Swedish Houzz: A Dreamy Home in Stockholm
To create a warm vintage home requires more planning than you think, but these Swedish creatives perfected the technique in their small flat
Entering Elsa Billgren and Pontus de Wolfe’s apartment is a lot like walking into a warm embrace. The large open-plan living/dining room and kitchen has wide windows that overlook green trees, dazzling sun reflections that play on timber finishes, and a strong sense of home. Despite that, Billgren and de Wolfe have only lived in their home, in the cosy area of Södermalm in southern Stockholm, since 2014. But the bright atmosphere and friendly decor make the space feel like it’s been theirs for much longer.
“Yes, like 20 years or so,” Billgren says. “We want it to feel warm and welcoming for everyone we love, with the windows flung open and playing jazz in the background. We love things, but it’s a creative mess – so we actually know where everything is.” Billgren’s rule for what things may enter their home is simple. They should be colourful, and they have to come with a story. “The fact that we choose to fill our home with secondhand market finds that become valuable possessions, is probably a way for us to relive our childhoods,” Billgren adds. “The two of us grew up in arty homes, so for us this is completely natural.”
“Yes, like 20 years or so,” Billgren says. “We want it to feel warm and welcoming for everyone we love, with the windows flung open and playing jazz in the background. We love things, but it’s a creative mess – so we actually know where everything is.” Billgren’s rule for what things may enter their home is simple. They should be colourful, and they have to come with a story. “The fact that we choose to fill our home with secondhand market finds that become valuable possessions, is probably a way for us to relive our childhoods,” Billgren adds. “The two of us grew up in arty homes, so for us this is completely natural.”
When Billgren and de Wolfe moved into their new home, they furnished it quickly and with confidence. “I was shopping like crazy and had a big truck that came the day after we moved here, with vintage stuff from Olsson & Jensen,” Billgren says. But how did she get that homey feeling that you experience in the apartment? All the furniture feels like it has been there for years, as if the pieces have long been standing and living here with each other, to create a warm and familiar environment.
“It’s all about good planning,” she reveals. “I always draw up a plan and know exactly what I want, and in what dimensions, before I start buying.” So, what seems like a spontaneously beautiful home has a solid foundation with a lot of thought behind it. “To just go with your gut feeling rarely works,” Billgren admits. “It needs a plan to create harmony. In fact, it also helps when you’re out looking for bargains at garage sales and secondhand shops.”
“It’s all about good planning,” she reveals. “I always draw up a plan and know exactly what I want, and in what dimensions, before I start buying.” So, what seems like a spontaneously beautiful home has a solid foundation with a lot of thought behind it. “To just go with your gut feeling rarely works,” Billgren admits. “It needs a plan to create harmony. In fact, it also helps when you’re out looking for bargains at garage sales and secondhand shops.”
Although the vintage queen loves classic Swedish design, her style ideal is more 1950s American, with a little bit of fairytale magic thrown in. “Romantic interiors seduce me totally,” she says. “Powder, gold, faded pink … I grew up in the 90s, when it was all about large TV cabinets, plastic and sporty. While everyone wanted a single, rigid gerbera stem in a vase, I dreamed about half overblown roses. Fragile and delicate.”
Billgren spent her early years in Gothenburg, but moved to Stockholm when she was 10. She loves the area of Söder in Stockholm, and especially the hidden green nook of her neighbourhood.
“These houses were built around 1928 with large families in mind and a neoclassical style,” she says. “They face a large courtyard, full of chestnut, elderberry and other trees, where the kids could play freely. I do not know exactly how many kids they had in our apartment, but it was not unusual that they had six in this little one bedroom flat.
“The apartments in the houses have no fancy stucco or stoves, but huge windows and plenty of clever storage – there are seven built-in wardrobes and cupboards here!”
