HOW TO DECORATE SCANDINAVIAN STYLE | Tips and ideas for minimalist scandi lovers

hey everyone today we're going to delve deep into the world of Scandinavian interior design we're going to analyze exactly how the Scandinavians manage to consistently create beautiful and biting bright interiors and we're also going to look at how to recreate the same style in our own homes [Music] so I think it's safe to say that Scandinavian interior design is one of the most popular interior design styles in the world Scandinavian interior design is generally associated with its clean bright minimalistic yet cozy look I know that personally I was shopping at IKEA long before I even understood the concept of a Scandinavian interior design style I was always attracted to the showrooms and to the catalogs and I couldn't quite pinpoint why that was but I kept going back to it over and over like I think many of us do anyways this isn't a video about me or about IKEA the reason I bring up IKEA is because I truly believe that IKEA is the reason Scandinavian interior design was brought to the masses and not only the design in itself but the concept behind Scandinavian interior design now what is that the Scandinavians have a very socially inclusive culture so the way that this translates to the design world is that there is this belief that everyone should be able to afford beautiful and functional items in their home so in a nutshell what is Scandinavian interior design well I think we can break it down to three core concepts warmth simplicity and inspiration from nature it's not just the like physical log but it's also psychological warmth having a warm home has been a really important part of Scandinavian lives for hundreds of years obviously they have very cold winters and so the home provided a safe haven from the very extreme weather conditions fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are great elements to have in your home to create physical ones if you don't have a fireplace you can create well-being by using warm lighting for example so look at the temperature of your lights make sure that they're warm lights and not great white neon light and also think about lighting candles and dimming your lights down to create a more inviting and soft atmosphere besides adjusting your lighting you can also wear thick woolen sock place rugs on the floor use a lot of soft furnishings so that people feel comfortable and a sense of well-being and warmth in your home simplicity comes from the fact that Nordic design roots come from the need to design items that would perform the required tasks with the limited raw resources and that they had available to them often in old times people weren't able to travel far from their little village or town because of the weather conditions so they had to make deal with what they had and this has kind of translated down through the years into their design lastly inspiration from nature if you've ever seen any photos of Scandinavia or if you've been there you'll know that it has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world Scandinavians have been long inspired by their surroundings and have always preferred to use materials that were readily available to them let's look at 12 ways that you can also create the Scandinavian look in your own home the first way is mixing old and new I think it's really important to point out that standard aliens don't add objects to their homes as status symbols so regardless of the price or the way an item was made any product that enters the Scandinavian home is meant to add emotional comfort and it's meant to enrich one's life so because Scandinavians tend to acquire objects based on this principle it's not unusual for there to be a mix of old and new items in Scandinavian interiors vintage items are often nostalgic and a stile juh is often linked to the concept of Kouga I hope I'm saying that right okay Puka is essentially the Danish philosophy of togetherness comfort and well-being and of course there's no better place to experience this than in your own home home is definitely the hygge headquarters but you don't have to be at home to feel hoga a restaurant can feel look up a bookstore can feel yoga even work you can feel hoga if you have it set up properly but it's definitely important to mention that hookah is a big part of getting the feeling right in Scandinavian interior design if you're interested in learning more about hookah there's a really good book on it that I recently read it's called the little book of hookah and it's by Mike weaking sorry if I'm pronouncing that wrong I'll leave a link in the description I definitely recommend it picking it up if you are interested in how to create coziness in your life there are some quick ways to create hookah in the home I'll just quickly go over them just push your clutter aside stack it up somewhere create some just some clear space in front of you light some candles or dim the lights you know turn off the overhead lights put some soft music on or maybe even put your favorite movie on on the TV at low volume in the background bake some cookies or maybe light a scented candle fluff your pillows put some woolen socks on prepare a hot drink like mulled wine or coffee or tea and invite some friends over next is natural light now the Scandinavians go from one extreme to the other on the light spectrum they go from having very few hours natural daylight in the winter to having 20 hours of sunlight in the summer so they really do go from one extreme to the other so naturally Scandinavian house designs try to maximize the amount of natural light in their homes so really really big windows are often seen skylights are really popular and of course painting your walls bright white is really gonna help bounce all that light around your room and create even more brightness the Scandinavians do like to hang drapes on their windows but they're very careful to hang them correctly so it's not to block the light from their roots I have a video about how to hang curtains if you're interested I would recommend checking it out in terms of color palettes the most popular Scandinavian color palette by far is black and white with natural accents but you will also find other colors such as grey off-white pale wood tones soft pinks sage green topes tan mustard hunter green navy blue and metallic accents white is really truly the favorite it's a beautiful and elegant backdrop for all the natural materials that are often found in Scandinavian homes artwork artwork in Scandinavian interiors generally tends to be more on the subdued scientist also allows to go a fairly large scale with their artwork because it's not really busy the wall art normally consists of abstract art drawings sometimes moody landscape photography sometimes the odd classical oil portrait or textural painting will appear the frames tend to be quite minimal white thin black or white or blond wood and from time to time you will see a gold ornate frames but they tend to pair them with very very minimal backdrops sculptural art is generally on the minimal side as well also Scandinavians don't tend to have many knickknacks in their home so if you are going for a clean Scandinavian look I would recommend clearing out all the knickknacks and only keeping your absolute