I have rearranged my home. Just before Christmas in 2019 I felt I needed some new energy in the apartment in Stockholm. Instead of moving I tore down some walls and rebuilt a whole new layout. This is the story.
I have lived in my current apartment in Stockholm for almost 15 years. It’s nice. I like the neighbourhood and all. It’s a 75 sqm apartment smack in the city. It has been photographed for most magazines and there are some parts I really, really like.
But every now and then I get the urge to rejuvinate myself, the apartment – or simply move. But with no new needs (nope, no kids, no more dogs, no new hobbies…) it is kind of difficult. The apartment has a large livingroom, a huge bedroom, two toilets and a kitchen. What could be changed?
We had some discussions and talks about moving the kitchen and then get a new separate room. Could we for instance take one of the bathrooms and make a kitchen there, since there is plumbing there? Turned out to be too tricky…
We got in contact with Finnish kitchen company Puustelli and talked about our options and they suggested we should move the kitchen to the living room and get that as a large open shared space.
So, that’s what we did.
Our previous kitchen was very nice and square. Good, but we wanted something more challanging and innovative.
When we got the apartment we changed the cabinet fronts, added black linoleum and mosaic.
The living room with the colourful wallpaper…
A yellow sofa by my friend Emma Olbers. And me with no beard… Yes, this is an old image…
So we started playing with colours. What kind of colours should we have in our new home?
We got in contact with my Norwegian friend Dagny at Koi who possibly is Scandinavia’s leading colour expert. She helped us with choosing. One of the things she insisted on, was the sandy beige colour since the facades in Stockholm are all sandy. She wanted to bring the colours from outside to the inside. And to the ceiling.
Winter in Stockholm. Six weeks of tearing down walls and construction. We actually moved some walls so we could get a total new layout.
And the result… Colourful and lovely. Basically a new colour on every wall.
I made the carpenters add a magazine shelf on the front towards the livingroom area. The green wall is where the previous door was for the old kitchen. Now a whole new room with entry from the hallway.
Nice round, large lamps from Konsthantverk. Red bar stools from Mitab. I deliberately wanted bar stools with a good back support and a chair you can stay in for a longer time. And dinosaur from LA.
Same yellow sofa.
With this new solution I get a much closer relation to the balcony. I can sit and watch my flowers and wild birds.
My friends at Magisso have a clever solution. The metal rod holds the boring dish cloth. Down in the actual sink. It is hold by magnets so no drilling. And you dont have to see the old dish rag all the time.
The specific kitchen solution we have is called Miinus and is possibly one of the most sustainable solutions I have seen. All materials are either recycled composites or intelligent solutions. For instance the cabinet doesn’t have aback section so you don’t overuse materials. This also means you could add your twist to the kitchen. Like a wallpaper or a colour.
Work, work
Another clever solution we used was to have the fan build in the actual stove. That meant we didn’t have to save space for the fan section.
The door at the far end of the picture is the main entrance to to the apartment.
A great kitchen for socialising.