Light on the Stairs: Decorative Stained Glass for a Private Home in Osijek

Some houses are built to be lived in. Others are built to be remembered. In 2010 the Biloš family was finishing a new luxury home in Osijek, in eastern Croatia, a house of marble stairs, wrought iron railings and warm rooms full of light. For it, Stevan Stanisic designed, and Stanisic Studio made, a set of decorative stained glass windows that would carry color through the whole house, from the front doors to the top of the stairs.

A wall of light along the stairs

The heart of the project is the staircase. Along the marble steps runs a long wall of stained glass, lit from behind, so that it glows day and night as you climb.

The background is a pale gold and green textured glass that softens the light like a veil, crossed by fine lead lines that rise in rhythm with the steps. Across the top runs a band of ornament: amber and honey colored scrolls, small red jewels and, at its center, a medallion with a star of 8 points in deep orange glass. It reads like a frieze in a classical interior, drawn in light instead of plaster.

The medallion on the landing

At the top of the stairs, a large square window opens the landing to the light. Its design is a great medallion: petals and arcs of blue, turquoise and violet radiate from the center, framed by gold scrolls and corner motifs in green, pink and gold. Between pink walls, silk drapes and the curves of the iron railing, the window becomes the centerpiece of the room.

Glass in the doors

The same language continues in the doors. A pair of ivory double doors carries 2 tall arched panels of stained glass, with a flower motif of red, pink and green on clear and amber glass, so that even a passage between rooms has its own small window of color.

Sealed in insulated glass

A home must also be warm, quiet and easy to care for. So the stained glass panels were set into insulated glass units, sealed between panes of clear glass. The stained glass keeps all its color and detail, but it is protected from dust, moisture and touch, and the windows insulate like any modern glazing.

That work was done in Osijek, at the firm Zrcalo, where Boban Marjanovic prepared the stained glass for mounting and for setting into the insulated glass.

A house of color

Finished in August 2010, the windows give the Biloš home what only stained glass can: rooms that change with the hour, a staircase that glows at night and a sense that the house was made by hand, for one family.

Client: the Biloš family, private home, Osijek, Croatia
Design: Stevan Stanisic
Fabrication: Stanisic Studio
Work: decorative stained glass for the staircase wall, the landing window and the doors
Preparation and insulated glass: Boban Marjanovic, Zrcalo, Osijek
Completed: August 2010