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An insider’s guide to Stockholm’s secret design spots

The Local spent a day with Stockholm-based interior architect Elena Ramirez, exploring the design gems it’s taken her seven years to curate.

An insider’s guide to Stockholm’s secret design spots
Photo: Elena in På andra våningen

Elena Ramirez has a keen eye for beautiful things. The Spanish interior architect, who designs window displays for Swedish retailer H&M, has been in Stockholm since 2012 when she came to study at Sweden’s University of Arts, Crafts and Design. She fell for the city (and her Swedish fiancé) and soon enough Stockholm became home.

The last seven years have been a journey of discovery for Elena. If Swedish interior design – which is popular the world over thanks to the likes of IKEA, furniture designer Bruno Mathsson and textile designer Stig Lindberg – is chalk, then Spanish interior design is cheese.

Elena Ramirez

“In Spain, people don’t spend time inside. There’s a lot of black and grey terasso and the furniture is very thick – you inherit things from your family but things you don’t want. Your mum would come after you if you don’t keep it! It’s very different here in Sweden,” Elena tells The Local.

READ ALSO: An architect’s guide to Gothenburg

Suburban design

Elena suggests getting out of the city centre and into the suburbs to seek out everyday Swedish design. Where the locals live, where they eat and drink and socialise, is where you’ll find a more authentic design experience.

Telefonplan, a suburb to the southwest of Stockholm, was developed in the 1950s to house workers at the then-nearby Ericsson factory. Purpose-built apartment blocks in ochre yellow, mint and pink, known as funkis, line the wide, straight (and impeccably clean) streets.

Flower shop in Midsommarkransen

On the corner of Valborgsmässovägen, a two-minute walk from Telefonplan metro station, is AB Café, a popular neighbourhood cafe owned by two local interior architects.

“It’s a very nice local cafe,” says Elena. “I think many people from the area congregate here. In summer, it has a lot of outdoor space so people sit on the grass and benches. In winter, it’s super cosy.”

It’s quintessentially Swedish, she notes, down to the trays the sandwiches are served on and the ceramics out of which you drink your coffee.

“There are a lot of little details. It’s a good place to get a feel for a typical Stockholm suburb. The decor is typically Swedish. A lot of leather with wood, warm tones and plenty of greenery.”

AB Café in Telefonplan

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Although Elena describes AB Cafe as “typically Swedish”, she admits that Swedish interior design has become somewhat harder to define in recent years. There are still traces of the pared-down monochrome aesthetic that the world classes as ‘Scandinavian’ but in recent years Swedish design has begun to evolve.

“You can go many ways,” says Elena. “You have the typical white walls, grey couch, very black and white and minimalistic. For me, Swedish design is the layer on top of that. Like the warmth of the textiles and when people work their interiors a bit more. I think a lot of people are evolving now and they are a bit bored of muted tones.”

Combining retro furniture with people-sized plants and other modern touches, AB Café exemplifies this emerging interior trend. It’s what Elena describes as “Scandinavia but also loppis world”, referencing the many loppisar (flea markets) that pop up across Sweden in the spring and summer.

På andra våningen in Midsommarkransen

På andra våningen, a beautifully-arranged and carefully-curated second hand shop, is a short walk from AB Café. Elena’s a regular and greets owner Rickard, who is enjoying the Stockholm sun seated in a bamboo chair on the sidewalk, with a friendly hug.

“The character of someone influences how they design,” she comments, after. “Warm people like warm spaces, they appreciate certain details.”

The store is a modern, fresh space on the corner of a residential road. The plain walls and floor let the goods take centre stage. A vintage Gucci umbrella hangs from the ceiling; the whole store is a thoughtfully-displayed jumble with splashes of Svenskt Tenn and colourful Swedish porcelain.

Each piece, Rickard explains, has been personally picked by him or his wife. The couple frequent house clearances, flea markets, auctions in the countryside and Stockholm-based auction house Bukowski’s. The selection is also available online and ships internationally – “90 percent goes abroad,” he says.

På andra våningen in Midsommarkransen

READ ALSO: A fashion designer’s guide to Stockholm’s most stylish spots

Stroll around Södermalm

A short journey on the metro and you’ll arrive on Södermalm, an island best known for its independent stores and cafes, retro clothes shops and, admittedly, a few hipsters.

Wherever hipsters dwell, there tends to be a lineup of book shops that would sate even the most selective readers and Södermalm doesn’t disappoint. Independent bookstore Konst-ig (a play on words: konst meaning art, konstig meaning strange) specialises in art, design, architecture and photography. And with its boxy display cabinets and hand-sketched wall art, it really looks the part, too.

“I love the selection. It’s always peaceful to come here. It’s never too packed and very calm. I like the way they curate things and you often discover things you won’t find online,” Elena says while flicking through a book on local Stockholm ateliers.

Elena browsing books in Konst-ig

Stroll from Konst-ig to nearby Steinsland Berliner gallery, a small independent art gallery on Bondegatan. Natural light floods in to the spartan space through near-floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s artsy but not pretentious with an exciting programme of emerging Scandinavian artists.

“I think it’s interesting to explore Swedish art on a smaller scale,” says Elena. “If you only go to the big galleries, they only display artists that are already big. It’s important to find fresh emerging talent.”

Steinslands Berliner Gallery

On to a spot of lunch at Savant Bar, a cafe and natural wine bar on Tegnérgatan in Norrmalm. It’s thoroughly Stockholm: chic but not fancy, rustic but still slick. The decor is typically Swedish in two senses of the expression: it’s both cool and entirely recycled, explains bar owner Markus Welin.

“Our whole bar is built on sustainability,” he says. “There’s no plastic, we’ve done everything with pre-used materials. All the wood is from an old house up north and all the metal is from old exhaust pipes. We’ve taken these things and given them a new perspective.”

Savant Bar

To wind up the day, a wander around the recently refurbished National Museum. Sweden’s museum of art and design displays over 5,000 pieces of art from six centuries. The 150-year-old building, designed by Prussian architect Friedrich August Stüler (who designed Berlin’s Neues Museum), is well worth a visit in itself.

The last stop of the day is ‘Stockholm’s most intricately-designed restaurant’, conveniently located in the National Museum. Some of Sweden’s leading designers have come together to furnish and design the space under the management of Swedish designer Matti Klenell. The restaurant is both functional and attractive – two salient qualities of Swedish design – and the product of collaboration, which is a cornerstone of Swedish society.

READ ALSO: An industrial designer’s guide to Malmö’s thriving design scene

Photo: National Museum/Pia Ulin

“It’s a very good representation of how different artists who have been invited to collaborate have created a warm space full of details,” says Elena, sipping a locally brewed beer. “Everything, even the ceramics, have been specially created for the restaurant. It’s a space for everyone.”

This content was produced by The Local Creative Studio and sponsored by Visit Sweden.

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Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

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However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

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The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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