Design Inspiration Tour of Sweden Join us on a behind the scenes visit to Sweden with Derrick Ricketts of Dallas Market Center and Antiques Diva Guide Daniel Larsson - and The Antiques Diva®️ Toma Clark Haines What is an Inspiration Tour? Interior designers, furniture manufacturers and showrooms, architects, landscapers, shelter magazines and design industry professionals stay ahead of trends in design, art, cuisine and fashion by traveling to locations that inspire and nurture their creativity and are an opportunity to see first-hand emerging trends in the design world. The Antiques Diva & Co provides curated, custom guided inspiration tours throughout Europe and Asia for design industry professionals. Tours are private, or offered to carefully selected groups of industry professionals for a unique opportunity to connect and build relationships – and provide, what else? – Design Inspiration - as well as opportunities to buy antiques abroad. On tour we translate, negotiate and liaise clients with international shippers or use our own in-house shipping division to help clients get purchases home sweet home across the pond. http://antiquesdiva.com/ info@antiquesdiva.com

1. Sweden Design Inspiration Tour with
Derrick Ricketts of Dallas Market Center
Toma Clark Haines The Antiques Diva® Presents:

2. Design Inspiration Tour of Sweden
Join us on a behind the scenes visit to Sweden with Derrick Ricketts of Dallas Market Center and
Antiques Diva Guide Daniel Larsson - and The Antiques Diva® Toma Clark Haines
What is an Inspiration Tour?
Interior designers, furniture manufacturers and showrooms, architects, landscapers, shelter magazines
and design industry professionals stay ahead of trends in design, art, cuisine and fashion by traveling
to locations that inspire and nurture their creativity and are an opportunity to see first-hand emerging
trends in the design world.
The Antiques Diva & Co provides curated, custom guided inspiration tours throughout Europe and
Asia for design industry professionals. Tours are private, or offered to carefully selected groups of
industry professionals for a unique opportunity to connect and build relationships – and provide, what
else? – Design Inspiration - as well as opportunities to buy antiques abroad. On tour we translate,
negotiate and liaise clients with international shippers or use our own in-house shipping division to
help clients get purchases home sweet home across the pond.

3. Toma Clark Haines,
The Antiques Diva®
and Swedish Divo Guide
Daniel Larsson,
a leading Swedish expert,
and proprietor of
D. LARSSON INTERIÖR &
ANTIKHANDEL

4. Meet Derrick Ricketts,
VP/Leasing, Home & Design, Dallas Market Center
Derrick Ricketts, Dallas Market Center
My passion is for home furnishings, and I have had the
good fortune to work with many leading companies in
manufacturing, branding, sales, merchandising, and
customer service. At Dallas Market Center, I have a
unique opportunity to bring those fulfilling experiences into
a dynamic marketplace that has both a solid reputation
and a new momentum to serve more customers with
additional home décor resources.
With AD&CO, I have traveled Europe, South America
and Asia for design inspiration. This was my first trip to
Sweden: and Toma and Daniel have made sure it won't
be my last.

5. ABOUT DALLAS MARKET CENTER
Dallas Market Center is a global business-to-business trade center and the leading wholesale
marketplace in North America connecting retailers and interior designers with top manufacturers
in home décor, furniture, gifts, lighting and fashion. Inside its dynamic, five million square foot
campus near downtown Dallas, nearly 200,000 customers from all 50 states and 85 countries
seek industry trends, business education and new products via open-daily showrooms and from
exhibitors participating in trade events held throughout the year.

