Swedish Country Interiors (italics)
By Edie Van Breems and Rhonda Eleish
(Gibbs Smith, 2009)

Reviewed by Marcia Sherrill

Following on the heels of their first work, Swedish Interiors, (ITALICS) authors, Edie Bernard Van Breems and Rhonda Eleish have take Swede-style to a new level in Swedish Country Interiors  Van Breems says, “Rhonda and I had the privilege to profile fifteen different homes across America whose owners have all been inspired by Swedish country design. Their individual interpretations and the way they each mix authentic Swedish country elements into their homes are varied and unique from Swedes in America to Swedish Americans to Americans with design crushes on Sweden. All are represented!” She declares the book to be a “valentine to the Swedish Country style we love.” Van Breems admits that her childhood addiction to World of Interiors had her young heart pounding over Swedish Manor Houses but this latest book is not homage to grand Gustavian flourishes or the “pristine pastiches of Swedish folk interiors” but rather the humbler peasant or “bonder” dwellings of the agricultural class.

The book reads like a love story. With twin forwards from David Easton and Lisa Newsom it is hard not to fall in head over heels in love and race out and book a ticket to Stockholm. After Reading Swedish Country Interiors there is simply no way to resist the Nordic allure. In selecting fifteen homes, one gets full-on Fijord-ian in the Swedish showplace/home in Atlanta of the Tyner family to the rustic simplicity of the Hudson Valley artist’s cottage “Woodstockholm” of Heidi and David Freilich. Suddenly Swedish design both antiques and new interpretations look downright possible. This is a book that delivers homes that while they resonate with the Swedish mystique are imminently approachable. A Seaside, Florida beach retreat, designed by arch-modernist Robert Stern,
Is a prime example of the handsome adaptability of this style. Who knew that you could go Scandinavian on the sand? Or that a Connecticut pool pavilion could evoke a mountain chalet? Sweet.

Van Breems and Eleish, astute antiquarians and scholars, are partners in Eleish van Breems Ltd., a world-famous Swedish antiques store. Moving after almost a decade from a charming 18th-century house in Woodbury, Connecticut to 18 Titus Road in Washington Depot where they are nestled on the banks of the Shepaug River, theirs is a burgeoning business.  Begun long before Swedish designs became en vogue, (ITALICS) the shop is a paean to Swedish Style and as Van Breams says, “As antiques dealers and designers specializing in 18th-and-19th-century Swedish antiques and interiors, we have long been aware of the diversity and beauty in both the soothing grays and whites of the Gustavian era as well as the richness of the Swedish baroque, rococo, and Biedermeier periods. Most recently Swedish modernism has also become a force in itself. Swedish design is popular today and its beauty lies in the confidence to mix both old and new." Van Breems and Eleish are doing just that in their updated assortment of Swedish goodies. They focus in their book and in their emporium on all-things-Swedish from the haute to the humble. Van Breems says, "As we began to speak with other collectors and admirers of both provincial and peasant Swedish country style, we were struck by how the Swedish country way of life and the practical yet exciting hallmarks of Swedish eighteenth and nineteenth-century decoration are touch points that we could incorporate into our own homes.”

As a complete reference or as the perfect companion volume to Swedish Interiors, this beautiful book promises pages and hours of inspiration from its wide spectrum of winning and attractive if not glorious ideas for today’s living spaces.