If Walls Could Talk

If you’re stepping through your front door to your dream abode, you should be feeling what you’re wanting to feel! Invoke peace, positive energy or a space that’s popping with colourful pride. Anlo Neethling, interior designer and director of ONE Design +

Development, shows us how to create visually striking (and personal) walls within our homes. Here are a few design elements, materials and appealing options to create jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring wall treatments, no matter your personal taste and home interior aesthetic.

Wallpaper

One of my personal favourite wall treatments...The availability of designs, variety of textures in wallpaper, installation methods, local designs, international design and range of cost, means there is something for everyone. If you have a healthy budget, gold foil embossed wall treatment is even an option.

There are endless possibilities with creating a custom designed wallpaper. Anything from designing a unique pattern to enlarging an existing photo or print. In a previous project, we created a small piece of art with oil paints, we then scanned and enlarged it to ultimately produce a custom wallpaper print.

• Make sure you have a highly experienced installer, especially with an elaborate pattern or design

• If you have a tighter budget or you are scared of commitment, one can combine a dado rail and paint the section underneath the dado, with wallpaper placed above the painted section

• When brave, select the boldest colours available, if you're not into loud splashes, you can go for a subtle earthy shade, or muted palette

In one of our favourite projects, we printed a bold custom designed pattern on wallpaper vinyl, and then stretched the vinyl over a large timber frame (which is 2100mm in height x 1400mm width). This was extremely cost-effective, bold, highly visually impactful and ‘commitment-friendly.' You could easily change it in a season or two with a new trend and it won’t break the bank.

The cooler months ahead

Don’t get stuck with the traditional warmer tones, try exploring alternative tones such as:

• Current trend setting schemes include terracotta, dirty pinks, burgundy and even a warmer white and warm cream tones

• To balance the warm tones, as a contrast, I like to use cooler tones with the warm feature wall colour through secondary pieces in an interior... Here is how:

• For the bedroom - cooler tones for headboards and scatter cushions

• For the lounge or living room – accessorise with cooler tones using art, scatter cushions, sculptures and notes of visual and personal interest

For a quick, easy Saturday DIY project, divide the walls into three horizontal spaces. Paint the bottom third in a feature colour of your choice (go bold!), and then hang some art so that it overlaps the newly painted area and neutral colour. Anlo Neethling

ONE Design + Development Interior designer

www.onedd.co.za

@one_design_and_development

LEFT: House Colley: Custom wall design by ONE Design + Development. Art by Paul Senyol and Salon Ninety One. Furniture by Frederick Sinclair.

BOTTOM LEFT: House Sir George: Paint, 'Valhalla' by Dulux. Panelling by NMC Mouldings. MOA Light by Bofred. Fabric by Hertex.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Apartment Silva: Wallpaper by Artlab. Stools by Weylandts.

CIRCLE: Bridgewater One: Wallpaper by Lemon. Art by Printeriors. Lamp by Weylandts.

• To add warmth to a room or feature wall, look into using timber. Either slats, solid boards or when on a budget, look at ‘weetbix boards’ commonly referred to as ‘chipboard’ or OSB (orientated strand board). It’s cost-effective and perfect to use in a rental property

• Look into using a warmer tone of paint (still neutral) but opt to use a textured foam paint roller to apply it as this will add texture and depth to your wall

• Smokey, eggplant colour for warmth is trendy and all the rage. It looks as delicious as it sounds, give it a go!

Materials and finishes to feature walls

• Green walls - from a couple of pot plants fixed to a wall to an entire wall of greenery, creates a luscious feature wall

• Alternative materials (as seen in House Colley) -here we incorporated 80mm PVC downpipes, cut in half, attached to a cleat system and fitted to the lounge wall. The 3 doors were installed afterwards to match up perfectly with the cladding, this created a modern and seamless interior, painted with a matte paint after installation

• One of my all-time favourites...Decorative mouldings - I have used this material in modern to very traditional interiors. We love using a variety of profiles and sizes. Installed in either a traditional pattern, or to push the boundaries and create a modern and new approach

• Cork is fantastic as a feature wall, especially with creating a warmer mid-century interior. It also works extremely well in a kid’s bedroom or office

• Tiles, and not only for a kitchen or bathroom. Using tiles to create a feature wall can be very effective, especially with the vast array of handmade tiles produced in South Africa. For the brave, combine extraordinary tile with a bold wallpaper

