The Swedish Room

Celebrated for its soft palette, clean and spare look, and neoclassical European style modified by rustic Scandinavian charm, the Swedish interior has been an endless source of imitation. The Swedish Room enables the reader to take in period by period, house by house, over 200 breathtaking images and an authoritative accompanying text which focus on those special features of the traditional Swedish room that have made it one of the major influences in decorating today.

Whether a royal guest room, an aristocratic boudoir, or a farmer's kitchen, each room is original and inviting. The traditional details-wide-board, unpolished wooden floors, simple checked or striped fabrics used on windows and beds, the elegant outlines of a Gustavian chair and the gleaming tiles of a ceramic stove-everything delights the eye. The contrast between the glowing, ingenuous wall paintings of Dalarna farmhouses and the pale distressed colours of eighteenth-century manor houses is echoed in the juxtaposition of the rich claret red of the traditional wooden exteriors and the delicately decorated, light-suffused interiors.

The authors, Ursula and Lars Sjoberg, trace the development of the quintessential Swedish style from its antecedents in the seventeenth century through its heyday in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to its followers today. With glorious photographs by Ingalill Snitt, The Swedish Room is both a source of original, practical decorating ideas and an irresistible voyage of discovery through some of the world's most appealing interiors.