I wanted my home to be a place where my family can create, learn, and play, a space filled with comfort and light. Over the years I've poured over magazines and books, looking for inspiration, but I wasn't looking for what's in style or what other people like. I was searching for an atmosphere that embodied my idea of home (which to my mind is the most magical of words). About fifteen years ago I found it in
a series of picture books by 19th century Swedish painter
Carl Larsson:This is what I wanted--not a style or decor--an atmosphere where things can grow and reach towards the light.
That's just great, Susan. Those do look very much like your home. :-)
ReplyDeleteSusan...when I came across the first picture, I knew that I wanted my cottage to have plants growing during winter. Some of the plants in his painting are geraniums...I began to bring mine inside for the winter and I replicated some of the look from his paintings also. He truly shared what a homey decor should be like :) Your home is so lovely Susan... the birds must give you lovely music. m.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful pictures Susan and I think your home reflects them well.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a beautiful weekend.
Yes, Carl Larsson! A wonderful artist. Your dining room looks very nice to me.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness its wonderful how much your room echoes that first picture. You are especially lucky with your beautiful paned windows. The whole setting is so peaceful and warm.
ReplyDeleteso lovely, so evocative. such an atmosphere. such an education. such life!
ReplyDeleteSuch a cozy, warm room! I like plants in my windows too and lots of windows and light. :-)
ReplyDeleteSusan - The words "an atmosphere where WE can grow and reach towards the light" came to me after reading your last sentence. My impression of your home and you as a person - mother, wife, homemaker, knitter, baker, nature lover, teacher, reader, writer - is one of light. Thank you for the light I find in each of your blog entries.
ReplyDeleteI love his work too. My mom has a book of his paintings, and we both said the first time we looked through it that we wished we could jump right in to any of the painted spaces. Recreating their spirit in our homes in second-best. Yes, yes, yes.
ReplyDelete. . .is second-best, that should have read.
ReplyDeletebeautiful drawings. I don't have a style but I do have lots of memories jammed packed into my furniture. Where I bought them used, my son banging a hammer all over a loved coffee table that I am unwilling to part with. I think it's the memories made in a room that make a room cozy and homey.
ReplyDeleteWow, indeed you have re(?)created the atmosphere you've longed for. I love airy, light-filled rooms with lots of plants (at one point I had 37 plants in my house!). Yours looks very welcoming. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen we first moved to this house in 1992 I had a print of the top one of your pictures framed in our living room along with two other Carl Larsson prints. I still have them somewhere. His paintings always look so cosy and homely. I believe they were based on his own home in Sweden that you can still visit today.
ReplyDeleteMy ethos on decorating is the same as yours. I do believe that a house should be a home. Somewhere to live and love and not a show place.Your home definitely fits the bill...It looks light and happy and welcoming.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again-your home is lovely. I love Larsson specifically for his depictions of cozy spaces. I'm also fond of picture books by Wendy Anderson Halperin for the same reason. If you haven't checked out the blog Beauty That Moves you must. Her home is perfect in every way.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! And can I just say that you seem to have recreated the first picture in your own home rather well!
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