We visited the home of interior stylist Alice Linse to gain inspiration and listen to her thoughts on perfection. After all, what is perfect, when it's really a subjective art form?
In the south of Sweden, just a stone's throw from the sea, lies Ljunghusen. There, in a black-painted house with creaky floors, among reeds and shifting dunes, Alice grew up.
"I come from a family with a knack for shape and color.” Her mother, who still to this day works as a photographer, was a great inspiration during Alice's childhood – a spontaneous creator who painted first and then felt her way through after. This shaped Alice's character, who is fearless in trying things out, breaking symmetry, and embracing flaws.
As an interior stylist, she steps into the heart of people's lives and creates atmospheric spaces. It's a job that matches her energetic and creative personality, always looking for opportunities for expression. Her spontaneous and vibrant family didn’t only shape her career – we can also find traces of it in her own home.
Four floors above the ground in Slottsstaden in Malmö, we find an airy apartment where sunlight flows into an eclectic, colorful, and well-curated home. But despite being created by herself as a professional interior stylist, Alice argues that it is far from “perfect.” She believes that considerate disarrangement brings life and feeling – something that reflects the reality we are in, where beauty occurs spontaneously and moves in unexpected constellations.
Alice's home is not just a place with things - it's a story. Every vase, hand-tufted carpet, and thrift-store-found dresser declares who she is. Her bubbly personality pops in contrasting splashes of color, and her unexpected combinations of materials evoke emotions.
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"A home should feel personal and grow over time. I buy almost everything second-hand and look for timeless objects. For me, perfection is not about everything feeling polished or uniform. Rather the opposite. Perfect for me is when unique things are placed in unexpected places and when you mix different styles and materials to find what suits you", says Alice.
Alice Linse
The apartment she shares with her partner is small in size, but what it lacks in square meters is made up for in personality. With only two rooms and a kitchen, she got a framework to find solutions around, and perhaps that's why it feels so interesting. A limitation can sometimes be a disguised blessing that becomes an invitation to create – a beautiful dance between possibilities and restrictions that leads to new, undiscovered forms of beauty.
Between her walls, we find that every object serves a purpose. Every painting has a feeling. Every candle gossips of long conversations over dinner, and the home as a whole tells her story. A jumble of beauty where patina is welcome, and individuality is celebrated. Where a blanket lies on the couch after someone has actually sat and pondered about life, and books stand on scuffed, auction-bought end tables. A home that, in its authenticity, is her version of perfect.
Photography: Mira Wickman
Video: Edling Agency
Written by: Camilla Brandow