Décor: This contemporary country home and food garden is a family dream come true

Down to earth

The Gomes family ʼs dream of living more in tune with the land and themselves has been fulfilled at Jardim, their food garden and contemporary country home in Noordhoek, Cape Town.

The view from the kitchen takes in the mountain, garden ‒ where so much of the action at Jardim happens ‒ and pool. Architect Alex Stewart intentionally created a space that had the garden visible from every angle. The vaulted ceiling is a nod to country barns without being too overtly rustic while the window above the sliding doors was placed to let the afternoon light stream into the living room and take in the view of the Noordhoek mountains.

ʻI wanted the informal feel that you find in old-fashioned country kitchens while still keeping it modern and relevant, ʼ says Angela, who is a keen cook. ʻI had a very dark blue in mind and finally we settled on this colour. Itʼs called Sushi Wrap and I love it. ʼ Mismatched lighting fixtures (found at Morgan Lighting) mirror Angelaʼs preference for items to dress a space in an interesting and eclectic way. Free-standing units were commissioned from local designers and manufacturers Hollywood Kitchens. ʻThey were amazing. I explained that I wanted it to look new but not too contemporary, and old but not clichéd, and they got the brief spot on. ʼ

ABOVE, LEFT: The coupleʼs dream of an established garden bursting with flowering and edible plants was brought to fruition with the help of Noordhoek local and garden designer Tone Alexander. The idea is that the layers that develop over time will get more interesting and visually appealing. RIGHT A passage leads from the entrance hall to bedrooms for the children Olivia, Sam and Amber, a central work and homework station, and Angela and Justinʼs plant-filled bedroom

text VICKI SLEET production SVEN ALBERDING photos WARREN HEATH/BUREAUX

‘About six years ago, friendʼs farm for Su we nda went to y lunch. a It chil was dhood late in the afternoon, we were sitting at a table under the trees, our host had just brought a pitcher of lemonade for us to drink and the kids were riding horses as the sun was setting. It couldnʼt have been more picture perfect and I leaned over to my wife Angela and said, “This is what life is about” , ʼ says Justin Gomes. Justin, an owner of a successful advertising agency, thinks in visual narratives. From that moment of pastoral bliss, he and Angela began developing their vision for being semi-self-sufficient on a beautiful piece of land that offered them an opportunity to lean into the life they wanted while still being close enough to schools for their three children. Their Noordhoek property Jardim consists of a sprawling food garden, horse paddocks and stables, and a yoga studio built using doors and windows reclaimed from their home renovation. ʻOriginally the property consisted mainly of horse paddocks. It felt hemmed in by trees but removing some of them to reveal the mountain view is one of the first things we did and it was a revelation, ʼ says Justin. The wood from the felled trees was set aside for later use.

The original house was a typical eighties facebrick family home but it was perfectly liveable, which meant the couple could first tackle their priority project: the

Angela has an innate talent for display and a passion for plants ‒ her green fingers are on show on this custom-built unit (below, right) in the coupleʼs bedroom. The vintage typewriter was a sentimental wedding anniversary gift from Justin to Angela. The piece of paper in the typewriter has the words to the coupleʼs wedding song, ʻAt your most beautifulʼ by REM, typed out on it. The palette in the coupleʼs bedroom is minimalist with plants providing pops of colour. While the main living areas of the house do have a few plants, the coupleʼs bedroom is filled with them. Angela is a self-confessed ʻplant ladyʼ: ʻI love nurturing them and seeing them grow. ʼ

garden.

ʻWe had no idea how much land we would need to create the food garden we had in mind but we had very clear ideas as to why we wanted the garden, so we just cordoned off an area and hoped it would be big enough, ʼ laughs Angela, who in just five years ‒ with her team of talented gardeners ‒ has built the garden into an impressive organic community enterprise. Local restaurants buy the produce to cook, nearby soup kitchens are given vegetables for their feeding schemes and visitors can pick their own vegetables to buy and take home ‒ it is a true circular economy that feeds the family on many levels. Wedding feasts have been celebrated at the central harvest table (made from the wood of the property ʼs felled trees) and of course weekend lunches with family and friends are a regular occurrence here too.

When it came time to plan their house renovation, which kicked off three years ago, the couple sat down with architect Alex Stewart. ʻWe loved that he really wanted to know how we wanted to live and what our goals were as a family and for the property as a whole, and from there he developed a house from which you can always see and feel connected to the garden. He just got us so perfectly, ʼ says Justin. ʻWe love our home, but the garden is the thing weʼre ultimately most proud of ‒ especially because itʼs at the centre of the process and was the trigger for so much of what was to come, ʼ says Angela.

The coupleʼs bathroom is a clean-lined minimalist space and of course has a window letting in the light and views of the garden.

ʻWe wanted a rustic feel with an easy indooroutdoor flow but we didnʼt want to fake the “country ” aspect, so the living room extension is a nod to a barn structure. It also takes into account that a view of the mountain was a must-have. ʼ

With all that in mind, the design resulted in the interior being gutted and rebuilt from the oak floors up. The kitchen and living room, predictably, are the heart of everything for this busy family of five. ʻWe made sure to split the kitchen in half so the prep and reality of life can be hidden when we entertain, ʼ laughs Angela. Custom-designed freestanding kitchen units echo the modern farmhouse feel as does the deep charcoal colour Angela chose for them.

The house is both comfortable and effortlessly elegant with myriad sentimental references to the family ʼs journey thus far. The entrance hall features a beautiful vintage pressed-metal ceiling (a nod to Angelaʼs childhood home on the East Rand in Gauteng) while a huge poster of The Great Wave by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, bought for Justin in New York, sits comfortably next to a Cape table by local designer Gregor Jenkin. As unpretentious as the Gomes family themselves, their home is designed for kids and dogs and all-day traffic ‒ and always with an underlying commitment to living life as mindfully as possible. Itʼs a work that changes with the seasons.

Says Angela: ʻWe are conceptualising a space where people can come for group breakaways, be it for business or leisure, and experience the joy of picking and cooking the food we grow. Itʼs how we want to live, making progress in our lives but still feeling connected to the garden that started it all. ʼ

MAIN PHOTO: The garden studio was built using windows, doors and beams retrieved from the original house during the massive renovation. Here Angela tends her orchid collection and indoor plants, Justin wrote a childrenʼs book there, and outside practitioners have used it for yoga workshops and self-development courses. ʻThis space is everything Zoom is not ‒ a place to really connect and feed what makes you and your friends tick. It has given us so much, ʼ says Angela. ʻI love pottering here, meditating or doing yoga. '

The familyʼs property is aptly named Jardim ‒ʻgardenʼ in Portuguese.

ʻOriginally we wanted to call it Jardin, which is the French word for garden, because weʼd lived in Paris, but then we remembered the Portuguese spelling (our family is originally from Madeira) ‒ and Jardim is actually my fatherʼs second name, ʼ says Justin. The garden is cultivated using organic principles and companion planting. The result is an abundance of year-round seasonal vegetables that feed the community and the family. Central to the garden is a harvest table and weekend lunches with family and friends are a regular occurrence here.