Houzz Tour: Preserving the Soul of a Swedish Mission House
When this couple bought the 1888 home, it didn’t even have plumbing. Now it’s a haven full of charming ideas
This 19th-century mission house sat empty for years and needed a head-to-toe renovation to introduce plumbing and replace load-bearing beams in the ceilings and floors, among other things. It scared away most buyers and even property flippers — all but Sara Fjelkman and Carl-Johan Bauhn, who fell in love with the beautiful old place and set to work turning the worn-out house into a dream home.
Fjelkman, 28, and Bauhn, 30, worked on the Swedish home improvement TV show Äntligen Hemma (Home at Last) — she as an interior design assistant and social media editor, and he as a producer. Fjelkman is now a public relations officer at home furnishings store Klong, and Bauhn is a project manager at a content agency. They’re pictured with Bauhn’s son, Wilbur.
“We came across this house by chance … in 2014, and it was love at first sight,” Fjelkman says. “We noticed its countryside location, its charm and period details, and saw a chance to own and revive a historic building.”
They began the renovation that year.
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They began the renovation that year.
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The home has entrances on three sides. This door leads to an entry hall that serves as a mudroom. The marble floor is heated from below, making it comfortable to walk barefoot to the neighboring bathroom.
How to Add a Radiant Heat System
How to Add a Radiant Heat System
After: Now the former kitchen is a bathroom with a marble floor and walls partly finished in classic white subway tiles.
The room benefits from the home’s central underfloor heating, but it is also outfitted with a separate electric underfloor system. This keeps the floor warm even in the summer when the central heating is turned off.
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The room benefits from the home’s central underfloor heating, but it is also outfitted with a separate electric underfloor system. This keeps the floor warm even in the summer when the central heating is turned off.
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The bathroom has two sinks with matching retro faucets. The bathtub and toilet are from Hafa.
Browse bathroom faucets by style in the Houzz Shop
Browse bathroom faucets by style in the Houzz Shop
The cast-iron stove is from Contura.
After: Now the former parish hall is a dining room. The masonry stove is original to the home, but it used to be on the second floor. The sideboard dates to 1888 and was moved here from the original kitchen.
The modern triple-paned windows are modeled on the home’s originals. The whitewashed solid wood floor has underfloor heating as well.
The dining table is new, while the pendant lights are heirlooms.
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The modern triple-paned windows are modeled on the home’s originals. The whitewashed solid wood floor has underfloor heating as well.
The dining table is new, while the pendant lights are heirlooms.
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The main room is divided into a kitchen, a work area and two sitting areas. It’s a little over 750 square feet and has a 13-foot-high ceiling.
The kitchen countertops are marble. The range hood is a custom design made by a metal fabricator. To make it as quiet as possible, only the filter is in the kitchen; the motor is hidden in a part of the attic that’s far away from the sleeping areas.
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The kitchen countertops are marble. The range hood is a custom design made by a metal fabricator. To make it as quiet as possible, only the filter is in the kitchen; the motor is hidden in a part of the attic that’s far away from the sleeping areas.
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The pendant lights in the kitchen are suspended with custom textile cables from Nud Collection. The oven is by Smeg.
A couple of kitchen cabinets pull out to form a bar bench. This was one of Bauhn’s creative ideas. “He is the building expert of the two of us, and he’s always full of smart, stylish and clever ideas,” Fjelkman says.
The owners designed the coffee table. It consists of a concrete slab with a welded base.
Rug: House Doctor
Rug: House Doctor
Four speakers recessed in the ceiling are part of the home’s central sound system.
This is the second sitting area in the main room. Pillows and blankets make it relaxed and informal.
Fjelkman found the vintage desk at a secondhand shop and got the bar cart in an online auction.
A former trapdoor to the basement now contains a storage unit for wine, which is cooled naturally by the cellar air.
Bauhn came up with the idea, and it has become a real conversation piece with the couple’s guests.
After: Now the space is a roomy bedroom with a built-in closet. The original wood floor was sanded and whitewashed.
The bright walls and ceilings feature exposed beams.
Stairs lead from here to Wilbur’s room in the attic. The couple tore down the walls and false ceiling to enlarge the space, bring in more light and reveal the gorgeous beams.
Each of the two alcoves at the rear of the attic has a built-in bed that’s about 3 by 6½ feet. This leaves enough room for a bathroom up here in future.
The room features a gray wood floor and white wood ceiling with exposed beams. On the roof, two large Velux skylights have both translucent and blackout curtains.
Outside on the porch is another area for dining and relaxing. The couple designed the table themselves. It’s a welded metal frame clad in wood, with a submerged box in the middle that can be filled with ice for chilling drinks or decorated with greenery.
The beam supporting the candleholders above the dining table came from the attic. “We found it when we shoveled out all the sawdust during the renovation,” Fjelkman says. “We removed some of the beams, as we were going to replace them with two new load-bearing glulam beams. But we saved the old ones, and after we built the porch, Bauhn came up with the idea of using one of them as decor over the table.”
The couple turned a small shed on the property into a laundry room. It has built-in storage and a cellar with an extra fridge-freezer and a heat exchange system for geothermal heat.
The bright laundry room is decked out with a Samsung washer and dryer.
Bauhn and Fjelkman are now undertaking their next renovation project — a 1950s apartment on the Swedish island of Lidingö. They’re also building a new summer house on Sweden’s west coast. “Of course, it’s sad to leave this great house we’ve poured our heart and soul into, but each end is also a new beginning,” Fjelkman says.
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Bauhn and Fjelkman are now undertaking their next renovation project — a 1950s apartment on the Swedish island of Lidingö. They’re also building a new summer house on Sweden’s west coast. “Of course, it’s sad to leave this great house we’ve poured our heart and soul into, but each end is also a new beginning,” Fjelkman says.
More on Houzz
Read about other homes around the world
Find a pro for your home project
Shop for home products
House at a Glance
Who lives here: Sara Fjelkman, Carl-Johan Bauhn and Bauhn’s son, Wilbur
Location: Markim, Sweden, near Stockholm
Size: 1,485 square feet (138 square meters) on almost a half-acre (1,800 square meters)