For the love of Finnish Interior Design

As some of you may already know we have recently got back from an amazing week living as a local in Helsinki. I am still editing the hundreds of photos and film and will be talking a lot more about everything we got up too but the one thing that has certainly stuck in my mind is how much I was inspired by the interiors and architecture. Everything was so well designed, practical, simple, decluttered and chic - basically everything I want in my own home and life and I felt immediately at one with the surroundings in this northern Scandinavian capital city, as you can see the photo above is make-up free after a long day of travelling with two kids but I'm happy after arriving in the Helsinki Secret Residency which happens to have a view of the Finlandia Hall, a building designed by Alvar Aalto and an architectural treasure. 

The secret residency apartment was perfect, so well laid out, spacious and open planned with lots of natural light from the huge windows. There was more than enough space for the four of us and the balcony was wonderful, especially as the glass panels kept out the chill and in the sun warmed the balcony area up and we spent many evenings here. The Moomin bedding for the kids was another lovely little touch as was the wonderful local food spread left by Heleats.

What I loved about the city was that nearly every building had captured that simple clean design, no matter what age of the property from modern to traditional or period there was something quietly beautiful about it all. The city had a real mix of Scandinavian interiors alongside a clearly Russian influence in some areas and as soon as you arrive at the Art Deco central train station with it's imposing statues at the entrance it's a real feast for the eyes.

There is even a church here called The Rock church as it's carved right into the middle of a large rock and was so incredible that I am going to leave that for a blog post on it's own, just down the road from that is The Natural History museum, a stunning period building which a grand reception area and wide spiral staircase and the most amazing arched windows in the cafe area.

Luckily I had my phone on hand as it was near the end of the day and my camera battery was flat after doing lots of filming and snapping away. How much easier is life these days with smartphones having vastly improved cameras, also being able to connect to mobile internet has been a real life saver over the past month as being on the road so much of late has meant unreliable access to wifi so being able to touch-base has been great. It was only a few years ago when we went to Brussels that we had no told our provider before going away and had real issues with getting any reception and basically were sans phones for our whole trip, thankfully thats not the case anymore and it just switches over automatically. Anyway I digress but if you would like to see a few more on the go snaps from our trip do check out my instagram although of course I have a few posts planned in the next week with loads about what we got up too.


Thanks to Visit Helsinki for hosting us