Hello Home, Lovisa Häger
Lovisa is the interior designer who is perhaps better known under the name 'An Interior Affair', but if you ask her to describe herself, she also throws in titles such as serial-renovator, stylist, blogger, and perhaps the most important one of all, creative director of Gotain.
Her latest interior design project is her own apartment on Kungsholmen that she and her partner bought this spring, which they were finally able to move into the same summer, after a few months of renovation. When the contract was about to be signed, Lovisa had in fact not even seen the apartment in real life, and she describes it as, to say the least, nervewrecking the first time she was about to step over the threshold to the apartment that then already had been signed!
The feelings were mixed. Both Lovisa and her partner saw potential in the run-down turn-of-the-century apartment, but the extent of the project only became clear when they saw it with their own eyes. Walls that needed to be both taken down and rebuilt to create a more thoughtful floor plan. Under laminate flooring they hoped to find original wood floors, and all finishes needed a great deal of love.
The kitchen has been one of the biggest projects in the apartment, especially the challenge of creating a social and unique kitchen in a small space - without compromising on either work space or storage. ‘Something that I have really taken with me during our renovations is how much it is worth to have enough space in the kitchen, both to be able to cook but also to just be able to socialize. This is why we chose a extra wide stove and sink, but placed just as much emphasis on that there needed to be somewhere to sit with a glass of wine as company for the person cooking!'
The walls in the entire apartment are painted in plaster paint which gives an uneven and structured surface, and the kitchen is no exception. The whitewashed walls give an almost rustic feeling, which is met by the more modern, boldly patterned marble worktop, something that we understand has been a theme throughout the interior. Smooth materials that meet structured, patterns meets solid color, rustic that meets elegant and new that meets old, it is clear that Lovisa likes to mix. The latest purchase for the apartment is the painting that has been placed on a shelf in the kitchen, a picture of a woman in warm, orange tones, a catch caught on auction in the autumn.
After taking on numerous interior design projects over the years, both privately and to assist others, Lovisa has learned that a clear plan is the key for a uniform result.
‘To make a moodboard of things you like, from colors to furniture, to pictures that only convey a feeling! Only after you have gathered a large pile of inspiration, you can sit down and analyze and try to see why you have chosen these images. Is there a clear attraction to a specific color palette? A type of architecture? Profile of kitchen countertop doors? I think most people have a stronger feeling for interior design than you might think, you just have to attract it and understand it´.
To complement the rustic walls, Lovisa has consistently chosen woven linen curtains, but in different tones in the different rooms. In the living room and office, woven linen curtains hang in off-white, while the bedroom, with its slightly darker and warmer color, the color sand drapes the window. In all rooms, the curtains are mainly decorative, and hang parked at the sides of the bay windows in black curtain rods. Lovisa says that the textile feel was the most important thing in the choice of curtains and suspension, rather than the function of being able to pull them back and forth.
