Great Moments in Paper Bag History: color me bright

Part two of a photo blog regarding my recent trip to Scandinavia. Part one can be seen here.

One thing that has always amazed me about our Nordic neighbors, is how brightly all their buildings seem to be painted. I don't know if it's a reprieve from those dark long winter nights or a uniform housing code... but regardless if you're in the country or in the city, if it's an old barn or a new house... so many structures are wearing a beautiful bright coat of color.

In Sweden especially, most of the buildings are painted a deep red with stark white trim. I learned that this color of red is called Falu red, and it came as a by product from the abundance of local copper. Not only was falu red cheap and accessible, but it was great at preserving wood. If a building was not painted red, then it usually was a creamy golden or white hue. Back in the day, people painted their buildings those colors because that was what they had... but even these days, when pretty much everyone has access to every color of paint in the rainbow (and beyond), people still chose to paint their buildings in the classic historical colors. I personally love that. I love that when driving through the countryside there is just this uniform look to things. I mean, granted it might be a little hard to give directions if you say "my house is the cute red one on the left"... but I'm sure even if you find the wrong house, you'll find some wonderful people inside.

Really, from the three times I've been to Scandinavia (and Sweden especially), it really does feel as if you walked into a giant IKEA. Everything is well designed, there is no trash, the kids are all rosy cheeked, beautiful healthy people are eating meatballs, and no matter how hard you try - you just can't figure out how to take it all home with you.