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In pictures: Seven autumn must-haves for the living room

Houzz.se's Sanne Kragelund looks at the hottest Scandinavian fall trends to help your home stay warm in a stylish way during the colder months.

Published: 11 November 2016 16:29 CET
In pictures: Seven autumn must-haves for the living room
Don't miss these seven Scandinavian fall trends. Photo: Interior Affair Stockholm

It’s time to curl up indoors as the days get darker and darker, so why not take the opportunity to give your home a little lift? Here, we give you the definitive guide to getting your living room ready to face the cold months.

1. Increase the coziness

Before you start to spend the majority of your free time in the living room, you need some good basic furnishings. Make sure to introduce a soft material such as velvet or velour to the room. Not only are they beautiful and comfortable to sit on, but also among the trendiest materials for your home this autumn. Blogger Malene Marie Møller has gone for an entire sofa in dark blue velour.

Houzz Tours Malene Marie Møller - Boligcious

Even just a small piece of velour makes a big difference! Kristina Sørensen from the blog Labdecor has sneaked a small blue velour cushion onto her couch. Velour or velvet, in blue tones, is a safe card when you are about to change the decor. It is the ultimate trend colour right now and creates a modern, uncluttered look, and adds warmth during the cold Nordic winter months. And the blue trend continues into 2017.

Houzz Tours Myhouseins

2. Freshen up the picture wall

When you spend many hours at home, it is important to have something beautiful to look at. Walls filled with pictures and artwork – so called picture walls – have been popular for a while now, so why not update it with photography? Opt for striking reportage photographs or dramatic theatre motives.

Houzz Tours Malene Marie Møller - Boligcious

3. Soften the walls

Complement your picture wall with hangings and fabrics in soft wool or yarn. They give a change to sharp edges of the pictures, and the inviting textures create a warm ambiance. And wall hangings are not just a nice detail, but also an easy way to give your home an autumn update.

Houzz Tours Myhouseins

4. Warm wool in big amounts

It may sound like a given autumn and winter trend, but this season, keep an extra eye out for the softer things. It is definitely the more rounded shapes that stand at the forefront of interior trends this year – the cushions should be soft and as many as possible. Knitted and wool cushions fit in very well on a leather sofa, and do not forget to also add a warm blanket.

Winter Wonderland Living Room Pack

5. Invite nature

You might think that the healthy, vibrant colours and lush colour play belong to the spring and summer times, but the truth is that even during the winter months, we need to feel close to nature. Why not be inspired by the botanical trend of large, lush flowers even when it comes to wall decoration? One can never have too many flowers – check out these wall illustrations by by Nina Lardot.

Inspiration

6. Add a rug – or two

The feeling of putting your feet on a warm, fluffy rug on a cold winter day is hard to beat, so go for more rugs during the dark months. Not only do they make the rooms cozier, they also help to keep the heat. Feel free to mix rugs with different designs, but be sure to stick to similar colours to create a harmonious impression.

Floor Dressing

7. Make time for DIY projects

Does any of your larger living room furniture need to be replaced or updated? That could be fixed without spending a fortune. Consider using the winter months, while you spend a lot of time indoors anyway, to delve into small or big DIY projects.

Gör det själv: Geometriskt soffbord

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
Updated: 21 April 2024 08:12 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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