10 minute read
TESSA PROUDFOOT
t e s s a P R O U D F O O T
By playing with scale, era-hopping and finding fresh partnerships, this Joburg heritage home has been coaxed into the here and now, living its next chapter with an air of easy sophistication
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TEXT MILA CREWE-BROWN PHOTOGRAPHS AND STYLING KARL ROGERS/VIGNETTE
OFFSETTING LIGHT AND DARK SHADES AGAINST A CONSIDERED MIX OF TEXTURES INVIGORATES THE NEUTRAL PALETTE
OPPOSITE PAGE
THICK IVORY LINENS, ANGLO-INDIAN RATTAN ARMCHAIRS AND POTTED PALMS ESTABLISH CALM IN THE LIVING AREA
INSPIRED BY 19TH-CENTURY WOODCUTS, A REBEL WALLS WALLPAPER FROM ST LEGER & VINEY WRAPS THIS ROOM, LENDING THE EXPANSIVE SPACE INTIMACY AND DEPTH. AN ANTIQUE ARMOIRE FROM THE CROWN COLLECTION ANCHORS THE ROOM WITH A VOLUME CONTRASTED BY THE DELICATE LINES OF THE RATTAN TABLE AND CHAIRS
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To successfully translate the story of a home with one foot in the past and one in the present is a delicate business. If you succeed, it is like authoring a book whose beginning was written in a distinctly different era and crafting an ending for today that is not only coherent but also captivating.With roughly a hundred years from the beginning of its story to now, this gracefulWestcliff home is a best-seller.
Designed and later altered by architectural greats Francis Fleming and PhilipWatermeyer respectively and set in one of Joburg ’ s most sought-after hilltop suburbs, giants of trees and an immense garden equate to rare peace. It was these traits, coupled with its generous scale and hard-to-replicate architectural details, that sold the owners, who ‘ viewed’ and bought the property from some 9 000 kilometres away. Living and working between SouthAfrica and the UK, they wanted a home that would offer a sense of belonging, a base to welcome both husband and wife, and their three children, who often visit from England.
Despite it being dark and stuffy, plied with thick carpeting and awash in a palette of pea green and yolky yellow, the house telegraphed the potential for a new story to be written.Tasked with editing the old and incorporating the new, interior designerTessa Proudfoot worked long distance with the homeowners to bring her signature sense of elegant ease to the scene.
To do it justice, the space needed to be stripped back, invigorated and given context.The latter was two-fold: calling for a relationship with the time in which it finds itself, but also the place. ‘Interiors do not translate very well between countries, ’ as the homeowner discovered.With her style rooted in a traditionally English aesthetic, all furniture, art and objets needed to be calibrated to SouthAfrica and its visual cues.
That meant switching her green velvet cushions and floral print sofas for a more dialled-down mood board of natural finishes and luxuriously laid-back textiles in earthy shades from tobacco to mustard.Tessa uses textiles as a core means to set a mood in her projects; having collaborated with St Leger &Viney on two of her collections, she has a passion for quality fabrics, layering them adeptly and also using them to bring an element of contrast.
It was also her flair for orchestrating ‘just the right arrangement of things to bring an interior and its story together ’ , that appealed to the homeowners.This knack for matchmaking and juxtapositions is evident throughout the home, where you might spot a midcenturystyle lamp or honed granite side table keeping company with a rattan daybed or an antique chest of drawers.
In the living room, a pair of all-white sofas frames a commanding 18th-century Dutch armoire, and a custom wallpaper depicting a mythical forest scene wraps all four walls.Throughout, the owners ’ ample collection of French and Swedish antiques has been coupled withAnglo-Indian colonial pieces, ‘lightening the interior and lending it a SouthAfrican undercurrent without it being overtly African, ’Tessa explains.
Looking around the five-bedroom heritage house today, you would never know there was any threat of a style stand-off. If anything, it is a lesson in how to marry designs and elements of contrasting origins, even contrasting eras. Here is a home that is as grand as it is livable, both curated and comfortable, European and African, where antiques, fine art and luxury fabrics come together with an air of nonchalance and are afforded room to breathe among now crisp white walls.
Tessa Proudfoot &Associates tessaproudfoot.co.za
TESSA PROUDFOOT & ASSOCIATES ‘PETITE’ DINING CHAIRS UPHOLSTERED IN A NICHOLAS HASLAM FABRIC COMPLEMENT A BESPOKE CHANDELIER BY HIGH THORN
WICKER ARMCHAIRS FROM THE PRIVATE HOUSE COMPANY COMPLEMENT SOFAS FROM THE TESSA PROUDFOOT SOFA COLLECTION UPHOLSTERED IN MAVROMAC & GATEHOUSE ‘CLUNCH’ CLOTH
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT THE MAIN BATHROOM FEATURES HAND-CUT CARRARA MARBLE FLOOR TILES AND FITTINGS FROM VICTORIAN BATHROOMS; IN THE LIGHT-FILLED BREAKFAST ROOM, AN EERO SAARINEN ‘TULIP’ TABLE IS PAIRED WITH CANE CHAIRS;
THE KITCHEN FEATURES CAESARSTONE TOPS AND CABINETS IN HIGH-GLOSS DUCO; AN ELEGANT PATTERNON-PATTERN STATEMENT IN THIS BEDROOM FEATURING WHITEMAN & MELLOR ‘BATAVIA’ LINEN IN WHITE FROM PEZULA INTERIORS
EIJFFINGER ‘SKIN TEXTURED ZEBRA STRIPES’ WALLPAPER, POR,
DREAMWEAVER STUDIO
‘VERANDA’ CHAIR, POR, CLASSIC REVIVALS
NGUNI COWHIDE RUG IN BROWN AND PALE WHITE, R7 290,
DESIGNSTORE.CO.ZA
‘ALI’ GLASS VASE, FROM R3 400,
LA GRANGE INTERIORS
‘EDEN’ CUSHION, FROM R495, WEYLANDTS
‘SALZA’ BENCH IN NATURAL TEAK WITH NATURAL LEATHER, R6 900, CÉCILE & BOYD
Resources
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