Elin Odnegård
Who lives here?
Me and my husband Kristoffer and our two children Gunnar and Pelle.
You just moved to a 70’s house that you are renovating. Tell us about it!
We bought this little terrace house from 1975 in the western part of Gothenburg for about one year ago. We had been dreaming about having our own house for several years, and we wanted to have a home that made our life easier (which also makes in funnier I believe) and more adapted for life with small children. Our house is a so called atrium house, which means that it’s built in the shape of an L, with a private garden in the backyard. Our boys have their bedrooms and a TV-room in one part of the house, and we have our kitchen, living room and bedroom in the other part. And we love everything about it!
I am a true fan of the seventies, but since pretty much everything in this house was in such a bad condition, nothing could be kept. We decided to do a modern renovation but with a flirt with the seventies in our choices of material and colors. Lot’s of pinewood, brown and yellow tones.
What are the challenging and/or most fun parts with renovating and furnishing a 70s house?
We renovated very intensely for about four months before we moved in, and we did very much ourselves. To be honest it was hell. Mostly because we didn’t realize that the condition so bad as it was (pretty much everything that was built in the seventies was built in a bad way), and we had not planned for all the hard work and money. Bus as they say, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. I will be forever grateful to our wonderful family and friends for helping and supporting us in this period of our life.
But now, when the renovation is pretty much over (hardly remember anything of it, like giving birth to babies) it’s all fun. To furnish a 70s house gives you the opportunity to play with colour combinations and furniture that doesn’t necessarily represent what many people believe is “good taste”. I love to challenge what is nice, and what’s not, and I have many special vintage finds that blends perfectly in.
Tell us about your shelf and how you use it
Our TV is placed above the shelf, so if we should call this a TV-shelf it’s the best looking TV-shelf I have ever had. I also use it to display some of my ceramics and to storage books and magazines. Love the rare moments when the kids are occupied with drawing or playing with Lego or something, and I can lay on the sofa next to them, drinking coffee, grab a magazine from the shelf and just enjoy life.
What color did you paint the pinewood in?
In a lovely light lavender color. I am so satisfied how the color of the shelf blends with the brown sofa and mustard tone of our kitchen and the yellow/beige ceiling.
Your three favourite things in your shelf are:
My lavender knot made by ceramic artist Emmeli Hultqvist and the black/white porcelain tray made by artist Frida Mälarborn are two favourites. Also love my latest vintage find, the raspberry/licorice floor lamp standing next to the shelf. Bought it for 80 kr at my favourite flea market in southern sweden.
We love the beige roof and overall your way to combine colors. Tell us about the decision to paint the roof?
Color, and the way you can combine colors, is probably what I like the most when working with interior . Great people like Alvar Aalto, Finn Juhl, Greta Magnusson Grossman and Börge Mogensen have been using color in a fantastic way and they are true sources of inspiration. When I saw pictures from the house of Finn Juhl for the first time I decided that I was going to paint all ceilings as well when I had my own house. I painted the yellowish beige in the whole house except for the kids rooms. Their ceilings are blue.
