Mimmi Smart’s dacha is a real time machine. It seems that nothing has changed here in the last hundred years. In fact, the interior was created from scratch: the hostess collected details for this “car” all over Sweden and England

The chairs and sofas in the living room are upholstered with a typically English pattern of large roses by Laura Ashley.

Photo

Stellan Herner

Vacation on a desert island is a pipe dream for most of us… And for the Swedes — the same prose of life as a family trip to the country. More precisely, many of them have cottages on the islands and are located. The Stockholm Archipelago, stretching 60 kilometers east of the Swedish capital, is one of the most popular holiday destinations in the country.

Mimmi prefers to ride a motorboat for morning newspapers — this is the most convenient way to communicate with the “mainland”.

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Stellan Herner

Countless islands and islets are built up with summer houses and become inhabited only during school holidays. Designer Mimmi Smart, like many Swedes, comes here with her husband and children every year. And not from Stockholm, but… from London, where she moved many years ago. “I want my children to have a real Swedish vacation!” – she explains.

In Sweden, it is not customary to hide your private life from the eyes of neighbors by covering the windows with thick curtains. In the recreation room, light translucent curtains only slightly soften the bright sunlight. A silk bedspread hangs over the sofa.

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Stellan Herner

Since her ancestors, by an unfortunate oversight, did not leave her an inheritance of island real estate, she had to buy a house. Mimmi liked a wooden cottage built in 1897 — cozy, but in very poor condition. “You could put your hand through the cracks between the boards of the veranda!” she recalls.

The new owners carefully restored the facade of the house, built in 1897.

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Stellan Herner

Windows and doors have survived to this day almost intact, but otherwise there is no trace of the original furnishings. The interior clearly smacked of the seventies — embossed wallpaper, lacquered pine floors … all this categorically did not suit the new owner. Mimmi spent a lot of time trying to figure out what her house could look like at the end of the XIX century — leafing through albums, studying the works of historians. Then, for a long time and painstakingly, I searched for things of that time at English and Swedish flea markets – from rugs to antique copper switches.

Mimmi decorated the windows of the veranda with stained glass windows according to her own sketches. On the table is an old Swedish porcelain, bought in one of the Stockholm antique galleries.

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Stellan Herner

“If you want to achieve a sense of authenticity, you can’t miss a single detail—” she explains. – For example, I placed the switches high on the wall – exactly as it was done before.” However, switches are still small things. It was more difficult to install antique kitchen faucets bought in London, which did not meet the current Swedish standards in size.

“The builders almost killed me! They were outraged all the time: “Why do you need this stuff? Why not buy normal modern faucets “antique”?”  Mimmi recalls. In the struggle for historical truth, she did not make any compromises.

Mimmi first painted the stairs to the second floor red, but soon changed her mind and made it green. “I feel more comfortable with this color, it calms me down,” the designer explains. There are photos of friends and relatives on the wall. All your favorite pictures don’t fit there at the same time, so Mimmi often changes the “exposure”.

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Stellan Herner

“I want my children to have a real Swedish vacation!”

In place of the spacious kitchen, there were originally three separate rooms. The custom-made cast-iron countertop weighs 300 kilograms. The green tile was brought from England — for a hundred years it decorated the walls of a hotel in Yorkshire.

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Stellan Herner

At first, her husband complained that the chairs and sofas were too hard, but the relentless wife replied: “Be patient! In the XIX century, foam rubber has not yet been invented.” The only concession to the corrupting influence of progress was the installation of washing machines and dishwashers. In a house where 15-20 people sometimes gather in the summer, both are vital.

The guest house, which also houses a sauna, stands on the very bank of the river

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Stellan Herner

“If you want to achieve a sense of authenticity, you should not miss a single detail”

For the children’s Mimmi chose a checkered wallpaper in retro style. This room is adjacent to the parents’ bedroom (a fragment of it is visible in the background).

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Stellan Herner

Mimmi’s passion for antiques is not only an obsession with history, but also a purely practical calculation. The fact is that these objects are not subject to the vagaries of fashion. The interior, built on antique objects, will not look ridiculous and old-fashioned even after 10-20 years. Mimmi deliberately designed her house “for the ages.” She even bought a double stock of upholstery fabric with roses (so huge that, in her opinion, they look more like peonies), so that when the upholstery is wiped, you can drag the furniture with the same material. “Perhaps this house will always look the same as it does now! — she says. — I don’t see the point in changing anything. They are not looking for good from the good!”.

The bathroom is equipped with antique faucets. One is designed for cold water, the other is for hot water, there is no mixer. In England, where Mimmi and her family spend most of the year, this is still a common thing today. Hand towels hang low so that children can easily reach them.

Photo

Stellan Herner

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