• Craving an industrial or even a traditional farmhouse feel? There’s nothing better to use than exposed brick. Do note to make sure that the bricks are sealed afterwards, this will enhance the lifespan of the wall and reduce the collection of dust

• Stone - stay away from man-made stone or stone effect. The current trend is slate tile installed in its natural form, very much inspired by the retro 50s

• Everybody loves a timber cladded wall -but, this can get very expensive, extremely quickly. Use a vinyl-timber flooring plank, it’s 25% of the cost and you would be able to have it installed in a couple of hours

• Padding - a dramatic headboard for your bed can span from wall to wall or floor to ceiling, creating an entire padded wall and dramatic statement

• Plaster art - adds texture, warmth and movement to walls, it's cost-effective and can be done in an afternoon

• Mirror - from the standard to smokey grey, rose golds or any tinted variations of colour. This will add depth and increase the perceived space of a room. Go ahead and hang some art on the mirror wall

Repetition or collection

Create a feature wall through the repetition of an object through collection. A feature wall made up of a collection of beautifully crafted plates, collection of photographs, and personal trinkets. Install a couple of floating shelves and add all your found treasures for an instant feature wall. Oh, and change the objects daily if you'd like to create an element of excitement!

Trends in feature walls

• When you have the privilege of renovating or constructing a new home look into creating an expansive wall of glass, looking onto a manicured garden or courtyard garden. Alternatively, have a glass window backsplash in your kitchen, looking onto a garden or planter box

• Local, local, local – source locally printed wallpaper, stone from surrounding areas or even locally and sustainably grown timber. Use local installers and reduce your home's carbon footprint as much as possible

• Mix organic shapes with geometric ones

• Go with the flow and have fun with different shapes when painting—a circle here, an arch there, you name it! The final design will be full of personality and totally one of a kind

• Walls will transport us to 'far away' lands filled with leafy palms and safari animals, which can be easilly achieved through a custom printed wallpaper

• Marble and terrazzo - when you have the opportunity to create a feature wall from the actual material or printed wallpaper versions, this trend will last for at least 5-10 years

• Don’t be afraid to continue your feature wall onto the ceiling and continue the wall colour onto the ceiling too. For the brave, continue the wallpaper from wall to ceiling

• There are a plethora of endless design aesthetics and materials to add to your home’s interior. Have fun with curating an experience that will leave an impression on house guests, family and friends, but ultimately represents you and the atmosphere you wish to create.

Chef’s Table

When she’s not busy designing beautiful interiors and he’s got some rare downtime from being South Africa’s most influential chef, Sandalene and Luke Dale-Roberts embrace being homebodies in their bighearted family dwelling. And yes, toasted cheese features regularly on the menu.

For the epicurious, there are few questions more fascinating

than how a well-known chef lives: from family ties and interior design preferences to which labels are hanging in the wardrobe and, most pressing, what’s on the dinner table. When that personality is Luke Dale-Roberts, the visionary behind Cape Town’s internationally lauded The Test Kitchen and The Pot Luck Club restaurants, the sense of curiosity runs from profound to zealous.

After all, this is Cape Town’s very own rock star chef (a title he certainly deserves but, refreshingly, doesn’t seem particularly interested in) complete with swaggy London accent and a jet-setters CV that has seen British-born, Swiss-trained Luke cook and run kitchens everywhere from Singapore to South Korea to the Philippines where he met his South African wife, Sandalene. After relocating and spending four years racking up the honours as the Executive Chef of La Colombe restaurant at the Constantia Uitsig wine estate, Luke launched The Test Kitchen in 2010 followed by The Pot Luck Club (and in early 2016, a pop-up in Johannesburg’s exclusive The Saxon hotel that has subsequently become permanent). Since then, his highly developed technical skills and imaginative, conceptual approach has landed Luke and his establishments just about every significant local and international industry award and accolade you can shake a stick at, not to mention the adoration of critics (‘a peerless exemplar of how innovative South African cuisine can be’ according to The Telegraph), fellow chefs (UK celebrity alchemist-chef, Heston Blumenthal, counts himself a fan) and customers who describe his adventurous, seasonal fare and poetic presentation as nothing less than ‘food artistry’.

