Vi i Villa Names Sweden's Ugliest Kitchen

Ulf and Åsa's kitchen

Want to know who has Sweden's ugliest kitchen? Check it out here. Vi i Villa's photo contest to pick the country's most horrible kitchen carried out in cooperation with sponsor HTH-kök has gotten a lot of attention – 40,000 unique visits at the contest site during the month of the contest, with 3,263 entries and 155,000 votes for the uploaded entries. The contest was marketed via an ad in the magazine as well as via a newsletter to 170,000 subscribers. The votes were the basis for the jury's decision, which just announced its verdict.

"Now we know that Ulf and Åsa in Skänninge have Sweden's ugliest kitchen," says Christopher Holmerin, Nordic publishing manager for interactive media at Bonnier Publications Sverige. "Our next step is the PR work for the contest, and then we'll follow the winners in the magazine and on the web with a before-and-after story."

But the ugliest isn't always the winner. Vi i Villa has held photo contests before, for example for Sweden's most beautiful home. The concept of letting readers upload their own photos is really successful, says Holmerin.

"We started working with photo contests on a smaller scale in 2010 and starting this year we'll be holding five such contests per year," says Holmerin. "They've been a huge success for both us and our sponsors, who get closer to site visitors in a creative environment without competition from other advertisers. Not to mention the architects and other creative designers of the prizes we give out to the winners."

For now, visitors can compete in Sweden's most beautiful garden contest and in the summer, Sweden's and Norway's ugliest bathroom contest will be held, complete with a final where the two countries compete against each other.

"Right now we're starting with our other markets in Denmark, Norway and Finland," says Homerlin. "Our ambition is to try to have the same contests in each country so we can then have a Nordic winner, for example the most beautiful home in the Nordic countries."