What Is Scandinavian Style? 12 Beautiful Scandinavian Style Design Concepts

The Scandinavian style has increasingly become a global phenomenon in home design. Its simplicity and tranquility have made it a favorite among interior decorators. In this blog post, Rowabi will delve into the history of Scandinavian decor style, and uncover beautiful design concepts that have shaped its evolution in contemporary home decoration. Let’s read it!

What Is Scandinavian Style?

Scandinavian interior design is a minimalistic aesthetic that utilizes a combination of soft colors and textures to give the clean, contemporary decor a cozy, welcoming feeling. Its focus is on simple lines and light spaces, simple furnishings, and functionality without sacrificing beauty.

Scandinavian Style brings a minimalist, charming beauty to any spaces

The Scandinavian style decor movement emerged in the 1930s when five Nordic countries started promoting a simpler, more cost-effective way of living. The minimal style gradually replaced a more extravagant, pricy look for homes, by using a large number of white space, as well as natural materials and hues.

With the harmonious combination of modern and traditional decor items, this style makes the space uncluttered, minimalist and while still maintaining conventional and alluring beauty.

The Essentials of Scandinavian Style

The highlight of the Scandinavian style is the combination of function and form while keeping the design simple and uncluttered. This style adds a minimalistic yet warm, welcoming look to your space, creating modern and charming living areas in your home.

The primary key of this style is to keep the room clean, calm, and decluttered, which establishes a harmonious living space. People following this style tend to fill up their homes with quality items and enhance an unencumbered lifestyle devoid of excess consumerism.

One of the reasons why this style increases its popularity is the relaxing feeling it offers. The brightness and cleanliness of this style encourage a sense of tranquility that so many people are missing in their everyday lives. After leaving a stressful day at work, returning to a home devoid of bulky furniture and clutter brings a calm and comfortable feeling for everyone.

Scandinavian Materials

The decoration following the Scandinavian style brings timeless elegance and minimalist aesthetics to the space. To achieve an alluring and minimalistic look, homeowners need to reduce unnecessary decorations or furnishings and select decor items for long-lasting use.

The rattan pendant light adds a sense of warmth to the living room

Alongside the touchstones of simplicity and functionality, the Scandinavian style deeply focuses on the use of natural materials, with a mix of old and new to combine conventional and contemporary looks.

For this reason, Scandinavians often utilize some natural materials such as leather, stone, wood, and wool, adding a touch of warmth to the space. To make the space more special, it is a great idea to combine these traditional materials with modern options like concrete, brass, and copper.

Scandinavian Lighting

When it comes to decor pieces, lighting is a great option to create a great statement in any space. Scandinavian-style lighting is well-known for its minimalistic, geometrical aesthetic and strategic use of natural light, creating a beautiful unity with space and modern furnishings.

Pendant lights made from natural materials such as rattan, bamboo, or wicker extremely match the Scandinavian style. With the neutral hues of organic materials, the lighting fixtures bring a contemporary and timeless look and feel to your home effortlessly.

Along with the primary function of lighting, Scandinavian-style lighting will add a sense of warmth and welcoming beauty to any decor. With the sleek designs of Scandinavian-style lighting, you can have an inviting and relaxing atmosphere for your home.

As a reputable pendant light provider, Rowabi has a massive collection of Scandinavian-style rattan lighting fixtures that fit any decor. Our furniture pieces are crafted from natural, untreated materials, offering an authentic touch, exuding rustic charm and a genuine connection to nature. A range of neutral color tones of organic materials makes your space more spacious and brighter without using artificial lighting sources. With the blend of unique design and high-quality organic materials, Rowabi’s pendant light is a great solution to elevate your Scandinavian-style decor.

10 Beautiful Scandinavian Style Design Concepts

With its timeless elegance and minimalist aesthetics, the Scandinavian style blows a new scent into your home decor. Despite a long-lasting period of existence, this decorative style remains dominant in past years. Let’s discover 10 beautiful Scandinavian-style design concepts that may make your home exclusive and personal.

Play With Natural Light

Lighting is a key element in the majority of Scandinavian home designs due to the limited daylight in Nordic countries during the winter. It is advisable to use natural light instead of artificial lighting in spaces following the Scandinavian style.

The Scandinavian home designs often use more natural lighting as much as possible

For this reason, Scandinavian homes often have bare or minimally dressed windows to get as much sunlight as possible. With their minimal and charming design, pendant lights add warm light on gloomy winter days and create a space having lighting most similar to available natural light.

Choose Mod Furniture

Modern furniture plays an integral role in creating an elegant appearance in living spaces, even in newly built spaces. Besides focusing on minimalist elements, well-chosen contemporary furnishings with clean lines and simple aesthetics are a defining factor of the Scandinavian style design.

The selection of stylish modern furniture as your main pieces leave more space in your furniture arrangements, bringing beauty and making a highlight for the room. The signature of the Scandinavian decor is furniture marked by warm wood accents and rich cognac leather tones. The harmonious blend of cozy color tones, gentle lines, and subtle curves will leave a strong impression on every guest of your house.

