Hello Home, Emily Slotte
If anything defines Emily Slotte, it's her love for the garden and country life. "Park at the church, we live just across the road!" were the instructions we received from Emily to find the right place. An hour outside Stockholm, a large church looms on the other side of the meadow, and we realize we are close.
On the other side of the church, we step right into the summer scene where Emily Slotte, photographer, creator, and inspirer, lives with her family. The white gates open onto a gravel path, the yellow door shines welcomingly, and three perfectly color-coordinated dogs with their tails in the air greet us happily.
The house, an old school, was converted into a residential building in the 1980s, but the sense of how the space has been utilized over hundreds of years remains. The kitchen is the first room we enter, a space that exudes a summer feel year-round, with large plates of artichokes and tomatoes from Emily's gardens on the table. The kitchen, a harmonious blend of rustic and functional styles, has windows and doors in all directions, creating an open and inviting atmosphere that connects the room with the rest of the house. The kitchen windows are adorned with classic pleated café curtains in thin, off-white linen, along with Roman blinds in the same fabric. This provides a flexible curtain solution, allowing one to soften the light from both the top and bottom, or let the curtains meet to completely cover the window.
Emily explains that the living room was once the classroom, which now accommodates both the family’s large dining area and sofa group. The walls are covered in light beadboard, beautifully offset by the texture of the boucle curtains and the sleek, black curtain rods. Once again, we are reminded of the value of contrasts, where rustic meets modern, showing that you don’t have to choose one or the other. Around the large table, the whole family gathers in a mix of chairs, sofas, and stools. What could easily feel chaotic instead feels incredibly natural thanks to Emily’s touch and eye for interior design.
In addition to the kitchen, dining room, and living room, we also find Emily’s office on the ground floor, adorned with mustard-colored Roman blinds. We agree that mustard is a fantastic shade — a strong color that simultaneously harmonizes beautifully with the home’s light, neutral tones. With direct access to the garden, Emily can often be found here, perfectly situated between her two passions: photography and nature, in close harmony with the inspiring environment outside.
Here, Emily and her family have opened up to the rafters, creating an impressive ceiling height of over four meters with exposed beams and sloping ceilings. The upstairs houses the family's bedrooms, along with a large living area where a magnificent open fireplace forms the centerpiece of the room. Emily talks about the challenge of making such a large and open space with high ceilings feel cozy and warm, joking that she might need more Roman blinds. Boucle is high on her wish list, and we can’t help but agree.
In the children’s rooms, Emily’s sense of color and form has truly been given free rein, with window frames painted in warm, contrasting shades of yellow and green.
In one of the children's rooms, the window is adorned with a woven mustard Roman blind, featuring a contrasting scallop edge in off-white. The green window frames are complemented by a delightful mix of patterns, where the flowers in the bedding and the stripes in the antique chair come together in an unexpected yet perfectly natural way. In the other children's room, the window frames are painted in a warm yellow hue, and here hangs a Roman blind in sheer linen in a soft sand color. In front of the window, a cozy reading nook has been created with layers of patterned mattresses, and the abundance of textiles looks as inviting as it is beautiful to behold.
From Emily's bedroom, period-style double doors with antique brass fittings open into the bathroom, a true jewel that exudes classic turn-of-the-century style with rustic elements. The centerpiece of the room is a large bathtub with an elegant marble top, ingeniously integrating the bathtub into the decor and creating a surface for placing plants (by now, we expect to find plants and greenery in every room of the house) and other decorative details.
The bathtub is positioned right in front of a window overlooking the lush garden. Hanging in the window is a café curtain in thin linen that filters the afternoon light in a soft and dreamy way that only linen can. The light streaming through the curtain creates a pleasant and soothing afternoon glow, enhancing the room's relaxing atmosphere.