“These houses were built around 1928 with large families in mind and a neoclassical style,” she says. “They face a large courtyard, full of chestnut, elderberry and other trees, where the kids could play freely. I do not know exactly how many kids they had in our apartment, but it was not unusual that they had six in this little one bedroom flat.
“The apartments in the houses have no fancy stucco or stoves, but huge windows and plenty of clever storage – there are seven built-in wardrobes and cupboards here!”
And the area also retains quite a lot of real Söder-born people, according to Billgren, in a neighbourhood that has been completely transformed in just a few decades. “It reminds me of Gothenburg,” Billgren says, “with bistros where people are warm and happy.” Is there a place she would absolutely not be willing to live? “In something newly built, I just couldn’t. I am addicted to old materials!”
It was the strong painting by de Wolfe’s father, the colourist Ronald de Wolfe, that helped the couple colour the entire apartment. The green colour was picked up in the velvet sofa from Ikea, and the orange elements on the Smeg-fridge and old gift boxes from Hermés in the bedroom.
To have such a clear picture in terms of colours helps to bind together the home, and inspiration can come from anywhere. “It can be dreams, images, films…” Billgren says. “If you like something, then show it. Do not be like everyone else, it just makes people happy if you are a bit different.”
To have such a clear picture in terms of colours helps to bind together the home, and inspiration can come from anywhere. “It can be dreams, images, films…” Billgren says. “If you like something, then show it. Do not be like everyone else, it just makes people happy if you are a bit different.”
The details are important in the apartment, and the black Bakelite light switches have carefully been chosen at Byggfabriken. “There is no better sound than the click when you light a lamp like this,” Billgren says.
The 2.5-metre-long dining table is made of old planks, and 10 people can easily sit around it for dinner. “It’s damaged and dented, perfect to spill red wine on. And steady enough to dance on,” Billgren says with a laugh.
The vase was bought by de Wolfe at Brandstationen as a consolation gift. “I had found an amazing big vase in Östersund in [central] Sweden, and flew home with it in my arms on the plane. Then my husband managed to slam a wine bottle into it, so it broke and seven litres of water gushed out… But this one is also nice!” Billgren says.
The vase was bought by de Wolfe at Brandstationen as a consolation gift. “I had found an amazing big vase in Östersund in [central] Sweden, and flew home with it in my arms on the plane. Then my husband managed to slam a wine bottle into it, so it broke and seven litres of water gushed out… But this one is also nice!” Billgren says.
The orange refrigerator was actually already in the apartment when Billgren and de Wolfe moved in. It fits perfectly with the painting by de Wolfe’s father, and acts as a counterweight to the jade green velvet sofa sitting opposite. The beautiful glass lamp was found at a secondhand market for 100 SEK (around $16.50).
There are a few modern and newly bought items around the house, but mostly pieces of technology – and most of it is hidden inside old bakery boxes, except the speakers from People Products, which are allowed to be visible. The small brass pyramids are quality souvenirs from Egypt, an antiques trend that Billgren believes will grow bigger.
In the background, behind the couch from Ikea, an artwork by Billgren’s mother, artist Helene Billgren, called ‘Familjen Byxa’ (’The Family Trousers’) can be seen. “This is cardboard dressed in velvet,” Billgren says, “and we in the family are the trousers – I’m the little one. It was in the basement at home and I thought it would work here.”
The cushions that grace the couch were hand decorated by Billgren with wooden beads and tassels to make them more unique.
The cushions that grace the couch were hand decorated by Billgren with wooden beads and tassels to make them more unique.
The culture room, a small alcove with doors that can be closed, houses books, music, games and the piano that Swedish legend Hasse Alfredson used to record several favourite songs. Billgren and de Wolfe got it from his son Tomas Alfredsson, the world-famous director, and brought it home when de Wolfe won a Grammy for the music for a stage version of The Wizard of Oz.