Use Muted Colors

The Scandinavian style is focused on a low-key palette with natural hues to offer a unified and calming atmosphere to any space. This is because winters are long and dark in Northern Europe. Hence, the majority of Nordic design utilizes whites, grays, and tans as integral elements to make a space feel uniform and bright.

The Scandinavian-style inspired home is the perfect combination of low-key neutral tones

Often, soft whites and grays are the colors of choice for walls, ceilings, and painted trim. In addition, Scandinavian people use muted browns, blues, greens, and other bold colors as minimalist decorative accents that make the space more special.

Think Cozy

To balance modern beauty, Scandinavian people often add several beautiful natural materials like warm wood to make the space as cozy and comfortable as possible. Apart from wood, bamboo, rattan, soft wool rugs, sheepskin and mohair throws and plenty of pillows are also an excellent option to make “modern” feel incomparably cozy and inviting. Furthermore, a warm atmosphere also gives homeowners a comfortable and relaxing feeling when coming back home.

Mix Textures

The signature of the Scandinavian style is minimalist and modern aesthetics. However, the room which features simple, clean-lined furniture and low-key gray color tones, may make guests feel uninviting. Therefore, adding some items such as sheepskin throw and kilim rug will add warmth to all space.

The minimalist and simple art pictures are a great statement for home decor

Although colorful art is seldom found in Scandinavian interiors, these pictures will be a great statement in a modern space. You can consider a striking photograph or several vintage pieces. These unique decorative pieces will be perfect to create minimalist decorative accents and bring layers of personality to any Nordic interior.

Corner Your Fireplace

European homes are known to have fireplaces in the corner of a room and the Scandinavian style home is no exception. A fireplace is a great piece to create a cozy vibe in the room. With the nights drawing in and the days feeling a little chillier, it's the time of year to combine some other decor items such as the extra throws, layer up the rugs, or light. The perfect combination of these items will bring you a relaxing atmosphere for gathering, talking, and having dinner together.

A corner fireplace is an ideal solution for those who have limited square footage or are short on wall space. It makes the most of an unused nook and does not break up the room, still offering more space to add pieces of furniture. A huge range of different designs, from compact contemporary log burners to rustic stone styles that suit all styles. Before making a final decision, make sure that the fireplace matches your home size and style of decor.

Use Warm Wood

The Scandinavian style is a combination of conventional and contemporary beauty. While mod furniture brings Scandinavian-inspired spaces a modern look, wood, and natural materials make a room feel warm and bright without using overwhelming colors.

The combination of warm wood brings the space a touch of warmth and rustic beauty

Scandinavians often use warm wood tones and sepia hues as a way to add warmth to interior design. Wood is often used through walls, wood slats, and flooring. To make the space feel softer, designers often combine the hard, dense material with rugs or sheepskin textiles.

Layer Bedding

The Scandinavian bedroom style uses a muted, natural color palette to bring a fresh and relaxing atmosphere that helps unwind at the end of a long day. Swedes and Danes are two well-known to create welcoming rooms and often represent Scandinavian-style layer bedding.

They often combine linen sheets, wool blankets, and a small collection of accent pillows, often in low-key tone-on-tone hues. Furthermore, iconic lighting is also a common decor item in Scandinavian bedrooms. Scandinavians often use ceiling fixtures and bedside lamps to make a special highlight for their modern room.

Add Bursts of Color

The main color tone of the Scandinavian style is neutral hues. However, to make the space cozy and have an inviting feeling, Scandinavians often add some small bursts or bright hues.

A Bursts of Color create a great statement for the living room

A minimal, understated backdrop set the stage for an alluring piece of furniture and stand-out decorative pieces. The combination of vivid paintings, bright throw rugs, colorful bedding, and cheerful dishware can make your living space more lively and personal.

Mix Decor Styles

It is important to maintain a unique decor style when selecting decorative items. The combination of several decor styles can create an interesting theme for your home decor. However, you need to consider the suitable style to make sure it works well with your existing decor style. The Scandinavian style focuses on simplicity, functionality, and beauty, but it can feature a mix of periods and styles to make a space feel layered and cozy.

With clean, simple lines, the Scandinavian furniture pairs beautifully with mid-century modern design. A mid-century modern statement piece, like a geometric rug or a vibrant artwork, makes the minimalist Scandi space more colorful and creates an inviting atmosphere for any guests.

In addition, this style also works well with more traditional design elements by providing a sleek, modern contrast to the space. The combination of a Scandinavian sofa or coffee table and ornate mirrors or plush, decorative rugs will bring a modern and conventional feeling. Furthermore, the raw, unfinished aesthetic of an industrial-style lamp or a metal side table is the perfect blend for this style.

The Scandinavian design is a great choice to create an impression in your home if you're searching for a means to pare down to the necessities without compromising flair. There is no doubt that the Scandinavian style is ageless and has grown to be a preferred décor style among homeowners and interior designers because of its emphasis on natural materials, light hues, and clean lines.

Rowabi believes that the following helpful information will provide you an additional inspiration to design a contemporary living place that reflects your unique personality.