Where did you grow up and where are you now?

I grew up on a farm in the South of Sweden. When I was 16 I went to boarding school outside Stockholm, spent a year in Florence after school and then ended up moving to London where I still find myself 20 years later! 

What does an average day at the studio look like for you? 

I drop my daughters off at school for 830 and get into the studio around 850. I have half an hour to go through my emails and then I normally have internal meetings with the design team doing schemes or perhaps working on product development for Shoppa until lunch. As of 3.5 years ago my husband John works with me and we have lunch together every day - it’s a miracle we’re not bored of each other! Must be love ; ). We tend to go out, there’s a few good places in Hammersmith, but if it’s a really busy day we’ll order a salad or something to be as quick as possible. Afternoons are often filled with meetings too. Our US based projects start waking up and we’ll do our West coast meetings later on in the day. I’ll always have some fun chats with visitors walking around 188 to see the space and the team often need me for quick feedback on drawings and designs throughout day. It’s pretty busy but I do thrive off the energy and pace. If I can grab some time sitting down to do research or design a piece of furniture I’m very happy. These days I also do a lot of copy writing for our website, social media and bits of press. I normally leave just after 6 - in time to go home and cuddle with the girls and put them to bed. 

How would you describe your design style?

This is a tricky question for me to answer and I should be able to as it’s the question I get most often! 

I think I like the idea of it being quite fluid and free and not to paint myself into a corner. But I can say that our residential projects always look as if they’ve been built over time, ideally generations. There is always a great mix of different things which I think allows for the change we all crave as humans. 

What’s your favourite corner in your home and how do you use it?

I’ve tried my very hardest to make every corner of my small home great so it’s hard to pick one, they all have their moments, but I guess I’m the happiest at the end of a long day cosying up in my bed with a good book or at the beginning with a cup of coffee having breakfast with the sun streaming in from the terrace.  

What is your favourite museum and why do you love it?

I do love Tate Britain’s permanent collection which holds my favourite Sargent painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose and William Blake’s trippy watercolours depicting Dante’s Divine Comedy. He did them using ink and watercolour on paper and are therefore so delicate they are rarely on display which only adds to their eerie allure. But my absolute favourite would be the Soane Museum, endlessly inspiring combing cunning solutions with unsurpassed elegance. 

Do you have any daily self-care rituals you can’t miss?

The older I am the more into self-care I seem to get tbh! The one I can’t miss is definitely dealing with the teeth department. Instilled by my hygienist and then further fuelled by her unabashed praise on my return visits I go into full Patrick Bateman mode. Special brushes, special floss, special rinse. So fresh. Hoping for a gold star on my next visit. 

How do you connect with nature - what’s your favourite place and what fragrance do you associate with it?

Long walks and lately jumping into cold water and I’m always thinking of new ways to enjoy the elements. My latest plan is to build a woodfired sauna on the tiny island in the middle of a small lake on the farm. Full immersion! One of the best things about being outside are the fragrances. They change from day to day and it totally depends on what time of year it might be and where you are, but it’s hard to beat the smell in a leafy forest after rain on a summer’s day.  

What are your key fragrance memories?

So many, like baking Lussebullar at Christmas as a child, the smell of the first lilacs outside my parents house in June, apples in huge trays after harvest in September. I do have a visceral one from when I first moved to England: Wigberg’s Pine essence in a hot bath. 

What’s your favourite VERDEN fragrance?

Well I’m going to have to say our Verden x Beata Heuman candle. I can’t quite believe how much I like it seeing that I seldom fall in love with a scent. Confident but not too overpowering, a perfect wood and bergamot blend. Calming and refreshing at once.