Lund, in Sweden, my new favourite place.

Regular readers will know how keen we are on all things Scandinavian, from TV drama to interior style, we really do have a crush on the area.

So it was not exactly hard to say yes to Gudrun’s Sjödén’s recent request to visit her 40 Years in Fashion retrospective, which was held in the Kulturen museum in Lund, Sweden. It might be a mad dash just for the day (although I did get to go over Martin and Saga’s Bridge) but it would make a lovely weekend destination, as you fly to Copenhagen, take a 30 minute train to Lund -it’s just after Malmo, and there you are, in the heart of all things Swedish.

And Kulturen is a really fabulous museum, opened in 1892 it is the second oldest open air museum in Sweden (and the world, apparently) and specialises in southern Swedish architecture, interior design and textiles. It’s made up of many traditional Swedish home buildings, such as a clog maker’s house, a Burgher’s house, a covetable Swedish summerhouse and other home styles, which have been moved from their original location to Kulturen and rebuilt randomly around a pretty courtyard. They are decorated inside in the original style, complete with furniture, textiles and home accessories.

If you’re a fan of Swedish interior design, it’s a dream destination.

All the houses are beautifully decorative and good examples of their type in Swedish history. The interiors are just gorgeous, with examples of both rich and poor decoration, I came home wanting to paint everything that shade of Swedish grey that makes everything look so darn stylish and put peg hooks everywhere.

And then there’s the textile section. We were very lucky to be shown round the textile floors by Anna Sannfridson, senior  textile curator of the museum, who highlighted a few of the best exhibits, from folk art to Scania wedding attire. I was there with Polly Leonard from Selvedge magazine who went into a spin with how many features she reckoned she could write over the amazing things we saw.

Sadly my images didn’t come out as it was too dark inside -to protect the fabrics- but we saw beautiful embroideries and styles of Scania applique and decoration that I’d never seen before, it’s a very inspiring and extensive exhibition. Polly and I had to be practically forced to leave.

There are also examples of Swedish gardens and exteriors, including some pretty apothecary and herb gardens, the sun shone when we were there and we sat outside at the cafe eating cake and drinking tea.

My favourite house was the poorest, below, which was a Hobbity looking farm workers cottage, complete with green roof.

The inside of the apothecary building was hung with herbs and flowers dried for medicinal usage, the museum runs many workshops on every subject if you want to know more.

So if you’ve already done Stockholm and are wanting another Swedish destination, or perhaps want a charming location for a weekend away, this could be the place. There’s also a traditional nineteenth century Swedish farm -also part of the Kulturen museum- a few miles away which sounds worth visiting if you’re a gardening type. The Kulturen website with more details is here. The town of Lund also houses an old university, lovely shops and restaurants and apparently there are lots of great hotels. I will definitely be going back.