Luke’s bond with Sandalene runs deeper than love, friendship and the family they have made with almost-ten-year-old son, Finley. A former fashion designer, she is the creative and delightfully animated force behind the interior design of all of Luke’s establishments that are as much a part of the experience as the food and unpretentious but impeccable service. Having garnered many accolades of her own, Sandalene has left the industrial glamour of the restaurants behind at their location in an old biscuit mill in the rough-and-tumble (but increasingly gentrified) neighbourhood of Woodstock and applied her accessible but stylish eye to a generously proportioned, light-filled period home in Plumstead: an area that appealed because ‘it manages to be leafy and suburban and historic but with gritty elements that give it an edge’.

PROJECT INFO:

TEXT

Mandy Allen

STYLING

Sven Alberding

PHOTOGRAPHS Warren Heath

It’s immediately evident that Luke and Sandalene are a harmonious and laid-back double act when cooking together (though Sandalene does get the giggles as Luke slips into chef mode for less than a nanosecond to cast an eye over her salad mid-progress). Observing Luke work while composing the various elements of this meal is to catch a glimpse of the brilliance and focus that has elevated Luke to the top of the pack – never has watching pasta dough being passed through a machine been so hypnotizing or satisfying.

Today the couple are putting together generous, colourful platters of melt-in-themouth beef carpaccio and that fresh pasta done two ways: a linguine with sweet, garlicky prawns, roasted tomatoes and fragrant basil and ridiculously delicious pappardelle with tender seasonal greens, smoked bacon and Parmesan shavings. It is all, of course, sublime, beautifully presented and unforgettable. But then again one gets the feeling that even a toasted cheese coming out of this kitchen might move you to tears. The combination of luxury, whimsy and practicality seen in Sandalene’s professional work is clearly evident but in a more personal, nuanced incarnation: warm browns and natural wood act as counterpoints to just-the-right-amount of fresh, vibrant colour while quirky objects, original artworks, textured soft furnishings and patterned textiles as well as eclectic pieces of furniture – some of which have had a previous life – all sit entirely comfortably with one another. Many of the standout pieces are of Sandalene’s own creation under her label, Naturalis, in particular the simple school-style chairs that feature both at The Test Kitchen and The Pot Luck Club. A cool riff on the traditional South African school seat made modern with inventive materials (on-trend copper), textures (Nguni cow hide) and prints (such as traditional Southern African Shweshwe), the chairs have become Sandalene’s signature item with each and every one, incredibly, being finished by hand in her work-fromhome studio.

Food is one of the strongest threads that connects this busy family to one another. ‘During the week we always make an early dinner together before I head to the restaurants,’ says Luke, who also is the designated Toasted-CheeseMaker-In-Chief, a culinary staple of Finley’s school lunch box. The open kitchen area is, unsurprisingly, the heart of the home. Here the main event is the cooking island with top-ofthe-range appliances and plenty of counter space for prep work and plating. The kitchen’s flexible design and central placement that opens on one side to the living room, on the other to a cosy breakfast nook and forwards onto a sundappled ‘outdoor dining and living room’ allows the couple to be part of the conversation when friends and family come round, which is on most weekends.

Pasta Dough

Serves 12

500 g white bread flourG REDIENTS I N 3 whole eggs 2 egg yolks salt

1. Beat eggs lightly.

2. Make a pile of flour on your table and add a pinch of salt.

It's all about the dough...

3. Knead egg mix into flour and then knead together very well until properly amalgamated.

4. Rest pasta dough in fridge over night. When rested, roll pasta dough to the finest setting in a pasta machine and cut into desired shapes.

Prawn, Basil and Tomato Linguine Serves 6

200 grams fresh pasta dough rolled G REDIENTS I N and cut into linguine

Tomato Mix

200 g assorted cherry tomatoes 10 g basil, torn basil 3 cloves garlic, sliced 20 g diced butter 4 Tbs olive oil

200 g shelled and deveined prawns 1 onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 5 small lemons, squeezed 20 g fresh basil

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Halve the assorted cherry tomatoes and lay them out on a baking tray. Scatter chopped basil, sliced garlic and diced butter, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Slow roast the tomatoes for approximately 40 minutes or until completely collapsed. Reserve.

2. Bring 6 litres of salted water to a vigorous boil. Add a few drops of olive oil to the water. Blanch the fresh pasta for 3 minutes and refresh in iced water.

3. In a separate pan sweat one finely chopped onion with three cloves of crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Add the prawns to the pan along with the white wine. Cook on moderate heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomato mix to the pan and cook for a further 3-4 minutes. Add fresh basil, squeezed lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

4. Add the blanched pasta to the prawn and tomato mix. Toss through quickly and season again. Serve immediately.