Home decorating ideas show how to use wood, stencils and frosty coloured paint to create the traditional light and airy living room decor of the Scandinavian countries.
The landscape and climate of a country are often mirrored in the traditional home decor. A hot country will use vivid colours with perhaps touches of white as a contrast, such as those in Moroccan style home decorating.
In the cooler Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark, the colours are frosty pastels with a touch of red, royal blue or bright green.
Scandinavian Style Living Room Wall Decor
A lot of natural wood is used in traditional Scandinavian homes. This can be tongue and groove wood panelling which looks best if taken about a third of the way up the wall to dado level. If the wood is a pale pine or similar it could be left in its natural colour and simply varnished.
Alternatively, paint it in a colour from the Scandinavian palette. This would be light blue (imagine milky skies) silver grey, sage green or chalky white. If the wood panelling is painted pale blue, have the walls above it in white.
Stencilling is a traditional wall decor in some Scandinavian areas. It is often used as a frieze along the top of the wall or just above the skirting boards. On a plain wall without the wooden panelling, try painting the wall silver grey and then using a stencil of a flowing design of leaves and ribbons. Use only one colour for the stencil, in this case sage green would work well. Limiting the wall decor to two colours keeps it light and creates a sense of space.