Displaying posts from October, 2016

As soon as I spotted this 1854 Cape Dutch home (located in Montagu, Cape Town) featured in Visi, I knew there was something magical about it. And when I read the story, I realized I was right. As the homeowners tell it: “For a year before we started renovating, I spent every weekend sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the empty entrance hall. It was important to do this, because only then did I hear the house. I could hear her breathe. I could hear the creaking of the wood, the sounds the pipes make, how the wind whispers through the rooms and where she ached. And in doing so I realised that ours would have to be a historical renovation; it wasn’t so much what we wanted the house to be but rather what it should be.” You can read the rest of the story here. (Photos: Micky Hoyle)

Hate is not a strong enough word. Fear and loathing spring to mind and to me are associated with two things in the world… clowns and dentists. Urgh!!! What I always say on my Working on a Saturday posts “If you have to drag yourself into work on a Saturday it better be somewhere stylish” can equally apply to visiting a dentist. “If you have to drag yourself kicking and screaming into the gaping maw of dental terror…” This seriously stylish dental practice by Surroundings would actually have me overcoming my fears.

Shades of blue, grey and white, sisal rugs, plants, bamboo, sailboats…something tells me New York City interior designer Matthew Caughy is inspired by all things beachy and nautical. This combination of elements makes for such soothing, timeless and casual spaces. Add in a vignette of vases filled with glorious white hydrangeas and I am smitten. 

I don’t know what I like better, the view through the back door or the kitchen itself. Doesn’t matter. It’s a definite case of kitchen love. By Sydney-based interior architect Sally Rhys-Jones.

I have had a long love affair with the Spanish Revival style. I think it has to do with the Old Hollywood glamour that I associate with these distinctive houses. Brown Design Group‘s renovation of 1920s Inverness is beautifully sympathetic but still with more than a nod to contemporary tastes. A perfect marriage between the heavy oak pieces of the era and modern overstuffed linen and leather sofas and statement modern art pieces. Still it’s always the wrought iron work, the terracotta and the intricate ceilings that get me as well as the pool side entertaining. Speaking of ceilings what about that original tiled ceiling in the kitchen!