There’s never too much of a good thing. Sure, you don’t want to go overboard when it comes to food and drink. But serenity? When noted Swedish glass artist Gunnel Sahlin went looking for a house in the country, all she had in mind was a weekend retreat from the streets and stress of Stockholm. But when she came across this former schoolhouse in Sörmland – dubbed “Sweden’s pleasure garden” – she decided to stay.
Taken with the spaciousness of the old classroom and the abundance of natural light, Sahlin set about transforming the property into her primary residence. She converted a cloakroom into a bathroom (towels and robes now hang on the pegs where children once put their coats), added a door that leads to the garden, stripped away layers and layers of wallpaper and upgraded the heating. In the blue-and-white kitchen, Sahlin kept the built-in cupboard from the 1890s and upped her storage with the addition of Ikea cabinets that she modified to better suit the scale of the room. The new bathroom – with a clawfoot tub situated beneath an enviably large window – is grounded by a black-and-white floor that underscores the room’s relative spaciousness.
A regular auction-goer and flea-market shopper, Sahlin has furnished her home with a range of pieces: a rocking chair built by her cabinetmaker’s great-grandmother, unpretentious bentwood chairs, sturdy-legged tables and a Great Ash sofa by Eilersen. Far from maximalist but by no means minimalist, the simply arranged interiors are punctuated with all sorts of objects, from a cast-iron shoemaker’s last to a collection of old carpet beaters hanging on a wall. Her own work is displayed here and there, as are pieces by noted 20th-century ceramic designers Algot Wilhelm Kåge and Stig Lindberg, and the work of contemporary photographer Lars Grönwall.
Over time, Sahlin elevated the degraded and nondescript grounds, creating an environment balanced between the wild and the well behaved, complete with an herb garden, greenhouse, vegetable plot and a gazebo where she serves dinner in the summer. Thanks to her green thumb, Boston ivy and Dutchman’s pipe cast their tendrils across the pale façade of the house, and the green of the landscape is punctuated with the spiky blooms of Culver’s root, the tiny bell-shaped flowers of Solomon’s seal and the soft, silvery leaves of lamb’s ear. Recess never looked so good.
Photography by Johan Sellén.
Styling by Gill Renlund.
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