Colorful and Playful Interiors in a Unique Swedish Villa Apartment

With its warm yellow facade, stately roofline, and views across the water, this villa has the presence of a small manor house. Beyond the gates, sheltered courtyards and carefully composed gardens create the feeling of a secluded country estate, even though the train to Stockholm is only minutes away.

The ground floor apartment shares in that sense of escape, with generous rooms, historic details, and a close connection to the garden.

Inside, saturated colors and bold patterns bring a spirited new layer to the old architecture. Profiled joinery, parquet floors, and handsome tiled fireplaces anchor the rooms in the villa’s history, while a confident palette gives each space its own character.

Built in the 1870s, the villa took on much of its present appearance after architect Tore E. Lindhberg bought the property in 1917.

His redesign brought a classical dignity to the older house, with white quoins, pilaster strips and pronounced cornices standing out against warm yellow render.

Plaster festoons decorate several windows, while red-painted window frames enliven the façades. Above, a high hipped tile roof is punctuated by softly curved dormers.

You enter the apartment in this welcoming sky-blue hall, which opens into a living room filled with afternoon light.

A large, three-part window faces southwest towards the city park, its greenery echoed by the expressive banana leaves of the Versace wallpaper.

The wallpaper’s yellow hue is extended to the bespoke radiator cover under the window. I like how the room’s classic bones, the herringbone parquet and high skirting boards, pair with these expressive colors and patterns.

The ochre-painted tiled fireplace (a kakelugn) also beautifully showcases this combination of historic features and playfulness.

From the sitting room, the home opens into an eclectic dining room facing the garden and water. Morning sunshine enters through two sets of windows, casting long bands of light across the herringbone floor.

The white tiled fireplace is paired with silver features, adding a nice shimmer to the space.

The room is painted a soft pink hue, paired with deeper reddish-pink borders that draw attention to the doorways.

The Cosack Gemini pendant hangs above the dining table that is surrounded by a bold variation of artsy dining chairs.

The kitchen sits directly off the dining room. Here, the mood shifts back to sky blue (as in the hallway). Mario Bellini’s Nuvola pendant hangs above the island.

The cabinets, walls, ceiling, and tiles share the same color, creating a calm and enveloping effect against white worktops and brass fittings.

A three-part window brings in afternoon sunshine and a view towards the City Park, while generous work surfaces and storage make the room as practical as it is distinctive.

Two paneled doors conceal pantry spaces, one currently used as a utility cupboard, and a varnished engineered wood floor adds warmth beneath the blue.

A third door leads into a small kitchen passage and straight out to the garden.

There are bedrooms on either side of the dining room. The smallest room, now used as a home office, features matte purple walls and a parquet floor laid in a Dutch pattern.

The large bedroom is painted in a vibrant lime-green color, contrasting the warm herringbone parquet floor.

The room also features a beautiful dark ochre tiled fireplace, as well as a built-in wardrobe and additional storage space made of IKEA Ivar cabinets.

The apartment has a small bathroom, but one that makes a statement. Pink walls and ceiling meet white tiling and a black-and-white porcelain floor.

An auction-sourced toilet and pedestal basin add a tulip-green shade, which returns on the feet of the freestanding bath. Brass Tapweell fittings add warmth.

The garden continues this careful composition. Clipped shrubs gather like green sculptures around a small rectangular pond, where a bronze figure is reflected in the water.

Brick terraces and steps follow the changing levels, and paths lead between the buildings and greenhouses before the grounds open towards the waterfront.

The apartment is listed for sale at Historiska Hem – photography by Jahnson.