Exhibition Home Rebels

Karin and Carl Larsson created the picture we know of domestic life in the Swedish countryside. But to their contemporaries they seemed like radical rebels. The Home Rebels exhibition explains why.

With their radical ideas about children’s place in the home and their bold mixture of styles, Karin and Carl Larsson changed the way we live and socialise in our homes. In the Home Rebels exhibition, we show how they have influenced our everyday and ask ourselves: what would their house have looked like if they’d been alive today?

A tiny space with just one bench with pillows. They, and all the surfaces, are covered with a bold, colourful, graphic pattern. — The pattern pictured is a modern interpretation of Karin Larsson’s colourful textiles.

The Home Rebels exhibition is set up as a large ‘all-purpose room’ or family room, where visitors are invited to experience and get to know the Larssons in a whole new way. We also show what their vision of the home as a place for play, learning and togetherness might look like in today’s homes, and tomorrow’s.

A room with yellow doors, colourful walls, a red/white striped rug, a long table made for a feast, red chairs and a bench.

In Karin and Carl Larsson’s house, everyone was given equal space. Their concept of an ‘all-purpose room’ brought adults and children together to live and play in a harmonious environment. Carl and Karin Larsson’s ideas about family life have also been an important source of inspiration for us at IKEA over the years.

A smiling woman looking through the painting “Brita as Idun”, a girl in a red dress, printed on cardboard with a face cut-out.

2019 marks the hundredth anniversary of Carl Larsson’s death, but his own and his wife Karin’s love of arts and crafts, smart storage and play-friendly furniture is just as relevant today. Their unconventional ideal is now a part of our everyday life. Parts of the Home Rebels lives on and can now be seen at the café at Huseby Bruk outside Växjö.

A large room with white stone walls, a cabinet, two earlobe armchairs, tables, chairs and a bench in Carl Larsson style. — The café at Huseby Bruk.