Houzz Tours
Swedish Houzz Tour: A Hands-On Personality-Filled Home
From tartan 'wallpaper' to a tree in the stairwell, these homeowners have really put their creative stamp on this home
It is rare to see a home with so much personality, where the owners have really managed to implement their own creative ideas. Christine Carrick and Mikael Löfqvist’s house in Hjo, Sweden, is in a class of its own. The couple have made smart colour choices and succeeded with unusual pattern combinations, and Carrick’s interest in decorative painting has led, among other things, to a painted refrigerator and a washing machine that will land your jaw squarely on the floor.
Photos by Studio Dittmer
Carrick, whose mother is Swedish and father is Scottish, has lived in Sweden for 25 years and discovered Hjo, a town in central Sweden on the bank of Lake Vättern, through a pen pal. “I had been living in Great Britain and came over to visit my parents, who were living in Stockholm. I took the opportunity to pop down to Hjo to say hi to a pen pal. Our common interest was vintage motorcycles. We became a couple and lived together, and even though he is now an ‘ex’, I still live in idyllic Hjo, and I still have the interest in motorcycles.”
When Carrick and current partner Löfqvist moved in together, they had initially been looking for something outside of Hjo. “My partner especially had a long list of criteria for our first home, and we looked at many houses. But after a while I got tired. I had mentally moved into every house we viewed and there was always something that wasn’t right,” says Carrick.
Carrick, whose mother is Swedish and father is Scottish, has lived in Sweden for 25 years and discovered Hjo, a town in central Sweden on the bank of Lake Vättern, through a pen pal. “I had been living in Great Britain and came over to visit my parents, who were living in Stockholm. I took the opportunity to pop down to Hjo to say hi to a pen pal. Our common interest was vintage motorcycles. We became a couple and lived together, and even though he is now an ‘ex’, I still live in idyllic Hjo, and I still have the interest in motorcycles.”
When Carrick and current partner Löfqvist moved in together, they had initially been looking for something outside of Hjo. “My partner especially had a long list of criteria for our first home, and we looked at many houses. But after a while I got tired. I had mentally moved into every house we viewed and there was always something that wasn’t right,” says Carrick.
However, she continued to keep an eye on Hemnet, a real estate site, and found this house, which is right in the middle of town. “It was not at all what we had been looking for, but when we stepped into the hall it was decided. I fell for the old front door with its glass and the staircase with a handrail. I like older houses, and this is from 1928.”
The ‘wallpaper’ in the outer hall is in fact tartan fabric bought in Scotland and applied to the wall, as Carrick could not find a wallpaper with the pattern. She painted the ceiling to look like a fish pond, with metal leaf as the base.
The ‘wallpaper’ in the outer hall is in fact tartan fabric bought in Scotland and applied to the wall, as Carrick could not find a wallpaper with the pattern. She painted the ceiling to look like a fish pond, with metal leaf as the base.
The entry hall offers a preview of the couple’s unique style, with a full-grown tree in the stairwell. “I wanted something to separate the stairs from the hall, and we thought about my partner’s making something himself, out of metal. However, I wanted something in an Art Nouveau or Tiffany style, preferably like a tree, and he thought it would probably be easier to find a real tree. This is from Micke’s parents’ home and had fallen on its own,” says Carrick.
The couple installed the tree when they moved in seven years ago. It is screwed to the ceiling. “It’s pretty smooth bark, but it has started to dry a bit so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with it in the future,” says Carrick.
The couple installed the tree when they moved in seven years ago. It is screwed to the ceiling. “It’s pretty smooth bark, but it has started to dry a bit so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with it in the future,” says Carrick.
Carrick takes inspiration from the Art Deco and Arts and Crafts movements, but the home furnishings have grown organically, drawing on her and Löfqvist’s different areas of expertise. “I work with paint and wallpaper, and he does metal and wood, and we always bounce various ideas off each other,” says Carrick. The fridge is a good example of the way they collaborate – Löfqvist made the metal handle and Carrick painted it.
The result is an unobtrusive refrigerator that resembles an old door. “It is painted in traditional ‘beverage colouring’ made by mixing beer and pigment, and then a layer of linseed oil and pigment were put on before it was finished with varnish. The slate on the fridge is painted in blackboard paint so you can write on it.” Carrick also painted the cabinet doors.
The result is an unobtrusive refrigerator that resembles an old door. “It is painted in traditional ‘beverage colouring’ made by mixing beer and pigment, and then a layer of linseed oil and pigment were put on before it was finished with varnish. The slate on the fridge is painted in blackboard paint so you can write on it.” Carrick also painted the cabinet doors.
The ‘brick wall’ in the kitchen is a tromp l’oeil painting by Carrick. The wallpaper is a copy of a vintage design. The couple came across it accidentally. “We had originally thought the kitchen would be ‘light and fresh’ and looked at wallpaper with little strawberries on it and all kinds of options, but then I found this one copy of a 1920s or ’30s wallpaper and Micke said ‘buy it, just buy it!’” It fits in beautifully with the large black cabinet, which is actually two pieces of furniture from the same period that Löfqvist has welded together.
The living room was the first area the couple dealt with when they moved in. It had been white but they chose to put up red wallpaper – Löfqvist wanted to have a dark colour, something they both delight in.
The amazing ceiling came into being after a discussion at a pub in Edinburgh. “My partner wanted dark panels, like the pub, on the ceiling, and we mused over how to do it using the simplest method. I figured that you could use picture frames, but then he thought, why just have the frames when we can have paintings?” says Carrick.