7. At The Antiques Diva & Co our objective is to make antiques modern. We want to take
antiques out of the past, and make them relevant for the way we live today. Today's design
aesthetic is more minimal, more paired down - and its quite simply more modern than its ever
been before. I think Swedish antiques are perfect to mix in a modern design. You see that in the
photo above in an industrial environment.
I love the raw, elegant yet rustic contrast: when things contrast everything looks better on than
on its own. Juxtaposition is an essential element of design.
This look was popularized by Axel Verhoordt's showroom, Kanaal.
~ Toma Clark Haines

8. Seeing the Italian travertine table
paired with a Gustavian bench really
opened up my eyes to see how you
can combine two different periods
from two different countries to
create a beautiful pairing.
Modern meets antique is like the
quintessential pairing of gourmet
food and with world class wine.
~ Derrick Ricketts

9. This setting is all about the mix.
The pairing of the classic egg
chair with a Swedish clock and
console table demonstrates
again how well the past and
the present combine.
~ Derrick Ricketts

10. When we talk about education in
antiques, AD&CO takes you to see
the masters at work.
It's imperative to understand the
restoration process in order to be an
educated buyer and an educated
seller.
~ Daniel Larsson

11. Toma Clark Haines:
Today 90% of all Swedish antique furniture has been repainted many times. If you strip back the
layers of paint the result is a rich patina of older paint.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s American dealers bought a large quantity of Gustavian antiques, stripped
everything down to the bare wood and repainted it all white. Today dealers are more aware of
preserving the integrity of the piece. They will strip the piece when possible to the original – or primary
– paint or secondary or third level. Often these pieces need “touched up” and a little decorative paint is
then added as necessary.
When purchasing Scandinavian antiques, you must be careful not to get scammed. There are people
who rebuild furniture from old parts – and then they label it as Gustavian. It is Gustavian style – but
not period or pure pieces. While this “rebuilt” furniture may be beautiful, it’s important to make the
distinction that it isn’t original because pieces with better provenance bring higher prices. Make sure you
know what you’re paying for. Knowledge is power! Educate yourself before you buy!

12. I absolutely love these 19th
Century Gustavian barrel back
chairs with their original paint in
their deconstructed state: they've
been stripped back to their basics,
and look better than they would
upholstered. You can see the
actual craftsmanship.
~ Toma Clark Haines

13. Daniel Larsson:
In Sweden, good modern quality pieces are popular. Everyone knows mid-century
modern is HOT right now but I can also see that Art Deco style is gaining quite a bit of
popularity. But the Gustavian style has always been and always will continue to be
popular among the Swedes. There isn’t one interior magazine in Sweden, regardless of
style, that does not include one Gustavian piece in an issue.
Our style is different from rest of Europe. Even IKEA is mimicking the Swedish style. In
the 1980’s and 1990’s IKEA did a Swedish 18th C line that today has gained collectors
value and is selling for more money than back when it was launched! Have you seen the
recent IKEA catalog? They just did their version of a Swedish standing tall case clock.

14. This is pure Sweden -
The sofa, clock, stool and the mirror
all come together to tell a story. I was
impressed by the level of carving on
the sofa.
From afar you see simplicity; as you
get closer, the details.
~ Derrick Ricketts

15. When buying Swedish Antiques you
really have to be careful to know the
difference – are you buying Gustavian
STYLE – or Gustavian Period?
When we speak of the Gustavian
style, we are referring to King Gustav
III who reigned as monarch of Sweden
from 1771-1792.
~ Daniel Larsson

16. Urban farmhouse has been a
movement in the US for awhile now.
I predict we will start the see more of
movement toward Swedish antiques
being incorporated into the urban
farmhouse movement.
One could easily add some more
modern industrial lighting to this
setting to achieve the aesthetic.
~ Derrick Ricketts

17. The national icon of Sweden could
very well be their traditional clocks
built between 1790 and 1880.
These Swedish clocks fall perfectly
in line with the Urban Farmhouse
aesthetic. Classic body shapes, these
clocks can learn toward a casual
lifestyle or be the centerpiece to a
room almost as if in a museum.
~ Daniel Larsson

18. These root bowls are from the 1800's
and are a great example of wabi-sabi:
the beauty in the imperfect.
~ Toma Clark Haines

19. Daniel Larsson:
King Gustav commissioned to have chairs made for royal palaces – but the
style trickled down to the city and then the countryside. What originated as
gilt chairs were re-styled by master who used expensive dark woods like
mahogany. In the countryside, they used less expensive wood such as pine,
birch, alder and beech. Over the years these pieces were then painted in
different colors. Traditionally it was part of spring cleaning to repaint the
chairs, making them fresh again. Though we think of Swedish style as
being white they painted them many colors - blue, yellow, red and even
black.

