Sep 6

Sep 6 Maria Aarli-Grøndalen's Stunning and Unique Home-@Nordic_by_maag

I have been following Maria on Instagram for almost as long as I have been posting myself. Her stunning home is filled with colour, pattern and texture, a real delight for an interior colour lover like me. You can see her love of vintage finds, thrifted from flea markets and antiques fairs and you can see how she cleverly pulls together, the old with the new to create a stunning and unique home.

Her Instagram can be found here and if you click on the button, it will take you to her website.

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Introduction

My name is Maria Aarli-Grøndalen (age 43), I have a Bachelor's degree in journalism (from Sheffield University), and a Master's in Art History (first year, in Norway where I am from, and second year on a scholarship in Complutense de Madrid). I worked as staff writer mostly in interior design magazines, Elle Decoration among them, and on the side, I did some interior design courses, then started my own freelance business in 2015. I still work a lot with interior magazines, but now work wider. I also interior consult and do events styling.

Our House is a 2 story Swedish modern villa that my husband and I had built, we moved in with our two boys in 2013. Later on, we bought a French Bulldog, Lilou.

I was heavily pregnant with my second son when we planned the house, and so the whole thing was beige when we moved in, as I thought that would suit the Scandi atchitecture best. Then later I did an Abigail Ahern design class and realised that what makes those who live there most comfortable, is what suits the house best.

Dining room, the dramatic art is by @villabetulablog

mismatched chairs give an eclectic look to the dining room

Maria covered the kitchen cabinets, once white, with marble and gold. The green velvet sofa was a vintage find.

I am based just outside of Oslo, where I run Nordic by Maag from my home office, it is a media production (I make features for interior magazines) company, but I also do events styling and interior design for clients.

Since we moved in, I have gradually transformed the place from beige minimalism (what was I thinking???) to dark hued eclecticism, heavily relying on vintage furniture and the odd design piece. We went over budget on building, which left little to change the interior and it's a fairly small house (150 square meters), so we use ALL of it. Quality paint and wall paper has been my way forward, and I'm pretty good at sourcing vintage and thrift store stuff.