The amazing ceiling came into being after a discussion at a pub in Edinburgh. “My partner wanted dark panels, like the pub, on the ceiling, and we mused over how to do it using the simplest method. I figured that you could use picture frames, but then he thought, why just have the frames when we can have paintings?” says Carrick.
They bought most of the paintings at secondhand markets for $3 to $6 (20 to 40 Swedish kronor), and Carrick tells us that she did not even look at the images when she bought the paintings, just the measurements: “Several of them I would probably not have otherwise hung on the wall,” she says. She laid the paintings out on the floor to fit them together, and then screwed them into the ceiling. “It’s like a screen now,” she says, laughing.
Much of the furniture in the room was inherited. There is also an old mangle wringer, a symbol of the couple’s love of old machinery.
Much of the furniture in the room was inherited. There is also an old mangle wringer, a symbol of the couple’s love of old machinery.
A ventilation shaft in the hallway has been decorated with a bird. It fits in perfectly: the ceiling has been painted with a blue sky motif.
Carrick’s workroom is also on the first floor. She had previously worked as an assembler with a company in Hjo, and is now training to become a painter-decorator and also sometimes works for her former employer, who hires her on a freelance basis. “There are only two courses for painter decorators in Sweden, and one of them is in Tibro, which is almost within walking distance of Hjo, so it really felt like I should take a gamble on it,” she says.
When the couple first moved in together, they decided they would each have a separate area that was just theirs. Both have set up their rooms just the way they want them. Löfqvist’s room is up in the attic, under the eaves. Above the desk is a map of St Kilda, an island west of the Outer Hebrides, said to be the most remote part of Great Britain. “It is a remarkably small place with beautiful nature and many birds, and it was named a World Heritage Site for both nature and culture. You can volunteer to take care of the abandoned houses – people lived there until the 1930s. I’ve done it four times,” says Carrick.
Carrick collects globes and has about 55 around the house and another 20 to 30 in her workshop. The comic book covers behind the globes were in fact drawn by her father when he visited Sweden in the ’50s – when he met Carrick’s mother.
The unusual washing machine instantly draws attention in the bathroom. “I like steampunk, and that was the inspiration for the washing machine. It is covered with aluminium leaf and rivets made of soft-close cabinet-door hinges and then painted with oil paints. I did the same thing with the vacuum cleaner. Otherwise, they are so boring.”
However, Carrick explains that just like Daniélle Bertelsen in this Houzz Tour, which Carrick really liked, she also painted over the program settings on the washing machine: “I managed to take a quick picture beforehand, but now we’re just running everything on the same program – and just hoping nobody changes it.”
However, Carrick explains that just like Daniélle Bertelsen in this Houzz Tour, which Carrick really liked, she also painted over the program settings on the washing machine: “I managed to take a quick picture beforehand, but now we’re just running everything on the same program – and just hoping nobody changes it.”
Carrick has also painted the toilet and the cabinet under the sink. She and Löfqvist often go to auctions and secondhand markets, and the scales were a market find. Under the stairs are paintings and spice jars for storing bathroom items. “We have bought brand-new furniture in the past, but usually it is ‘out with the new, in with the old,’ or I paint and redo the new furniture,” says Carrick. The roof is decorated with gold leaf.
The stairwell to the next floor is lined with classic William Morris wallpaper. “One simply must have a William Morris wallpaper somewhere in the house,” says Carrick.
The couple created the ceilings in the master bedroom themselves out of masonite sheets and strips, which Carrick has painted to look like aged timber. “We did that quite recently, it was white before,” says Carrick. The bed was actually originally an old Karl Johan sofa – Carrick took off the screwed-on backrest and Löfqvist welded together a bed frame, which is placed between the backrest and the sofa-base.
Carrick has a few tips for homeowners who would follow in her footsteps. The first is to pay attention to the way colours go together. “In certain rooms the whole decor is based around two colours – in the living room it is red and dark yellow, with antique furniture and darker woods,” she says. “My room, with the globes, has green and blue, and walnut wood. It gives harmony to the chaos to have some dominant colours.”
Once you’ve got the colours down, all that’s left is to be a little daring. “I always say that if it doesn’t work, repaint. So far, I have not needed to do that.”
Carrick has a few tips for homeowners who would follow in her footsteps. The first is to pay attention to the way colours go together. “In certain rooms the whole decor is based around two colours – in the living room it is red and dark yellow, with antique furniture and darker woods,” she says. “My room, with the globes, has green and blue, and walnut wood. It gives harmony to the chaos to have some dominant colours.”
Once you’ve got the colours down, all that’s left is to be a little daring. “I always say that if it doesn’t work, repaint. So far, I have not needed to do that.”
“Micke chose the wallpaper in the bedroom, and the old suitcases are from my family home. I think they are nice and I also use them for storage,” says Carrick. In here she has also painted a brick wall just to the left of the wallpaper.
There is a street library bookcase by the footpath on the street outside the house, so people can either pick up or leave a book as they pass by. “I usually ask people if they know the bookcase, and even if they don’t know where we live, they know the bookcase.”
The next creative mission for Carrick and Löfqvist is to make an Ardennes draft horse for the garden – out of scrap. “They are big, beautiful and steady, so scrap metal will work really well,” says Carrick.
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The next creative mission for Carrick and Löfqvist is to make an Ardennes draft horse for the garden – out of scrap. “They are big, beautiful and steady, so scrap metal will work really well,” says Carrick.
Tell us
What do you love about this home? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to like the story, save your favourite images and join in the conversation.
More
Find an interior designer or decorator to help with your home design
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Painter-decorator Christine Carrick and Mikael ‘Micke’ Löfqvist
Location: Central Hjo, Sweden
Size: About 120 square metres; the home has four rooms and a kitchen