I love to visit Ikea. I strongly identify as 'of Swedish ancestry' though I'm only 3/8 such. I am slowly getting rid of clutter and inherited ugly pieces of furniture and getting set in my mind what I might want to add. So, I'm going looking at books like this. And this one might be about all I need. Almost a dozen different homes, some done up mostly white or cream, some colorful... I've explored three and am just overwhelmed with appealing visions.

I love the ideas of well-loved pieces, rather than artificially distressed. And bright open schemes with big windows, to let every bit of that scarce winter sunlight in. And minimal textiles, to minimize vacuuming and laundering. Simple, clean, cheerful, graceful, light.

The only problem with this book per se is the photography doesn't always show the colors correctly. The same room, shown from two angles, can look very different, as if the photographer didn't appreciate the colors s/he was looking at, and didn't take care to capture them. For example, in the ranch in Wisconsin, are the window frames light blue, or almost white, or perhaps even a warmer blue? Can't tell....

Ok Done.
Some of the homes were way too 'fabulous' for my taste, and some didn't seem quite fully livable. But all had at least one interesting piece or idea. If you like to look at pretty pictures of decorated homes, especially if you want to know just a bit more about Scandinavian design than the typical 'Gustavian' that is most familiar in the US, go see if your library has a copy of this. ( )

all properties in the US. Not very interesting.