Scandinavian style - the background

via Bo Bedre

via Bolig magasinet

via Bolig magasinet

via Bo Bedre

via Bo Bedre

via Bolig magasinet

Scandinavian style is going to be a series of posts about what I find to be the more characteristic aspects of the homes here in scandinavia. Not going for a treaty on interior design. Just a collection of the basic and "typical" elements that create this unique atmosphere, where peacefulness, modern and old, design and real living, co-exist in a very specific harmony. 

The background:

1. An idea of openness and close relation between  spaces that, at least in my culture, are traditionally separate, such as the dinning area, the living room and the kitchen. Love the idea of a kitchen that takes part on the "life" of the house. All these areas are "living areas" and get contaminated between them with the care for beautiful design.

2. The predominance of white as a base colour. The walls, ceiling, even the floor and part of the furniture. White is the basic canvas for the "construction" of the whole home environment. White will give these spaces a feeling of tranquillity and quietness, thus allowing for many colourful and witty details to be introduced later. And of course, in a country that in the winter only has 7 hours of daylight, the white, along with the big windows, bring some brightness inside. 

3. The windows. Oh my god the windows! I come from a southern country full of sun and privacy "issues", where the windows are traditionally small and, most of the times, covered by horrid curtains. So these big, white, clean, absolutely wonderful windows are a huge breath of fresh air. I have to admit that after a year in Denmark, I still stare to the inside of some of the houses when I´m walking through the streets. That for great horror of Emil, who keeps saying that I'm being rude. But I don't do it to pry in other people's life. It's just that it is so different of everything that  I'm used to.

And I think that sums up the basic of the basics of scandinavian living as I see it. Open spaces, white  as the background colour and bare, big windows.