Houzz Tour: Fashion Steps Forward in a Coastal Swedish Home

If you surround yourself with beautiful clothes and trendy accessories at work all day, you might want to come back to an equally fashionable home in the evening. Kristoffer Eliasson and Sofia Johansson, owners of clothing store Soda in Hamstad, Sweden, do just that. Their two-story terraced house was built in the 1960s and is located high above the city with an amazing view of the picturesque seaside town.

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Kristoffer Eliasson and Sofia Johansson, above
Location: Halmstad, on Sweden’s west coast
Size: 2,583 square feet (240 square meters)


From the hallway into the living room runs a wall of classic String shelves that the couple bought new. The shelves are filled with fashion books, and next to a table from Ikea stand two Jetson chairs by legendary Swedish designer Bruno Mathsson. “A family friend bought six pieces in the 1970s, and has been kind enough to wear them out a little before passing them on to us,” Eliasson says. “They just get better the more worn they get. The leather is top-quality.”


The image above the table of the couple’s pug, Selma, is by photographer Jesper Pettersson. “We decided that we wanted a pug while traveling in Asia. In Tibet the monks use them to keep their feet warm in cold monasteries,” Eliasson says. “She is 10 years old now, the same age as our store, Soda.”


When they moved into the house in 2011, the couple were clear about what style of interior they wanted. “We really liked brass and marble. We were pretty early with that style that is so trendy now,” Eliasson says. The kitchen cabinets, by Kvik, are all black, as is the oven. It was not easy to find an oven that didn’t have a single detail in stainless steel or aluminum.

The brass backsplash was made by a local plate company, and shows the marks of cooking and everyday kitchen work. “You can’t clean brass nicely, so it will just have to grow old with patina. And our life will create the pattern,” Eliasson says.

The couple started out installing spotlights in the ceiling, but they just didn’t fit in. So there were several holes left that they didn’t know what to do with. “But one evening we sat in the restaurant Riche in Stockholm, and we saw exactly these simple ceramic sockets,” Eliasson says. “It was meant to be, as they fitted perfectly into the holes that were already made.”


At the top of the stairs is the quirky Vilbert chair, designed by Verner Panton for Ikea in the 1990s. “It was a real flop saleswise,” Eliasson says, “but we love it — even though we never sit on it.”

The chest of drawers was found by the couple on the secondhand website Blocket; it is skillfully covered with wallpaper by Josef Frank from Svenskt Tenn. The Magis stools were designed by Konstantin Grcic.


Behind a plush purple velvet curtain in the dining room hides the garage. The chairs are Vico Magistretti’s design for Fritz Hansen; Eliasson found them on the web auction site Lauritz. “The angle of the backrest allows you to sit comfortably in them for a long time,” he says.

The artworks on the wall were created by Johansson in a panic for a New Year’s party. “It was our first year in this place, and the walls were empty,” Eliasson says. Johansson ran out to the garage and tore out pictures from different newspapers and magazines that she then pasted on and covered with spray adhesive. They turned out so well that they still hang on the wall.


The TV room also contains space for reading, talking or just hanging out. Under the table lies the Stockholm rug from Ikea, which is becoming a classic in Swedish homes with its black and white stripes. The couple often search for and buy Persian rugs at auctions, as new carpets are often too small to cover large floor areas.

The parquet floor is original but stained a shade darker to get away from the rather dull yellow hue that parquet can turn with age. Along the large windows with their sunny views of Halmstad run the radiator protectors in marble, which came with the house. Due to the large windows that stretch from floor to ceiling, the room gets very bright, but Johansson and Eliasson avoid curtains anyway, as they don’t like the cluttered look they can create.


On the wall hang framed posters from clubs in Ibiza, such as Pacha and St. Germain. The sofas are from Fogia.


On the wall by the staircase hang colorful pictures from a street artist, bought at an auction.

The thick glass banister was installed by Johansson’s brother, who has patented ClickItUp, an electrical system of glass barriers that can be raised and lowered for wind protection on balconies and terraces with a gentle touch of the hand.


The luxurious bathtub was custom made for this room and is covered with Carrara marble. “It is double-wide, almost 2 meters [6½ feet] long and can easily fit two people if you lay head to toe,” Eliasson, left, says. “This is my favorite place. I love saunas and to bathe, so we rebuilt and extended the whole space.” A wall between the bedroom and the sauna was replaced with glass, so the couple can sit in the sauna and look out over Halmstad below — a glamorous touch that feels natural in this ordinary house whose interiors have become a homage to fashion.


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