Home Home Renovations 2017

My kitchen has a slanted window. It was installed by the previous owners, probably two decades ago, because it gives you a view of Table Mountain (provided you stand in a specific spot and crane your neck). This window had a wooden frame, but wood that receives no attention for two decades eventually turns to sawdust. And sawdust isn’t waterproof. I became aware of this fact during my first winter in my 100-year-old house when rainwater started running down the wall one stormy evening. Luckily, the new kitchen cupboards were not attached to the wall – there was a gap – but all the plugs for the fridge, stove, washing machine and tumble dryer were on that wall! I frantically tried to divert the water away from the plugs with bits of…

On the tiles Faith du Plessis designed and hand-painted these stunning tiles before they were baked in a kiln at her regular pottery class. We love how the varying sizes and shapes of the tiles all fit together to create a frame around the fireplace in the braai area at her newly renovated Knysna home. Textured! The courtyard in the middle of Louis Heyneman’s Cape Town property truly reflects the character of his ecofriendly home as the natural wood and raw materials, mostly recycled, come together to create a striking, textured space. The stones for the retainer wall and slate for the focal wall are from the original house, which was demolished before this home was built 10 years ago. The slate was cut into thin strips to create a decorative wall that…

We kept our eyes open and were brave enough to ask friends and strangers for their unwanted goods.– Victoria When Andrew and Victoria Zekveld walked off with the big prize in our annual Fix it with Flair competition last year, we knew it wouldn’t be the last we’d see of them; it was clear that this creative couple was on a roll with the renovation of their townhouse in Clarendon near Pietermaritzburg in KZN. “One of the things we wanted to change was the cramped yard,” says Victoria. “The property is only a little more than 400m² and the house is plopped awkwardly in the middle of this uneven and steeply sloping site. A dark 1.5m-wide veranda was the only entertainment space we had.” When a friend dismantled his deck and was about…

I love combining timeless, elegant colours such as off-white and greys with pops of colour.– Pascale Bright idea! Pascale found this old window frame at a demolition yard – she simply replaced the glass with mirrors. It was a huge relief for the Houbart family to move from their cramped Sea Point apartment into a double-storey home in 2016. With their family growing rapidly, space was what they needed most! Despite the fact that the move would extend the couple’s travel time to and from work – Pascale is a buying manager at Woolworths and Nicholas is a key account manager at MOOV Fuels – they decided on Hout Bay because of its relative affordability compared to Cape Town’s city centre. The beautiful sea and mountain views and the fact that they have family…

It was a scene guaranteed to get many a renovator’s hands itching to get stuck in: a run-down farm cottage with a huge old tree towering above it and a view to die for. “The little house on our farm Vleidam outside Koringberg was built by labourers in 1930,” says Nikki Loxton. “And everything about it really is little – from the rooms to the windows. When we did the restoration, we tried to stay as true to the original aesthetic as possible, keeping the walls as skew as when they were first built.” Nikki and her husband John run a guest farm on Vleidam and the cottage is now one of the self-catering units they rent out. Nikki and her daughter Christine, who is in charge of the admin for the guest…

Bright idea! The curtain is actually a white linen tablecloth to which loops were added; it now hangs on a copper pipe. Bright idea! The ottoman consists of two pallets on top of each other with a comfy cushion; castors have been added to make it easy to move around. If you’re in need of a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, the Little Karoo is just the ticket. Here, on the farm Uitsig in the Hoeko Valley between Ladismith and Calitzdorp, Narine and Jurgen Prins have converted a dilapidated labourer’s cottage into a comfy guesthouse. The couple settled in the valley, where Jurgen farms, in 2016. Jurgen and Narine, a former Grade R teacher, were ready for a new challenge and the house – practically a ruin – soon piqued their…