Photographer Elin Lindgren documented her home while wrapping up seven years of living in it – a way of bidding farewell to the flat she and her son, August, had cherished. The fourth-floor walk-up with low ceilings in a yellow 18th-century Neoclassical villa on Royal Djurgården island, Sweden, is to be exchanged for high ceilings in a Nordic Classic building from the 1930s on Kungsholmen, overlooking Stockholm.
The Djurgårdslätten neighbourhood is tucked between the leafy open-air Skansen museum and Waldemarsviken, the bay offering a stunning view across the water to the Swedish capital. Most of the houses are 18th century and were originally painted pink; the current yellow trend was established much later, in the early 1900s. ‘Do you see the the house gable over there?’ Elin asks, pointing over her shoulder and through the kitchen window. ‘That used to be a tavern, and this house was for the staff.’ The villa is a Grade II listed building and every detail had to be carefully restored and reused. There are still original features left throughout the building, for example the floorboards in the bedroom that date to the 18th century. ‘At one point there was a customs official living in this flat,’ she continues. ‘And he was also a poet.’ The tavern was Franska Värdshuset, an institution at the time; the poet was Elias Sehlstedt. ‘He wrote prose and other short witty poems in rhyme,’ Elin says. This is just one story of many attached the house; Elin’s home is full of memories, and for five-year-old August it is everything he knows.
It took Elin some time to break the news of the move to her son, concerned as she was about how he would react. When the conversation eventually came about, she asked if he was looking forward to a new big bedroom and he replied: ‘No, but let me sleep on it and I’ll see if I want to.’ It took him a few nights to mull it over – he found it hard to picture how everything would be and was worried that toys and other belongings wouldn’t come with them. Reassured that this was not the case, he eventually gave the thumbs up.
Elin grew up in the same neighbourhood where she and August now live, but she has also called London and New York home. She has spent a fair share of time in India and Sri Lanka, too, where her father has lived and worked for many years. While visiting him, she met a number of skilled artisans and has recently decided to set up her own business and create the next chapter in her life – Hemmet. At present she is working with local embroiderers producing cushions, bedspreads and table linen on locally sourced cotton and linen, and playing with the idea of exploring other materials. ‘I think it’s nice to mix rattan with a bit of leather or some metal,’ she says. Her ideas will be whittled down on her next trip.
Inevitably we got talking about what a home is and the pivotal moment when a suitcase of clothes and a few bags of books brought from sublet to sublet turns into something different. For Elin it happened in New York, where she moved after living in London as a student. She reminisces about a long-lost Art Deco piece picked up on Portobello Road she wishes had been brought along and remembers a fabulous garage sale on 23rd Street, pointing out the Eero Saarinen chairs she bought cheap on Craigslist and the vase picked up in a market in Moscow, all of which were carefully packed up in a container and shipped over the Atlantic when she moved back to Sweden.
These treasures will follow Elin and August to their new home, along with some more recent finds, but right now the yellow Neoclassical villa is being emptied and the feeling of being the last one there is noticeable. We are attached to our homes, the surroundings, the views and the routines we create. With a move, everyday life becomes something else: there will be a different route to school, new favourite places and new ways of visiting old ones, but a change also provides the opportunity for discovery. Reflecting on photographing her home while packing it up, Elin notes: ‘I think it was good to take the pictures then; now I feel I am on my way.’
To see more of Elin Lindgren’s work, visit @studioelinlindgren
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