So not IKEA: The cozy cottage of Carl Larsson

This week's post on decor8 (don't you love decor8?) about Swedish design happily reminded me of an art exhibit my aunt and I saw waaaaaaay back in 1997 at London's Victoria and Albert Museum: the first major exhibition of artist Carl Larsson outside of his native Sweden.

Neither my aunt nor myself had heard of Carl Larsson before the show (and we both like to think we know a lot of stuff about a lot of things), and we each stepped out of the show a little smarter, a little wide-eyed, and a little bit in love with the artist and his family.

Larsson frequently painted his wife Karin, their eight children, and their life at their cottage in the village of Sundborn. His work is almost magical, but the best thing is the way he and Karin designed their home:

Larsson's work, unsurprisingly, has heavily influenced Swedish design through the years. Case in point: most of these watercolors are over a century old, but their design elements could easily fit today in Country Living, Cottage Living (RIP), or a look-at-my-sweet-'n-chic-weekend-cottage-in-Lancaster-County feature in Domino (God rest its soul).

And is it just me, or does the Larsson pad seem like the happiest, most rainbow-iest place on earth?

(Thanks, Holly, for the inspiration.)

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