HEIRLOOMS : TIME PIECES : In the Huntington Beach home of Ann and Roy Carlson, ties to their Swedish ancestry are evident throughout.

The bridal clock stands in the corner, looking like a tall, brightly decorated wedding cake.

For two centuries now, the clock--which is nearly seven feet tall--has stood watch over this family and its comings and goings.

Roy Carlson’s great-grandfather built the clock in 1790 in the northern Swedish province of Vasterbotten--just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle--for his bride.

Today, the clock keeps time in the dining room of the Huntington Beach home of Ann and Roy Carlson, a home where the family’s ties to their native Sweden and ancestors are evident everywhere.

The couple have combined antique pine furniture and accessories that have been in each of their families for generations with new pieces--including a number that Roy has built himself. The clean, simple lines of the pine furniture, the polished oak floor, the crisp blue accents and the whimsical details of the old bridal clock reflect a culture half a world away, yet seem perfectly at home and contemporary here.

“We’ve lived with this light pine furniture all our lives, so it’s funny to think it’s now in style in this country,” said Ann Carlson.

Because of the coldness of the Swedish weather, pine trees grow very slowly, coming to maturity only after 175 to 200 years. Swedish pine is of a slightly different strain of conifer than those grown in other parts of the world and is lighter in color, with the wood grain more densely packed.

The bridal clock--or moraklocka-- looks as it did in 1790. In fact, the clock figures prominently in old family pictures that Roy Carlson discovered when he bought his family’s old homestead in Sweden two years ago.

The clock, passed down from one generation to the next, came with the family when they moved to the United States in the 1950s.

Roy was 12 then, and the move to this country fulfilled a lifelong dream of his father’s. The clock was not here to stay, however. When Roy’s father retired and returned to Sweden in 1974, the clock went back too. Then, in 1989, after the death of Roy’s father, it was once again brought to California.

The feminine shape of the clock is unique to the region Carlson’s family came from. Vasterbotten is rich in deep pine forests. The clocks were handmade during the long, dark winter months and then presented by the builders as gifts to their brides when they married in the summer--thus the name “bridal clock.” Often they were hand-painted with flowers and traditional Swedish designs that were favorites of the bride.

Clocks such as these flourished until the end of the 1800s, when the making of bridal clocks almost vanished. There are few available even in Sweden today.

On display at the Nordiska Museum in Stockholm is a bridal clock built in 1844 by Carlson’s grandfather, Karl Nyberg.

A reproduction of that clock--which is finished in darker colors--is in the family room of the Carlsons’ home. It was built last year by Roy, using as a pattern the one his grandfather developed for the original. The pieces built by his grandfather are very special, Roy said, because he was both a craftsman and a master painter.

Unlike in Sweden, where a kitchen is separate and used only for food preparation, the family/kitchen/dining room area in the Carlsons’ home is at the heart of things.

It is here that the Carlsons and their three children, Christopher, Richard and Ingrid, enjoy both Swedish antiques and modern conveniences. It is also here that the family and the extended family--the Carlsons have housed nine exchange students throughout the years--enjoy Ann Carlson’s home-made bundt cake and hot, strong Swedish coffee.

In the family room, an antique pullout bed made by Nyberg has been converted into a couch. Ann Carlson took an old carpet woven by Roy Carlson’s mother and covered a cushion with it for comfortable sitting.

“In the olden days, carpet was used as upholstery material because it was so sturdy. I just continued that tradition,” said Ann Carlson. During the long Swedish winters, the women cut old clothes into strips and then wove them into carpet strips about three feet wide. It was one of these that Ann Carlson used for her upholstery.

The table in front of the couch was made by Roy Carlson from old Swedish pine boards that he salvaged and had shipped here, while contemporary chairs were bought to complete the set.

A Bruno Matsson lounge chair covered with lambskin, a contemporary Swedish design, is a comfortable place to relax. Along one wall, an antique pine chest bought by the Carlsons in Sweden in 1976 has been converted into a bar and is used to display blue and white wall plates. The motif of white with blue flowers on the plates, typically Scandinavian, is used on wallpaper, fabric and paintings.

In the dining room, a table for eight that the Carlsons bought in Stockholm holds an antique vase and a doily crocheted by Ann Carlson’s grandmother.

“She used the thinnest thread and the smallest needle to do this work,” said Ann Carlson. “And she did it until she was 94 years old.” Carlson has boxes full of her grandmother’s delicate work that she uses daily.

The pine sideboard was made by Roy Carlson for his wife on their 25th wedding anniversary, and it holds a Swedish Rorstrand butter storage jar that is almost translucent with age and Swedish dishes that Ann Carlson received from her grandmother, as well as pottery their children made in school.

Adjacent to the dining room is the kitchen that Roy Carlson fitted with pine cabinets and a collection of Swedish utensils, including a small birch ice-fishing stick, a milk ladle and copper baking forms.

The Carlson living room leans more toward contemporary design, although in the corner is a large antique pine chiffonje, or desk, that Ann Carlson found and stripped to the natural wood.

“This is a wonderful piece,” she said of the desk. “When I was stripping it I found a secret drawer hidden way in back.” The front of the piece comes down to create a desk, or it can be put up to look like a wooden chest.

While the Carlson home is filled with special pieces, it is the antique bridal clock in the dining room that commands the greatest attention.

It holds a unique position within the family.

“It is not considered an antique in the traditional sense, but rather as a 200-year-old useful and beautiful object that can and should be used each day by our family and friends. Its having been passed down through five generations adds to the sentimental value and helps tie our family roots to the source,” Roy Carlson said.

“We look at the clock as a living, working, moving, vocal member of the family.”