads up to the second storey through the common areas. The stairwell was enclosed when the attic was rebuilt.
“What I like most about our neighbourhood is that it is divinely cosy. I really feel at home; for example, I know the first names of everyone at the supermarket, because I’ve shopped there my whole life. I go to the same shoe repair, dry cleaner and health food store my family has gone to for years – I cherish skilled craftwork and want people to continue with it, and that’s evident even in how I decorate,” Malmegård says.
“What I like most about our neighbourhood is that it is divinely cosy. I really feel at home; for example, I know the first names of everyone at the supermarket, because I’ve shopped there my whole life. I go to the same shoe repair, dry cleaner and health food store my family has gone to for years – I cherish skilled craftwork and want people to continue with it, and that’s evident even in how I decorate,” Malmegård says.
The beautiful tower room with its white-washed walls has an almost Mediterranean feel. Henrik Thor-Larsen’s 1968 Ovalia easy chair, which Malmegård and Lejon got through an internet auction and reupholstered, presides over it.
Just below the ceiling hangs a hammock made out of a soccer net. It’s very popular with visitors: “Viktor found a picture on Pinterest and made it. Our guests sit in it and usually Instagram themselves there; I myself have maybe sat in it twice,” Malmegård says. The hammock can be reached with a ladder.
Next to the tower is the dining room, where the couple used to host their supper club, DoMa. Malmegård says that her view of the room has changed since she stopped running a restaurant out of it.
“We had only been here for about a month before we opened DoMa, so we didn’t ever use it as a living room before it became a restaurant. When we reclaimed the room, we felt a little bit, ‘Oh, can I go in here without serving drinks or preparing food for people?’ At times I miss the unique experience of running a restaurant from home, but I sure don’t miss working twenty hours a day. When we weren’t cooking we were cleaning, mopping, or clearing up. When you’re only two people, you just do everything.”
“We had only been here for about a month before we opened DoMa, so we didn’t ever use it as a living room before it became a restaurant. When we reclaimed the room, we felt a little bit, ‘Oh, can I go in here without serving drinks or preparing food for people?’ At times I miss the unique experience of running a restaurant from home, but I sure don’t miss working twenty hours a day. When we weren’t cooking we were cleaning, mopping, or clearing up. When you’re only two people, you just do everything.”
Lejon made both the coffee and dining tables from salvaged wine and champagne crates and from the cot Malmegård slept in as a baby.
Much of the furniture in the apartment is recycled – for example, all the chairs in the house were found at either a dump for oversize garbage or at secondhand markets, and many of them were Malmegård’s grandmother’s, now reupholstered.
“It’s the same thinking behind our decor as our food: it’s not just about buying new things, but using what you have, having a mindset of sustainability and protecting the environment,” Malmegård says. “When I cook, I’m looking for the soul in cooking.”
“It’s the same thinking behind our decor as our food: it’s not just about buying new things, but using what you have, having a mindset of sustainability and protecting the environment,” Malmegård says. “When I cook, I’m looking for the soul in cooking.”
In the bathroom, copper is combined with dark tones in the beautiful bathtub from Qvesarum Byggnadsvård.
They found the shower curtain on a trip to New York.
Malmegård and Lejon still work together in the restaurant industry and catering – but they are also looking high and low for their next restaurant location.
“We have thousands of different dreams: we want to have a farm in Österlen [in south-eastern Sweden] when we’re 60, maybe have more children – and open restaurants. In the restaurant we want to create the same cosy living-room feeling we had in the apartment. Half the experience is for people to feel like they are visiting us at home. We are looking at everything from 65 square metres to 400 square metres and hope that the restaurant space comes our way soon!”
Tell us
What do you love about this home? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, bookmark the story, and join in the conversation.
“We have thousands of different dreams: we want to have a farm in Österlen [in south-eastern Sweden] when we’re 60, maybe have more children – and open restaurants. In the restaurant we want to create the same cosy living-room feeling we had in the apartment. Half the experience is for people to feel like they are visiting us at home. We are looking at everything from 65 square metres to 400 square metres and hope that the restaurant space comes our way soon!”
Tell us
What do you love about this home? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, bookmark the story, and join in the conversation.