I love the orange and white combo in the 6th room. The white is so white it looks blue against its complimentary color. yum

I have seen other blogs from scandinavian countries and there seems to be a consistant amount of white walls. I have been very intrigued by this element since they live with so much stark white of the snow out their windows. Surprising!

Beautyeverywhere; I live in Norway and the months we have snow we also have very little daylight. :)

All of these are gorgeous! I would move there in a heartbeat... anybody hiring health educators in Scandinavia???

@MarenB: It's the same here in Iceland, there is almost no sunlight in the winter. Unfortunately, with global warming and all, we hardly have any snow either any more...

- On another note I find it very interesting that you have a day dedicated to Leif Erikson in the US, or Leifur Eiríksson as he is called in Icelandic. I had no idea. He is one of our best known historical figures, and most often called Leifur Heppni (Leif the Lucky) for all his findings :o)

rosewater- There are 2 blue chairs and 2 white chairs in that photo- all from Ikea. They do look good together though! :)

Oh and I love the colour of that wardrobe in the 1st photo. Would anyone know a paint colour like that I could get in Australia?

Being swedish, I find your comment about snow very amusing. There's hardly any snow here anymore and though it's still very dark during winter it's never even cold anymore.
We have the gulf stream to warm us up, and also the global warming does its bit, I guess.
And I don't know why we have all these white interiors. I am guilty myself, but why? I just like the clean look of it.

I'm Norwegian, and yes, most homes here have white walls and wood floors. Light rooms bring in precious light in the winter and looks very good in summer too.

However this is just a recent fashion, if you look back in time people here in Norway used more colors on their walls.

In the early to mid 90s "everyone" painted their rooms in bright colors, yellow and red were especially popular. I think most of them repainted within a year or 2 though ...

In the 80s pine wood panels were the in-thing. Or pastels like pink and light blue.

In the 70s it was brown, avocado green, mustard and orange. Either as a single color or in wall-papers with big patterns.

Deidre88, I concur~! These rooms are all beautiful and unique in their own way. I would feel very comfortable transforming my own space into a Scandinavian retreat~!

LOVE the 3rd to the last. White done right.