SKöna hem, magazine  

A Nod to Gustav III

The Swedish magazine Sköna Hem's latest issue (8, 2026) opens the doors to Ellen K Willas' home in Hagaparken, just north of Stockholm — a house from 1760, once a wing of the old Haga Palace, said to have housed the king's footmen. Photography by Sofi Sykfont, words by Malin Ebbing.


The house has been added to in stages over the centuries, but the original structure remains. Ellen and her husband bought it in 2018 and spent two years renovating with architects Sjölund Åkerblom — opening up the floor plan, moving the entrance, and choosing Swedish-made materials throughout, among them Öland limestone. For the palette, they looked to Gustav III: soft, considered tones that shift slightly from room to room depending on where the light falls.


"I'm very interested in how light falls, and I have an almost religious relationship to sightlines and ceiling heights," Ellen says. "I'm also nostalgic, with a soft spot for old houses with soul and history. For me, a creaking floor tells of something that has been."


That instinct for history extends to the art. Gustavian antiques from Skajs Antikhandel sit alongside contemporary photography by the artists WILLAS represents — a pairing that runs through every room.
 

In the living room, a double portrait by Jeff Cowen, Aikusaya, framed in walnut, hangs opposite a porcelain table with a Haga motif. Above it, a work from Helene Schmitz's series Studies in Falling.

In the dining room, Nick Brandt's Elephant with Exploding Dust (2004) — from his earlier works On this Earth, A Shadow Falls, stands above a table set for six, with room, as Ellen puts it, for a few more guests. The dining chairs are antiques from Skajs, recovered in linen from Walles & Walles.
 

At the desk, found at Skajs, a photograph of phytoplankton by Jan C Schlegel rests on the shelf, next to small bronze elephants and deer. And in the bedroom, painted in Hague Blue from Farrow & Ball, a mirror reflects one of Jimmy Nelson's photographs taken in Papua New Guinea.

"My work as a gallerist is mirrored in the home," Ellen says. "It's one of the advantages of working with art — that what hangs on the walls is always changing. But a few pieces we'll never sell — the double portrait by Jeff Cowen in the living room is one of them. I'll never be finished with it."
 

The full feature is out in Sköna Hem, issue 8, 2026.