How to Combine Colors Scandinavian-Style: Example from Sweden

The apartment has a separate entrance to a cozy inner courtyard located in the historic district of Gothenburg — Haga. There, on both sides of pedestrian streets, stand traditional three-story houses for Sweden with stone base floors. It is no surprise that the apartment interior is designed accordingly — Scandinavian style.

The kitchen and living room in the apartment are combined. This makes the space more spacious and brighter. Large windows paired with white walls further fill the room with light.

Despite the small space, the kitchen looks spacious (even very) and functional. The oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, additional freezer, bar counter, and many pull-out drawers — everything has its place.

One wall of the kitchen is painted white, another is tiled with white tiles. The floor features light grey parquet boards, chosen almost in the color of the natural stone worktop. Next to the window is a dining table and chairs made from natural wood in the color of grey pearl. Due to the predominance of grey shades, blue cabinets stand out and look brighter. In this case, grey serves as a neutral color that allows blue to be the main accent on the kitchen.

Merging the kitchen and living room creates a social and pleasant space in the apartment. The main accent here is a carpet with a floral pattern, and the textile matched to the sofa along with the carpet creates a harmonious combination. The walls, like in the entire apartment, are painted white. It is no surprise that white unifies all interior elements into one whole and hides discrepancies between colors and furniture.

Large windows, without which it is hard to imagine Scandinavian style, fill the space with air and natural light. Wide window sills decorated with living flowers in pots look so natural that it seems there is no better place for them.

Partitioning the kitchen and living room occurs not only due to the bar counter but also thanks to color solutions. The living room compared to the kitchen looks darker: dark brown piano, chestnut-colored pots for flowers, and dark textile on the sofa. A great example of how to divide space without walls or partitions.

The bedroom also uses monochromatic grey shades to add depth to the small room. Large windows seem to illuminate the bedroom from within.

Along one wall are two built-in white wardrobes that serve two functions. One is practical, as a storage space, and the second is decorative, as a way to dilute grey walls with white color.

The apartment has a spacious bathroom. Inside there is a wooden vanity unit, a mini-laundry room with a washing machine and dryer, many storage spaces, built-in mirror, shower, and even a heated floor. The walls are tiled with white tiles, and the floor is black, which in contrast enhances the space and does not hurt even in a spacious bathroom.

The entrance hall is convenient: there's plenty of space for storing shoes and outerwear, and opposite it is a mirror.

What is unusual is that the entrance hall connects all rooms in the apartment into a circular and continuous layout. The elevated wall and black tiles at the threshold clearly separate the entrance area from the common corridor.

Layout