20. Normally these would not be my
style at all, however I fell in love
with them for a couple of reasons
when I saw them...
~ Derrick Ricketts

21. I first envisioned these 18th-century Swedish Rococo armchairs with later gilding as
host and hostess chairs at the Italian travertine table paired with Kartel armless ghost
chairs to complete the setting.
That visual creates the ultimate juxtaposition between old and new.
The second vision was a completely modern and stark house with these as the chairs
in front of the fireplace.
The starkness of the modern sensibility of the house allow the chairs to be at even
more palatial.
Derrick Ricketts:

22. These Swedish Rococo chairs are
reupholstered with a beautiful
blue linen. I immediately thought
beach house. These would be
perfect in front of a huge
window overlooking the sea.
~ Derrick Ricketts

23. Daniel Larsson:
In Sweden, master chairmakers sometimes leave their maker’s mark as their
signature - this is way to establish their authenticity to the period. Dealers
believe it is important to know who made the chair because it gives
provenance. However, when the chairs were originally being made the
signature was simply a matter of practicality. We Swedes – even in the 18th C
– are a practical lot! If you bought a chair and it broke then you knew who to
go to fix the chair. The maker’s mark was sort of like a guarantee. “Buy it from
me, and if it breaks, bring it back and I’ll repair it.”

24. Seriously I'm from Texas - how
could I not love this chair....
Texans and Swedish Vikings have
a lot in common we love the
great outdoors wildlife and we
are both fiercely independent.
This chair is a statement piece of
power and it belongs in the
Texas office of a CEO.
~ Derrick Ricketts

25. Pieces like this Gustavian gilt chair
with royal blue damask fabric
screams "Look at me!". It is a
statement piece to be placed in an
entry to set the tone, an office to
give creditability to achievement, or
in a lady's oversized personal closet
that reminds her daily of the
affluence she has achieved.
~ Derrick Ricketts

26. Antiques Buying Tours
We offer a wide range of custom tour options for your budget,
style and time frame. On tour we translate, negotiate and liaise
with a shipper to help get your purchases home sweet home
across the pond.
Buying Services
When you can’t travel abroad to source antiques in person we
offer Antique Buying Services for trade professionals such as
Interior Designers, Antique Dealers, and Store Owners.
Shipping and Storage Services
Fine art and antiques shipping services from Europe to
destinations around the globe. On tour or in our buying services
we ship or liaise with your shipper, fill out the purchase orders
and shipping paperwork, saving you time and simplifying the
process for buying antiques abroad.
About The Antiques Diva® &Co

27. American expat Toma Clark Haines launched The Antiques Diva®
& Co in 2008:
Toma Clark Haines is an entrepreneur, writer, international speaker,
global tastemaker, lifestyle consultant and the founder and CEO of
The Antiques Diva® & Co, Europe and Asia’s largest antiques
touring and sourcing company. She is recognized for her antiques
sourcing expertise by design experts including Newell Turner,
former editor of House Beautiful and current Editorial Director of
Hearst Design Group; Michael Boodro, Editor in Chief of Elle Décor;
and Dominique Corlett, deputy editor of the English publication
Homes & Antiques magazines (the official magazine of The
Antiques Roadshow). Clark Haines has been endorsed by Adam
Jabko, CEO of Esteem Media and Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles,
Editor in Chief Elizabeth Ralls.
Toma Clark Haines is The Antiques Diva®

28. Where do you get your
DESIGN INSPIRATION?
contact toma@antiquesdiva.com