The Swedish Room

Celebrated for its soft palette, clean and spare look, and neoclassical European style underscored by rustic Scandinavian charm, the Swedish interior has been an endless source of imitation. The Swedish Room guides the reader through more than two hundred 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 in a royal guest room or a farmer's kitchen, the traditional details -- wide-board, unpolished wooden floors, simple checked or striped fabrics, the elegant outlines of a Gustavian chair, and the gleaming tiles of a ceramic stove -- all work to delight the eye.

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

Praise for The Swedish Room

"The Swedes have long been some of the cleverest colorists around, as Lars and Ursula Sjoberg reveal in their new book."

-- Town and Country

"[Here are] inspiring images of rough-edged but strangely regal eighteenth-century farms, Country houses, and city mansions. Poetic, accessible juxtapositions abound. Homespun gingham checks upholster Versailles-style chairs. Town houses display humble whitewashed walls, while artful stenciling decorates their country cousins."

-- Mitchell Owens, New York Times