Where do famous people go to get away from it all? How about a small medieval island called Gotland off the Swedish coast of Stockholm? Well that’s exactly where ‘Gossip Girl’s’ Cece Rhodes, Caroline Lagerfelt has settled for a second home, a far cry from her Santa Monica base.
Caroline’s Swedish decent helped her make the decision 20 years go to seek out somewhere magical for her young children to enjoy, away from the daily grind. The answer came in the form of this rambling, old farmhouse. It was love at first sight through the pouring rain at the end of a long day of viewing an assortment of weird and wonderful houses.
With seven bedrooms and expansive common areas, filling the house was gradual and in the form of re-purposed furnishings from Caroline’s childhood and a great deal of local auction finds, which often came home on the back of a tractor! The fabric of the house consists of beautiful old floorboards, large, well-proportioned rooms and many original features such as the elegant stair rail and the typical Swedish style burner.
The house still remains an internet free zone and at the beginning no television too. This made for interesting times for her kids that were use to the US ways of play dates and soccer matches. Caroline muses over the advice given to her by her Godmother, “it’s good for children to be bored. No poet or artist ever came out of a summer camp”. “It’s true,” says Lagerfelt, “after a few hours I’d find them digging in the dirt or making things out of twigs, as happy as anything”.
Images via www.swedenwithlove.com and www.sfgirlbybay.com.
Best wishes, Jess from Hector & Bailey.
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