“This mirror is almost my favourite thing at home,” Billgren says. “I found it at Metropol auctions. I find bidding a little bit scary, if I have fallen in love with something, I get super stressed by the thought of not getting it.” Her predilection for vintage does not extend to bed sheets and linen – she always buys those brand new.
Billgren’s love of American dresses, or Italian Americana as she calls the style, has historical connotations. “After World War II, a lot of relief consignments were shipped to Europe from America, and especially in Italy, this thing with flirty skirts and the whole New Look became very big,” she says. “There are not that many clothes left over from other countries at the vintage market any longer, you don’t see any Chanel dresses in circulation for example, and almost nothing from Russia.”
But what is it that makes the old garments so special? “How they are made, how they fit. That the buttons are covered, how nicely the lace is created. A craft that is almost forgotten today, when production is outsourced to Asia,” Billgren explains.
But what is it that makes the old garments so special? “How they are made, how they fit. That the buttons are covered, how nicely the lace is created. A craft that is almost forgotten today, when production is outsourced to Asia,” Billgren explains.
A large part of Billgren’s time is devoted to her business of hiring out vintage wedding dresses. In her showroom hang around 200 dresses that are rented out to women all over Sweden. It’s obviously a subject close to her heart.
“I just love when a bride comes by bus from Sala (a small town in the middle of Sweden) for a fitting. They actively choose vintage and appreciate the fact that many brides have used the dress before them – you become a part of a tradition,” Billgren says. “And also that well-made vintage dress does what few wedding outfits manage – makes the bride feel beautiful. “When they see themselves in the mirror … then I know why I’m a vintage missionary,” she adds.
“I just love when a bride comes by bus from Sala (a small town in the middle of Sweden) for a fitting. They actively choose vintage and appreciate the fact that many brides have used the dress before them – you become a part of a tradition,” Billgren says. “And also that well-made vintage dress does what few wedding outfits manage – makes the bride feel beautiful. “When they see themselves in the mirror … then I know why I’m a vintage missionary,” she adds.
The love of these dresses permeates Billgren’s life, and has done so since she was a child joining her mum on vintage hunts. She likes the smell of them, the old, beautiful smell, which reminds her of when they “were digging in old containers and shops for bargains – that childhood memory feels reassuring,” she says.
And it’s the well-tailored dresses created with so much love and thought that would be her saviour if anything went wrong. “If no one reads the blog, if TV stops my programs and if Instagram breaks down, then I have the dresses. Then I go back to working in a store again.”
And it’s the well-tailored dresses created with so much love and thought that would be her saviour if anything went wrong. “If no one reads the blog, if TV stops my programs and if Instagram breaks down, then I have the dresses. Then I go back to working in a store again.”
Elsa Billgren’s top tips for finding gems at a market or garage sale:
TIP 1: Write a list. If you need a teapot, towels and a bedside lamp, focus on that, and do not stop by the old vinyl records or kitchen chairs.
TIP 2: Learn to recognise if something is really old, from the ’40s and earlier. If it is, the object will probably never lose its value.
TIP 3: Estimate the quality by weight and proportions. Ask questions if the object can’t manage to tell you its story on its own. Lift it up from the muddle of things, isolate it, and then see if it’s still beautiful. If that’s the case – buy it!
TIP 1: Write a list. If you need a teapot, towels and a bedside lamp, focus on that, and do not stop by the old vinyl records or kitchen chairs.
TIP 2: Learn to recognise if something is really old, from the ’40s and earlier. If it is, the object will probably never lose its value.
TIP 3: Estimate the quality by weight and proportions. Ask questions if the object can’t manage to tell you its story on its own. Lift it up from the muddle of things, isolate it, and then see if it’s still beautiful. If that’s the case – buy it!
Who lives here: Elsa Billgren, a TV presenter, blogger and vintage entrepreneur, her husband Pontus de Wolfe, a musician, and their cat Mira
Location: Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
Size: 63 square metres; 1 bedroom, music alcove and open-plan kitchen and living/dining room