SWEDE DREAMS

Cool minimalism isn’t the only Scandi style. Welcome to a Swedish country home that embraces its rural heritage with red paint, layered textiles and deep comfort

- Catherine Coyle

You hear a lot these days about the joys of hygge and the effortless cool of Scandi style, but those clever Nordic folk have other great secrets up their sleeves that we could all do with embracing. For instance, it’s quite common in this part of the world to escape to your country cabin or lakeside home to recharge and unwind at the end of the working week. It’s a chance to switch off and lose yourself in nature, and, for some, to create a home away from home that you fall in love with.

That was the case for Birgitta Örne, a successful Swedish interior designer with her own practice in Stockholm. She and her husband Ove Pihl, a retired advertising head and book publisher turned artist, were used to spending their weekends visiting friends in the country. “We used to rent a cottage near the coast in Sörmland, just south of the capital,” she says. “We had friends in the area and every time we visited them, we’d say to ourselves, ‘This is where we want to live’.”