Reflections on Swedish Interiors - Hardcover

Eleish, Rhonda; Van Breems, Edie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1423625285 ISBN 13: 9781423625285

Publisher: Gibbs Smith, 2013

Synopsis

A well-designed Swedish room, whether an antique-filled country home or a contemporary industrial loft space, has a calm and feel-good quality that literally permeates the atmosphere. See how some of the most authentic advocates of Swedish design are using these ideas in their own homes, places of pure beauty and simplicity. The fundamental concepts of Swedish design are in full play at each location featured and are important qualities to incorporate into a home-those of functionality, quality of materials, light, preservation, art, eclecticism, color, sense of place and a deep reverence for nature.

Featured in the book are projects by designers Eleish van Breems, 2Michaels, Liza Laserow, and Jonas Wickman with a look into the private homes of Barbara Paca and Philip Logan of Preservation Green, Mick Aarestrup and Paula Batali of Lief, Tara Shaw of Tara Shaw Inc., Jill Dienst of Dienst and Dotter, Ann Ljungberg and Rajesh Kumar of Just Scandinavian, international stylist Ingrid Leess, and designers Patricia Fischer of Patricia Fisher Interiors and Linda Kennedy of Meredith Baxter Home. The elements of Swedish style are broken down for the reader with inspiring photos and directives and a Resource Guide is provided for further exploration.

Forewords by Brad Ford and Keith Granet.

Rhonda Eleish and Edie van Breems are the founders of Eleish van Breems Ltd., a company whose approach to design stems from a modern application and interpretation of historic Scandinavian interiors and form. Their design work has been featured in House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Veranda, Glamour, Country Living, Gods & Goddar, and the New York Times, among others. Both live with their families in southwest Connecticut and travel extensively in Scandinavia, calling Stockholm their home away from home.

About this title

About the Author:

Rhonda Eleish and Edie van Breems live in Woodbury, Connecticut, and opened the doors to Eleish van Breems Antiques in 1998. They specialize in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Swedish antiques and offer compelling examples of Swedish design and lifestyle.

Rhonda Eleish and Edie van Breems are the founders of Eleish van Breems Ltd., a company whose approach to design stems from a modern application and interpretation of historic Scandinavian interiors and form. They are sought out for their clean, elegant, and fresh approach to interiors, all with a Scandinavian essence. Rhonda and Edie are the authors of Swedish Interiors and Swedish Country Interiors and are excited to introduce Reflections on Swedish Interiors as the third book in their best-selling Swedish Interiors series. Their design work has been featured in fine national and international publications such as House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Veranda, Glamour, Country Living, Gods & Goddar, and the New York Times, among others. The pair have made television appearances on This Old House, Martha Stewart Living and HGTV-Canada. Both Rhonda and Edie live with their families in southwest Connecticut and travel extensively in Scandinavia, calling Stockholm their home away from home.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Nordic Soul

Leaving the opaque morning haze of Los Angles, we pursue the sun as it rises and drive ourselves high up into the Hollywood Hills, where on a sunny hilltop dry plantings of salvias, lavender and aloes impart the lush cool feeling of a shade garden. Here, behind a tall stuccoed wall, Mick Aarestrup greets us at the private escape he and his wife designer Paula Batali have created at their 1930s hideaway house. The Mediterranean-style building appears at first to be all white-painted glamour with deep aquamarine blue trim. Mick throws open the doors to let us in and we are embraced by rooms where painted antiques of simple lines, natural materials and fine art all combine into a soothing space of deep personal expression.

Similar to their home, Mick and Paula seem to be the perfect exciting fusion of South American sophistication meeting Nordic soul. The couple’s shared passion and ease with art and design reveals itself in their confident mix of decor. Elements, as disparate as a 1720s leather upholstered chair and an Anne Foresman painting, when put together in the intimate, domestic scale of the bungalow are totally energized. “It is best,” says Mick, “to have a mixture of pieces, not all the same period. Just like we’re all different from one another so are the homes we embody and the objects we fill them with. Everybody demands a certain amount of space, and plays very well with some and not so well with others. By mixing periods then, every piece gets their own voice.” Both Swedish and South American designers seem to have mastered the power of mingling past and present as a very powerful means to evoke not just great beauty but also associations and sentiment.

Paula concurs that there is more similarity between Brazilian and Swedish design than one would initially suspect. “I am from Rio de Janeiro and consider myself very fortunate to come from a place where creativity and the design process is spontaneous, naïve and very much inspired by nature and materials. I believe that in this aspect, both countries have a similar approach to design. Brazilian furniture and interiors have a fluidity and an airy quality to them, and because of that, I was able to immediately relate to Swedish design.”

In terms of living with antiques in modern settings, this is something she is entirely used to from her upbringing. A happy memory for Paula is of her father collecting antiques. “My family always seemed perplexed with my father’s obsession―collecting really old and odd-looking stuff! Brazil is a new country! The antiques I was exposed to were mainly Portuguese Baroque; it was everywhere around my parents’ apartment.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1423625285
• ISBN 13: 9781423625285
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256