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Swedish Interior Designer Malin Holmudd on Colour, Space and Style
Making a new country your home and bringing your style with you isn’t always ease. We spoke to Swedish interior designer, Malin Holmudd, about her Portugese apartment that she shares with her partner, photographer Miguel Varanda.
How would you describe your style?
A mix between two countries! Our building has beautiful architecture from the beginning of the 19th century which serves as a base for Scandinavian design combined with Portuguese second hand bargains. It is light, personal and simple.
What is it that creates a personal home to you?
How you combine furniture, objects and textiles makes your personal expression, as well as the personal items and the story they tell. We have combined basic design with objects from our family, treasures that we found at second hand markets and furniture bargains from the street. We also created a few things ourselves, like some of the paintings, as well as the worktop in the office, which is an old door from the apartment renovation.
What is important in a home for you?
That it’s well organised, so I don’t have to spend time searching for my things. Having an uncluttered space where everything has a dedicated space gives me peace of mind. This is especially important in the bedroom, where we have organised our clothes and accessories in a vintage wardrobe with organisers, while our seasonal clothing is packed in boxes with labels which makes them easy to find.
Do you have a favourite colour?
White is my favourite colour when it comes to interiors, which is also one of the base colours of Nordic design. Since it’s dark a large part of the year in the Nordics, interiors are light to reflect as much light as possible. This also works really well in our home, especially in the rooms towards the back of the building, which need a bit more daylight. In Southern Europe, white walls and interiors are used to create a cooling effect in the hot climate.
Why did you choose this apartment to become your home?
We lived together in Sweden for some years before we decided it was time to try out an adventure in Miguel’s hometown of Lisbon. The search for an apartment was a very exciting process! After some months of looking at many different apartments we finally got lucky and found an apartment that fitted our criteria – a renovation project in the centre of the city, for a reasonable price, with the right potential.
Photography: Miguel Varanda – Interior Design: Malin Holmudd – Styling: Brechtje Troost