Cheat sheet
Who lives here Artist and designer
Gunnel Sahlin, with her cat, Findus.
Style of home A schoolhouse in Sweden’s Sörmland that was built some time before the 1890s. A new room was added to the upstairs apartment in the 1930s, and the owner before Gunnel did some renovation work.
Gunnel moved in at the end of 1998 and took her time refurbishing the property.
In 1998 Swedish designer and artist Gunnel Sahlin was on the hunt for a new home to double as her studio when she found an old school building on a hill overlooking the pastoral landscape of Sörmland. As she stepped into the former schoolroom and natural light poured into the beautiful space, it was easy to imagine herself working creatively where local children had once started (and sometimes finished) their education. Gunnel is among Sweden’s top glass artists and features in some of the country’s most prestigious private commissions and commerical projects. As well as exhibiting internationally, she has collaborated with Kosta Boda and Ikea, and has even designed rugs for high-end rug store Kasthall. To keep on top of the demand, she wanted to live and work in the same place and the schoolhouse is perfect for that. Gunnel has two rooms above her 90 square-metre art studio, which once comprised the teacher’s apartment, so inspiration is always close to hand. When friends or family stay over, they are offered the spare bed downstairs in a corner of the studio, near two white tables loaded with glass and other art materials.
Spatially, not much has changed since Gunnel moved in, apart from a new bathroom that’s been created in the corridor where satchels and coats were once hung. In the hall leading to it, the floorboards are so worn by children shuffling through over time that small bumps have developed — marks of character that Gunnel loves. Next door is the dining room, where she added a new door and steps down into the garden not long after moving in. At the same time, the artist also installed a central heating system, a series of retro-style cast-iron radiators that are are stylistically in keeping with the building. “I wanted to be faithful to the soul of the house, and to create a certain harmony with it,” she says.
More recently, many of the surfaces have been painted in soft neutrals and blue hues from UK paint company Farrow & Ball. The hallway near the kitchen Gunnel installed (when she moved in, there was only a small upstairs kitchen with no eating area) is a colour she mixed herself. During the renovation, she discovered no less than 12 layers of wallpaper and, under that, plaster on the solid timber walls — an exciting find. “I see the house as something living,” says Gunnel. “Sometimes I take away something or put up something new; it is a way of expressing myself. I surround myself with things that inspire and also nourish my work process.”
Outside is no less of a delight. The fantastic garden that surrounds the house is Gunnel’s own creation completely. In the beginning, there was nothing — even the soil was gone — but now there’s a wonderful balance between rough and wild, and restrained and pruned. First, she cleared a space for growing vegetables and herbs, and later added a greenhouse.
Where the land slopes down towards the road, she thinned out some of the overgrowth and discovered a flat surface where there had once been a lilac arbour. Gunnel decided to build a pavilion there, using windows and doors made by an equally crafty neighbour. This is where she entertains in summer, with her guests treated to bucolic views of the surrounding fields.