Houzz Tours
Stockholm My Houzz: A Light-Filled Tower Apartment in the Round
Step through the looking glass into this Swedish blogger's luxurious and flower-filled home
Blogger Dasha Girine has been living in a beautiful old building in Norrmalm, Stockhom, Sweden for a year and a half. The building has truly stunning architecture, with a huge tower on one side. It is in that tower that Girine lives in a luxurious round apartment. The rooms still have their original features – such as stucco mouldings on the ceilings – but also a warm, modern look with earthy colours and lots of art.
Before Girine moved to Norrmalm she lived in Kungsholmen, one of the city’s suburbs. “We were a pretty big gang of women, five or six of us, and everyone lived within five-minutes’ walk of my door. We were all single and we went out a lot – but then one woman after another left, moving from Kungsholmen to Östermalm [another Stockholm suburb].” The last one left behind, Girine decided to look for a new place. Then one of her best friends, Petra Tungården, put her apartment up for sale. The timing was perfect. Girine made a smart move to make sure she snagged the apartment: “I thought: How can I do this without a bidding war? Petra obviously wanted me to get the apartment, but she also couldn’t give up half a million kronor (about AU$77,700) for me.”
There were two viewings and two previews planned for the apartment. “I called the real estate broker two hours before the first preview and I offered 700,000 Swedish kronor (about AU$108,800) over the asking price, which was the most I could pay. He thought it was pretty strange and wondered what kind of person I must be. Everyone who came to the viewings just turned around again at the door, as they thought I was some mega-rich person who just wanted the apartment at any cost.”
The beautiful mirror was a huge selling point, and Girine only wanted to buy the apartment if she could have it as well. In fact, that was exactly the deal her friend had made with the previous owners too.
The beautiful mirror was a huge selling point, and Girine only wanted to buy the apartment if she could have it as well. In fact, that was exactly the deal her friend had made with the previous owners too.
People often gather around the dinner table. “My home is very open, I love having people over,” Girine says. “My favourite thing is when people say ‘I want to come over to yours and have dinner, I think I’d like to have cod,’ and then I’ll go make up a menu.” The fact that the apartment is so central also means that friends are constantly just dropping by. “You can always pop up and leave things or collect things and so on. It suits my lifestyle and my job. The apartment is close to both Hötorget [The Hay Square, a central square in Stockholm] and Vasastan [a central area of the city] – it’s only a five- to seven-minute walk to so many neighbourhoods.”
Chairs and trestle: Hay
Chairs and trestle: Hay
The wall of mirrors is a nice touch. Girine found the vast majority at various antiques shops. “I like mirrors very much and happily decorate with them. Mirrors make a room look bigger and I think they are the best fun you can have with interior design. This mirror wall especially is a bit Alice in Wonderland.”
Girine did not have to undertake any major renovations when she moved in; she just had to make the decor her own. “I have quite earthy tones in my home, with some splashes of colour. Personally, I wear a lot of dark clothes and simple colours, but in my heart and soul I am all glitter!” Girine says. She gets a lot of her inspiration from everyday life. “When I see nice things, I photograph them. I have inspiration folders both on the computer and on my cell phone, where I save images of anything and everything. It can be anything from a nice lamp to a party I want to be at right now.”
One of the most important features of Girine’s home decor are fresh-cut flowers. “They lift plain surfaces and work well with all genres and styles, always. Fresh flowers are my best decorating tip and they are something you’ll always find lots of in my home,” she says.
“You need to have a curved couch in a round room, otherwise you would lose a lot of floor space. I could have had a rectangular dining table, but the space is better optimised with a round one.” Girine bought the elegant little coffee tables directly from the artist who makes them, after spotting them on Instagram a few years ago.
Girine bought the crystal chandelier in the living room specially for the new apartment, to match one which used to hang in her walk-in closet in Kungsholmen. The original one now hangs in the hallway.
All of Girine’s neighbours are young. “It’s the best apartment block in the world – it’s almost only young people who live here, people around 30 years old. It’s a fantastic vibe, I have great neighbours,” Girine says.
In the bedroom there are matching bedside lamps and a ceiling light by Michael Anastassiades for Flos, alongside part of Girine’s art collection. “I like art and all of my artwork was created by my mum’s friends – she has many friends who are artists,” she says.
Girine found the framed elephant photos by chance. “I was on my way home from a night club in Stockholm about ten years ago, and outside Berzelii Park there was an open-air exhibition of photos. I found these images and fell completely in love with them, so I then searched and found the photographer online, and ordered the prints.”
The closets in the bedroom have been embellished with knobs from Superfront: one of a few additions Girine made when she moved in. “I put in more closet storage, as well as the dresser and the large cabinet in the bathroom. A good tip for making budget furnishings a little more luxurious is to buy the furniture at places like Ikea, but then replace the knobs and legs with new ones … I’m not a DIY person, but this is so easy.”
The bathroom is fully tiled, with a sink and mirror from Ikea and a bathtub that Girine put in when she first moved in. There are fresh flowers here too: “I definitely always have flowers on the dining table and in the bathroom. Here, I tried to match the colours of the flowers with the new Molton Brown soaps,” she says.
There is artwork even in the bathroom. Girine specially commissioned her mother’s friend to paint this: “I wanted a painting of a woman bathing, because I really like to bathe myself.” It’s a hint of fun in a home decorated with a touch of humour and reams of luxurious details.
Tell us
What do you love about this home? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, bookmark the story, and join in the conversation.
Tell us
What do you love about this home? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, bookmark the story, and join in the conversation.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Dasha Girine, freelance PR and events consultant and blogger for Metromode.
Location: Norrmalm, a central district of Stockholm, Sweden
Size: Two rooms, about 54 square metres
Year Built: 1889
“I like that it’s an older building. It’s also really cool that the room is round and that I literally live in a tower – I usually joke that we should do a photo-shoot where I’m standing by the window with a really long braid,” Girine says.