Hilda Grahnat’s midcentury modern studio is a haven of decor pieces that are inherited and finds. There is nothing cluttered about the studio, where the photographer, blogger and designer has managed to amass tchotchkes, beautiful artwork and furniture at a design-conscious way. The outcome is a home that doesn’t take itself too seriously by appearing too stylized — and yet one which works extra hard for Grahnat by fitting a sleeping, sitting and working area in one small area.
in a Glance
Who lives here: Hilda Grahnat
Location: Malmö, Sweden
Size: 419 square feet
Grahnat inherited nearby armchair and the loveseat out of her grandparents, who used the furniture in their flat. Floor lamps are not too far away from a chair, revealing her love of reading and spending lazy afternoons from the window.
Adjacent to the seating area is an eclectic gallery wall which has grown with every new family photograph that is vintage and flea market find. The majority of the frames are somewhat distinct, but Grahnat handles to demonstrate a cohesive group of her favorite pictures.
A wider view of the main living area shows how the glowing white walls and midcentury teak furniture provide Grahnat the “liberty to go mad,” as she says, with colours in decor items without sacrificing the airy feel of the space.
A confessed flea market enthusiast, Grahnat compulsively buys things at fleas from Berlin to Brooklyn. Her growing assortment of alarm clocks, cameras and books is grouped in vignettes.
Next to the area is her work desk from where she does and sites some of her design work. Space underneath the desk is used to group boxes of different colours and patterns.
Grahnat corrals her tools and inspiration with cups and clips. Typography from clippings and prints, washi cassette patterns and older family photographs serve as visual inspiration.
This photo by Grahnat captures her apartment’s characteristiclighting. A lamp casts a shadow over a chair that is easy that is teak.
Hilda Grahnat
The huge windows and light flowing into the kitchen are one of the main attractions of this studio, which will be among the several units at a “dull brick flat,” since Grahnat describes it , that was constructed in the ’70s.
Splashes of red and turquoise pop from the kitchen shelves over the microwave, adding color to a mostly neutral area.
The warm wood tone of this Danish teak dividers quiets any busyness that the tabletop decoration’s primary colors might otherwise produce. When Grahnat gets tired of a particular group or vignette, she just switches out them with a different.
“This is my very first flat,” she says. “I love doing everything my way”
Simplicity rules in this sleeping spot. Grahnat lets herself the ornamentation of a crocheted bedspread plus a pub wall of record covers; the space is a microcosm of the entire studio, that Grahnat calls a “plain shoebox turned vintage vignette paradise”