favorites ceramics and glass vessels are also very popular in Scandinavian interior design they are not only beautiful but they're also functional Scandinavian rooms and interiors are almost always very light and airy feeling first of all furniture is often elevated off the ground this allows for light to circulate better through the room Scandinavian furniture also often features very lightweight frames there's lots of breathing space between the different pieces of furniture the walls are almost always white which we've already met this reflects more light and sometimes the use of paper lampshades increases that sense of airiness within spaces if you look at Scandinavian rooms one of the primary ways that they introduce warmth of texture is through the use of textiles adding thorough blankets and pillows and things like that will really help to soften any hard edges of your furniture natural fabrics are a preference among Scandinavians wool linen cotton things like that silk and satin is not often seen although velvet is used quite a bit at least it's right now it is one thing to note is that Scandinavians actually don't shy away from using animal hides in their decor you don't have to of course you can use faux but they like to use things like sheep skins and you know cow hides and any animal pelts draped over the back of chairs or use those rugs next to the bed or on their sofas but yeah again you don't have to use real you can definitely go the full route and it'll give the exact same effect curtains in Scandinavian settings typically tend to be solid and they're hung from ceiling to floor so let's talk about Scandinavian floors the number one lowering choice in Scandinavian homes is the hardwood floor Scandinavians do not use carpet this does not mean of course that you can't decorate Scandinavian style if you have carpet of course you can but it's just to say that the scat is just don't use carpet they generally use pale hardwood floors and then they like to soften with rugs typically in neutral colors if the floors tend to be light-colored woods if they can't use hardwood they use laminate and sometimes the floor boards are also painted in white to reflect even more light another aspect of the flooring that is good to mention and to notice is that the Scandinavians tend to like to continue same flooring throughout the whole home exceptions are of course in the bathroom where they will usually use tile and sometimes vinyl for the slightly cheaper option the main reason why Scandinavians like to have a clutter free space is because it allows for more light to flow through the room another thing I've noticed about Scandinavian interiors is that there is always very good cable management I can tell you from personal experience from being married to a Swede that cable management is important and it is untidy cables make your space look more cluttered and messy so if you can try and just tuck them away out of sight that will really do wonders for your space and it's a very low effort very low cost change that you can make to your space to make it look tidy er the use of wood is a huge element in Scandinavian interior design their floors are wood their furnitures wood their homes are wood and they tend to mix it a lot of the preferred wood tone for Scandinavian interiors is typically light tone wood birch pine or spruce are quite popular wood painted white is also popular plants when our plants not on a list let's be real plants are always on the list Scandinavians truly do love nature and they try to bring it indoors whenever they can one thing to note about the waste Candy's use plants indoors is that they don't overdo it typically they never have liked more than four or five per room so if you want to go full-on jungle totally don't blame you I love that look but it's not really a Scandinavian way of decorating Papas grass is also a Scandinavian decor favorite so if you can get your hands on some of that I recommend doing so those lucky enough to live in the big cities often will get to live in big older buildings that are at least a couple of hundred years old most of these buildings have been very well preserved these buildings often feature very elaborate moldings the old-fashioned radiators under the windows very very high ceilings trim around the doors it's a very particular look when there are these ornate moldings they're literally always painted white the wall on the ceiling color can sometimes be painted and ever so slightly darker shade of white from the moldings so now that we've analysed all the different aspects of Scandinavian interiors how can we non Scandinavians bring that look into our own homes so there are a few ways the first thing I would suggest is bring as much light and warmth as you can into your home so the first tip is paint your walls bright white this is the easiest and first step to a true scandi look the second step is to declutter strip everything back and be very very careful about what you reintroduce you're really selective step 3 is to remove any very bright very highly saturated colors you can use color in your space of course but I would recommend removing it all first and then using a lot of restraint when you reintroduce color back into your space to save on art you can use your own photos you can quite cheaply have your own photos and large to poster size buy cheap frames at IKEA and you can create your own art you can paint your own art there are a million DIYs out there on how to create abstract art often all it takes is a canvas and paint brush and a tube of paint and you can make art that you could easily see being sold for hundreds of dollars let me know if you're interested and I can do a video on how to create abstract art Richie another tip is to of course assess your lighting make sure you don't have any harsh lighting make sure your light bulbs are potentially dimmable that you've got warm lighting you've got candles assess your curtains make sure your curtains are looking good check my video on that and lastly check and see if in your home there are any areas where you can layer in some throw pillows or blankets or fur pelts or anything like that I really hope you enjoyed this video and that you found it useful thank you so much for leaving me comments in my videos and for showing your support it means so much to me and it's the reason why I keep making videos I know I don't have that many yet but I'm reading all your comments and when you have requests I'm writing them down and I'm gonna try and make all the videos that you're requesting I hope you have a great day and that you can try and inject some scandi into your home after having watched this bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Posh Pennies

Views: 273,266

Rating: 4.9187894 out of 5

Keywords: diy decor, interior design, decorating on a budget, home decor, scandinavian design, scandinavian interior design, design ideas, decorating ideas, interior decorating, scandinavian apartment, scandinavian home, minimalist living, interior design ideas, house, home design, scandi decor, scandi chic, minimal decor, nordic design, scandinavian interiors, decorating tips, minimalist decor, scandi minimal, posh pennies

Id: kSwdlXJ5CC0

Length: 15min 42sec (942 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020