Marbled entrance in century house.

We are now done with the marbling in the entrance! It has been so exciting to follow and be a part of this renovation. Bo på Sekelhus has really put a lot of time and soul into equipping this property in true Sekelhus spirit! I've been marbling high and low and it has been so much fun!

Here are some pictures from the process itself.

This is how it looked the first time I visited. (Before)

And after a period of work from tilers, electricians, carpenters and painters, it looked like this. Check out the stucco with lighting in the ceiling! How beautiful?

And this is what it looked like from the other side. The old entrance door is still here, which was then replaced with the grain painted one that I wrote about in previous posts. Now it was time for me to start painting along the walls.

We sketched and first started by painting the green parts. Bo from Sekelhus wanted a warm, green "swedish green" marble and a slightly beige marble in the middle fields.

We waited to marble the chest molding above as Bo was unsure whether it would be marbled into the green or would break into some other colour.

The green fields are done and it's time to start painting beige! The wish was for the marble to be similar to the wall color above the chest molding (possibly slightly darker) and to break with slightly darker cracks. Here is the first layer.

So it became a little Ekeberg-inspired-marble to try to build up the right finish that he wanted.

Bo decided in the end that we should marble the chest molding. Here you can see the three different types of marble I have painted. White cararra on the pilasters, "swedish green" marble and a beige ekebergs-inspired marble in the middle fields.

And now it's done! Here, the vein-painted door has also come into place. What remains (But which I will not do) is to paint the wall area around the door. Here you can also see a glimpse of the pillar, which I have also marbled and gilded details on in brass (I forgot to take a picture of that process, however).

Surely there was a little difference if you scroll up to the first before image? Thank you Bo på Sekelhus for the trust and for a fantastically fun painting assignment!

Pilasters painted as cararra marble.

Now the painters are starting to finish all the walls in the house and it is time for me to start decorative painting along the walls. First up are the pilasters in the stairwell and on all levels. 13 pilasters to be precise are gping to be painted to white, "soft", cararra marble. It looked like this.

A pilaster is a slightly protruding wall column. These are cast in polyurethane and then the painters have primed them with white, matt lacquer and now it's time for me to decoratively paint them to marble. The wall areas are also to be marbled further forward in green and beige marble according to Sekelhus' wishes.

Preparing for painting.

This is what the first brushstrokes look like. And then it will slowly turn into a soft cararra marble.

And this is what it looks like when it's done. Only 12 to go!

Working slowly and safely on.

It is very practical to be 1.58 cm tall ;)

Here all the pilasters in the entrance are marbled, lacquered and clear. The new grain-painted double door has also been installed in the meantime (as I wrote about in previous posts). However, it is difficult to see the grain in this picture in all the backlighting.

Working my way up in the stairwell.

Here you can also see the skirting boards that I painted in grain to match the door. (More about that in a separate post). The next step is to start with the marbling in the wall fields in the stairwell's entrance.

An old double door gets a new suit.

Since last winter, it's really been very busy. For the past few months, I have spent most of the time marbling, repairing doors and woodgraining for Sekelhus. Bosse, who is the CEO of Sekelhus, is renovating two buildings in the middle of Stora Torget in Falköping. It has been a year since I was there the first time to visit and it has been so incredibly cool to follow this renovation. The stairwell itself where I work at the moment was quite shabby before but it has really been renovated with care and love. And in beautiful, timeless turn-of-the-century spirit! It will be so nice that you almost want to move in there!

We've been working on this for a while now so I don't really know where to start (It's been painted quite a bit so to speak.). But I think I'll break it up a little bit into different posts so it will be easier to take in.

First comes the transformation of the entrance door itself to the apartment building that I have been working in. It is an old double door from an apartment that has been rebuilt and fitted with new frames. It was primed and repainted by the painters and then I had to woodgraining it like old oak. Bosse explained so nicely that it should feel like an old, well-dressed lady who has aged in the best way.

This is how it looked when it was completely unpainted.

The old double door is hidden at the back, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of that.

Here, painter Erik has primed and painted the parts in a light yellow tone. (Works as protection and base tone for the grain painting of the door later)

Here I'm painting two different layers to bring out the wood grain.

Close-up of the process itself.

And this is how it turned out in the end!

This is what the entrance part looked like before.

And this is how it looks now. Does it feel like an old, handsome lady? ;) It's a bit difficult to get the right color when shooting in backlight (As it always is here during the day). But the last picture is the most similar in color anyway. Now it just needs to be joined and painted on the wall section all around and then a gilded number needs to be added to the glass and then we're done!

Stay tuned to see the next post about marbling that has been done in the house! :)