PAPER TRAIL

Having outgrown their cosy farmhouse, Lina and Karim Behm decided to switch rustic country style for city life, lling their home with characterful wallpapers and elegant antiques

Four years ago, having nished both her doctorate in medical science, and the protracted renovation of their farmhouse home, Lina Behm was ready for change and felt it was time to close that chapter of her life.

‘I was starting a new job teaching at the university of Kristianstad, and I wanted to move on,’ she explains, adding that she also longed for a new style. ‘Our house in the country was ‘shabby chic’, with exposed beams, whitewashed walls and lled with hand-painted, distressed furniture.’

However, when Lina found Villa Sacketorp, a large, turn-of-the-century house in a nearby town, her husband, Karim was hesitant. Having been in charge of the farmhouse renovation, he felt a ached to the place, and was reluctant to move. ‘Although the new house was only a few kilometres away, it stood for something completely di erent,’ says Lina. ‘The rst time I saw it I fell in love with the large double doors that are a feature of three of the rooms on the ground oor, and the high ceilings, which are so

di erent from the low ceilings we had in our old house.’ Eventually, Lina won Karim over and they took the plunge.

Aesthetically very di erent from their previous house, it took Lina and Karim some time to make the spacious villa feel like home. ‘It was quite chaotic here at rst,’ Lina recalls. ‘The rooms were huge and our handpainted furniture didn’t work at all. These rooms call for pieces that really own the space.’ Through trial and error, Lina and Karim found that, for small-scale pieces to work, they needed to be in dark colours. ‘We bought lots of furniture online,’ she says. ‘Always going for the biggest things we could nd. We made a lot of mistakes.’

Fortunately, most of these ‘mistakes’ were vintage or antique items that were easily sold on. In the end, Lina decided that Villa Sacketorp’s generous rooms called for wallpaper and pa ern. ‘You could say the house set the style,’ she says.

The oral wallpapers are one of the rst things you notice when you enter Lina and Karim’s home: subdued shades in the bedrooms and a more colourful and exuberant mix in the communal spaces. ‘We started with our bedroom, where I wanted a design my grandmother had that I’ve always loved,’ says Lina. ‘When we rst put it up I thought it was pre y daring, but now I look at it, and sometimes

wonder why I chose such a bland wallpaper!’ But, having come from their whitewashed farmhouse, it was a big step to use pa erns, she laughs.

William Morris is a favourite, and his classic Willow Bough llst the large sitting room at the centre of the house. At the dining end of the open-plan kitchen-diner, Dancing Crane by Emma von Brömssen covers the walls and provides a striking contrast to the simplicity of the kitchen, which was already ed – they simply revamped it with a coat of paint and zoned the room with the addition of a breakfast bar.

‘I like to mix things up,’ says Lina. ‘I try to nd old Swedish pieces from the early 1900s and combine them with modern objects, but I don’t care much about designers and brands – it’s more about how I feel about things and whether I nd them beautiful or not.’ Despite the dificulties of scale and style, many pieces from their old house eventually found their place in the new one, adding character and charm to what Lina describes as their more ‘grown-up’ home. The house is exactly what Lina felt the family needed, she says, with one caveat: ‘With our lives being what they are now, we hardly have time to be at home,’ she laughs. ‘Sometimes I miss the old life!’

THIS PAGE The flame-fronted cabinet in the dining room is 1930s Förenade Möbler and came from a flea market; the dining table is set with candlesticks, coasters and plates from Korgcenter, which is an interiors shop, owned by a friend. LEFT The early 20th-century dining table and chairs were bought at a house clearance and the rug came from a local auction. Lina felt the room was large enough to hold the bold wallpaper, Dancing Crane, by Emma von Brömssen.

The Owners The Property Lina and Karim Behm live here with their children, Vincent (13), Siri (11) and Unni-Lee (7). The family have hens and bees. Lina is a researcher/teacher at Lund University, Karim is a child-carer working with disabled children. The house was built in 1912 in Höör, southern Sweden. Having been thoroughly renovated by the couple, the house has a roomy, country-style kitchen, a living room and four bedrooms.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Lina is a fan of make do and mend, preferring to restore items rather than throwing them out and buying new. The vintage radio came from an antiques shop and has been reconditioned. The wooden box – now used for storage – was a grocer’s measuring scoop; the candlesticks and tray came from various local flea markets; Lina and Karim with their daughter, Unni-Lee.

The attractive drop-leaf desk was left at the house by the previous owners and prompted Lina to think about trying dark wood furniture. The dancing figure is German, c1930, and is one of several dotted around the couple’s home. The sewing box came from a local antiques shop.

CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT The parquet floor in the master bedroom flows into the sitting room and is a feature of the entire ground floor. The bedside table came from Lina’s grandmother, who also inspired the choice of wallpaper; Unni-Lee’s bedroom (viewed through the doorway) is at the other end of the sitting room from her parents’ bedroom. The house was built in 1912 and the fireplace is a later addition; the blue wallpaper in Vincent’s bedroom is a remake of an old Swedish design, originally from the baroque-style Bjärka-Säby Castle, and made by Boråstapeter.