Secrets of Scandinavian Interior Design: Don't Fear Emptiness

"If an empty apartment is unattractive, then a decorator is powerless here. But even a perfect apartment can never be as good as it is at the stage of bare walls," says the Norwegian writer Eggen Turgrim, or rather the hero of his best-selling novel "The Decorator," which is directly related to apartments we call Scandinavian.

This includes this one located in Gothenburg – a city where design is taken so seriously that they dedicated a museum to it. The apartment would be good even if completely empty. The rooms have cubic shapes, and all details that create volume are carefully preserved, from carved cornices to high moldings.

The "trick" of the interior lies in the dramatic contrast between the calm dining room and office, both in the same colors and filled with similar styled items, and the exciting blue tone of the bedroom walls. This shade, called "storm blue," has the ability to expand space, which is why it's often used in small rooms.

But if you look more closely, you can notice that the blue color doesn't appear suddenly like a summer storm – it reveals itself in the dining room (in white-blue porcelain) and in the office (blue cushions on a white cotton sofa cover). This echo creates a sense of harmony, which is perceived at a subconscious level.

It works similarly with the composition made up of a desk, a round mirror hanging above it, a Tonetti chair, a flower pot, and a picture with a heron. At first glance, the eye catches on the picture – why? What is there to see in this heron? Only once your eyes get used to all these items do you realize how perfectly they are matched in texture and form. The heron on its thin legs is simply a twin of the table lamp.

The open wardrobe, where the apartment owner keeps their outerwear, prompts another quote from the novel "The Decorator": "If the wardrobe is chosen wisely, tastefully, and the person maintains order in it, then for the home, its warmth and harmony, it is useful to define the function of the wardrobe and expose its contents." Although some might think the owner simply hasn’t bought a wardrobe yet...