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In pictures: Eight Swedish bloggers’ living rooms

Are you about to decorate your living room? Houzz.se's Amanda Strömberg gets style tips from some of Sweden's most popular bloggers.

Published: 7 October 2016 10:14 CEST
Updated: 7 October 2016 14:14 CEST
In pictures: Eight Swedish bloggers' living rooms
Blogger Michaela Forni's living room. Photo: Photo: Nadja Endler

1. This living room belongs to blogger Emelie Ekman, who has been decorating with gadgets that are both romantic and trendy.

“I think you should go for a fairly simple, classic and neutral base. And instead of bold colours on the base, you can go a bit wild on to the details,” she says.

Emelie
Photo: Nadja Endler

Emelie
Photo: Nadja Endler

2. Michaela Forni has mixed modern elements with more personal ones in her living room.

“We buy things that we like and that make us happy, but that are also convenient to use in our everyday lives. This is a home, not a show apartment,” says Forni.

Michaela Forni
Photo: Nadja Endler

Michaela Forni
Photo: Nadja Endler

3. “Even if trends are fun, I don't want to follow them slavishly. It is better to have a sustainable and lasting style,” says Linn Herbertsson, who took her time decorating her home, and who has not always found what she wanted while on the lookout for new furnishings for the apartment.

“Sometimes it does not exist, then you must create it yourself – like our little table by the sofa. We found a base that we liked and then we cast a table top in cement, as we wanted it to have a bit of a rough feeling to it.”

Linn Herbertsson
Photo: Nadja Endler

Linn Herbertsson
Photo: Nadja Endler 

4. In Tess Montgomery's home in London she has created a peaceful and harmonious living room, filled with neutral shades, which are matched with some accent colours.

“Dark blue colours have always had a calming effect on me. As I travel and work around the world, it is nice to return to a harmonious home after being fed with all these impressions,” Montgomery says.

TESS
Photo: Ingrid Rasmussen

TESS
Photo: Ingrid Rasmussen

5. With two cats at home, it's a good job Linda Hallberg and her partner Linus have a slightly older sofa in the living room: that way it isn't the end of the world if the cats scratch it.

“But it fit well into the room as well, I think, the black gives a bit of edge to all the light, in a nice way,” Hallberg explains.

Linda H
Photo: Nadja Endler

Linda H
Photo: Nadja Endler

6. In Andreas Wijk's small 30 square metre apartment there was no space for a separate living room, but he has nevertheless managed to make everything feel homely and coherent.

“Since I work in fashion, it felt quite natural to be creative when I built my home too. When you get to create from what interests you it tends to turn out quite nice.”

Andreas Wijk
Photo: Nadja Endler

Andreas Wijk
Photo: Nadja Endler

Josefin D
Photo: Nadja Endler

7. Josefin Dahlberg likes things, which is quite obvious when you look into the rooms of her former home. In the living room alone we find, among other things, a patterned carpet, several green plants, mirrors, small photo frames, candle holders, shoes, magazines, clothes, and souvenirs. As a whole it make for a personal and cozy jumble, where even the guests feel at home.

 

Josefin D
Photo: Nadja Endler

8. Finally, we step into Elsa Billgren’s lovely living room where the painting by her husband Pontus’ father, colourist Ronald de Wolfe, hangs. The painting was the starting point when creating the colour scheme of the flat – the green colour was picked up from the velvet couch from Ikea.

Elsa
Photo: Nadja Endler

Elsa
Photo: Nadja Endler

Get more inspiration in The Local's Homes section

Come see more Nordic lifestyle, design and architecture over at houzz.dk and houzz.se.

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PROPERTY

INTERVIEW: ‘Most foreigners in Sweden don’t know they can get back excess rent’

In Sweden, people subletting apartments are not allowed to charge more in rent than they themselves pay. But foreign subtenants don't always know this. We asked Roland Sjölin, lawyer at the Swedish Tenants' Association, about how to get back excess rent.

