ELLE Visit #13 – Olivia Lobato
A stone’s throw from Vasa Park in Stockholm, the artist and illustrator Estelle Graf lives in a terracotta-colored home from 1924. Her home, like her artwork, balances between nostalgia and playfulness. Here, raspberry purple, mustard yellow and inexperienced shades meet classic finds, heirlooms and spontaneous whims – which collectively create a way of dreamy on a regular basis magic.
– I’ve a tough time with houses which are too excellent. It worries me. For me, a home must be like an unintended autobiography, the place intervals, relationships and whims go away traces. A chair from an outdated relationship, a portray from a time once you had excessive ambitions – the crooked and emotional is what I discover lovely, says Estelle.
Here, a portray from her mom’s time in New York hangs subsequent to a gold mirror from the 18th century and a pair of purple armchairs, which she describes with amusing: They appear like one thing from a municipal ready room. On that manor mannequin, it virtually will get even uglier – and that is precisely what makes them completely excellent for the temper of the room.
What conjures up you most with regards to adorning your home?
– At the danger of sounding pompous, it is in all probability principally about interior sensations. A powerful expertise in a totally completely different area can set off my want to brighten far more than looking an inside design journal. And typically it is the different manner round. Right now I’m impressed loads by outdated Swedish movies, nature and all the things that feels prefer it comprises its personal little worlds. I’m drawn to mushrooms and bushes as a result of they remind me of fairy tales and fairy tales. I would like our home to really feel like that, i.e. not like a mushroom however like its personal little world. Like a comfy little parallel actuality.
Estelle explains that she is definitely impressed extra by moods than by particular person furnishings or decorators. But she additionally has some function fashions that she is influenced by, amongst them Beata Heuman and Luke Edward Hall, Gaudí’s structure and the National Museum.
– I additionally dream of the Villa Medici in Rome, and Blakes Hotel in London offers me goosebumps. But simply as a lot I will be influenced by my daughter Vivianne’s bedtime tales, outdated Christmas calendars, the playfully absurd in Marie-Louise Ekman’s artwork or the fateful, barely eerie that holds a lot magnificence in Karin Mamma Andersson’s work.
– Something feels proper for a interval, then you must strive one thing new. I like contradictions. Pattern towards sample, expressions that should not match collectively however nonetheless have to face aspect by aspect. It would not must really feel proper, the vital factor is that it feels.
She is drawn to darkish woods, sultry tones and supplies that bear traces of time.
– I like the dusty greater than the clear. When one thing is somewhat worn, it turns into lovely. It’s like with individuals.
Almost all the furnishings is classic or vintage – many purchased at public sale, others from her mom. “She’s like a living auction house.”
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– My finest discover is the chest of drawers in the kitchen, purchased at Bukowskis. I simply modified the knobs and out of the blue it felt proper. But the purple armchairs are additionally excessive – they remind me that style and model are at all times a tough thriller.
And above the couch hangs one of her best treasures: a monumental inexperienced portray by Gösta Reiland.
– It offers the entire room weight and readability. I really like works of artwork that change a complete setting.
Estelle’s home is way from a trendy entire – and that is exactly why it is so inviting. A spot the place fairy tales, historical past and the poetry of likelihood are woven collectively into one thing deeply private and distinctive.
Photo: Sofi Sykfont