Published: 18 April 2024 15:19 CEST
INTERVIEW: 'Most foreigners in Sweden don't know they can get back excess rent'

More and more of the people asking the Swedish Tenants’ Association, Hyresgästföreningen in Swedish, for help with excess rent are foreigners, Sjölin told The Local in an interview.

“The problem is that if you’re coming from another country, and you’re subletting an apartment, you’re probably not familiar with the rules in Sweden, because in other countries, it might be okay to overcharge your tenants.” 

He said that clients from India in particular seeking help from the association were now “very common”. 

“Many people come here to work as engineers in the IT sector and then have to rent somewhere,” he said, adding that as a group Indians appeared to be “very aware of their rights.”

Sweden’s rental sector is heavily regulated, with first hand contracts negotiated between landlords and the Tenants’ Association, and the rent that can be charged for second-hand contracts limited to only a small fraction above what the first-hand renter pays. 

“You’re not allowed to make any profit subletting an apartment in Sweden,” Sjölin explains. “You can only charge the subletting tenant the same rent as you [the first-hand tenant] are paying to your landlord, and then you can add the costs for internet and electricity, and perhaps a parking lot, if that is included.” 

Tenants’ Association lawyer Roland Sjölin. Photo: supplied.

You can also add a påslag or “markup”, if you are renting out the apartment fully furnished, but this cannot exceed more than 15 percent of the rent. 

That doesn’t mean that most landlords follow the law. The competition for rental apartments, especially in Stockholm, is so intense, that unscrupulous sublet landlords often try to get away with charging well over the legal amount, charging what is known in Sweden as ockerhyra, or “excess rent” and hoping that their tenants are too desperate to complain.  

What many foreigners do not realise is that even after the rental period is over, they can still get back any excess rent they have paid by applying to the Rental Board or Hyresnämnden, which functions like a court judging rental disputes. 

“If you have the evidence then it’s fairly easy,” Sjölin said. “I get a new case every second week on repayment of unfair rent, and I think that I win most of them.” 

“Nowadays, you can get paid back excess rent up to 24 months back in time, so people tend to get more money,” he added. “In some cases, they can get 200,000 kronor. In other cases, perhaps it’s only 30,000 kronor or 60,000 kronor. It depends on how long you have rented the apartment, and how excessive the rent you’ve been paying has been.”

The first step is to establish what would have been a fair rent, either by asking your landlord what they themselves pay directly or by checking with the Tenants’ Association.

“Because we negotiate most rents in Sweden, we normally know what the firsthand rent is,” Sjölin explained.

Then you need to collect together your evidence.

“It’s a good thing to have a written contract and also papers from your bank showing that you paid rent every month, and perhaps photographs of the apartment, so the rental board can get an idea of the apartment you were renting and what would be a fair rent, and also the termination for the contract so you can show the court how long you’ve been living in the apartment.” 

But Sjölin underlined that since Sweden has free burden of evidence, none of this is essential. 

“Even if you’ve been paying in cash, if you have witnesses who can testify what you were paying each month, you still have a chance of getting your money back. It’s a bit more tricky, but I’ve won two cases like that this year.” 

People in Sweden, he explained, tend to wait until the rental period is over before seeking to get paid back excess rent rather than challenging their landlord while they are still living in the apartment. 

“You don’t have any legal protection for your home for the first two years, so if you bring the matter up with the person you’re renting the apartment from you risk losing your contract and having to move out, so most people wait until they’re supposed to move anyway,” he said.

If you apply to the rental board for a refund close to the day you move out, you can then make your landlord pay back all excess rent paid in the 24 months leading up to the date you contacted the rental board.

If you are a member of the Tenants’ Association, you can contact them and ask for help with your application, but there are also specialist companies, like Orimlig Hyra AB who will buy your case off you and give you a refund within 48 hours, saving you a long wait in exchange for a cut of the money reclaimed. 

Sjölin said that the rental board normally took about 8 months to come to a judgement, but that if the person with the first hand contract appeals, that could extend the waiting time by between six months and a year.

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