5 minute read
Organic Chemistry
A coastal home decorated by two close friends finds its refreshingly cliché-free feel through a craft-inspired aesthetic, one-off finds and colourful artwork. Julia Freemantle discovers…
Advertisement
A HOLIDAY home poses a very particular challenge to a designer – it must be all things to all people. An oasis of calm, a beacon of fun, a showcase for signature style – it needs to tick all the boxes, but not at the expense of any single one.
This kind of task needs a cohesive team and a clear vision, and this particular beach house in Plettenberg Bay – one of the most popular and sought-after spots on South Africa’s Garden Route coastal stretch, and an idyllic holidaymakers town – had both, as well as benefitting from the fact that the pair in question are longtime friends.
A lot of thought went into creating spaces for everyone – from a study to escape to when the house is noisy and a pool room for the owners’ teenage sons to spend time with their friends, to generous bedrooms that could convert easily to accommodate friends and family – a key element of successful holiday living.
Designer Kim Stephen, who now lives and works in London, and owner Anthea Newbury set out on what would become a two-year adventure, travelling together and sourcing around the country – Cape Town, Johannesburg and Plettenberg Bay – picking up pieces that fit their vision organically as they found them.
Anthea and her husband Anton had already narrowed down what they wanted to something that could be nutshelled as ‘boho/eclectic’ and they needed someone to bring it to life when they brought Kim on board.
“They had already started building the home and had a clear idea of what they were looking for. We’ve been close friends for many years, so I felt I could do justice to their lifestyle, but I was also excited to leave my own aesthetic behind and go along on the journey of realising their creative vision,” says Kim.
This included steering clear of coastal clichés. “We did not want a typical ‘beach house’ – you know, blue and white with whitewashed wood. Nothing ‘shabby chic’,” Anthea cringes. “And yet, we also didn’t want ultra-modern, balanced, or set décor, but rather an almost unplanned, throwntogether feel.”
So somewhere in the middle, they set out to find the sweet spot, sophisticated but relaxed. “While it is a family home – our boys are in their late teens – we could afford to up the glamour factor a bit and were very aware of comfort without compromising on style,” explains Anthea.
Loosely inspired by destinations like the Medi - terranean in general, and Ibiza in particular, the idea was to fill the space with interesting finds and oddities, and beautiful artwork, against the backdrop of a strong white and natural palette, to create a curated and collected feel.
Anthea’s vision from the beginning was interesting, layered and offbeat. Not too balanced, nor too ‘decorated’. Colour too, needed a bit of compromise. “I like a lot of it, my husband less so, so we had to find a happy medium,” she explains.
Kim is known for her jewel-box use of colour, so between the three of them, a clever and democratic approach needed to be found. As a result, most of it is seen in the artwork – where the rest of the décor has a breezy white base with blue and black accents, the pieces pop in kaleidoscopic colour – a smart and sophisticated solution that creates a thread out of the art that runs throughout the house and highlights it as a feature.
“One of our greatest passions is collecting art,” agrees Anthea. And though the selection might appear unexpected, the pieces, which range from oils to installations, were carefully selected to enhance each space – either by adding colour, or by throwing off the balance in a room.
Something they all agreed on, however, was that rustic was a swearword and stereotypes were out. That said, they did want to draw on the location as inspiration – something the property as a whole does [the garden was planned as an extension of the dune, using coastal planting to create a continuum]. So natural textures were inevitable in order to create a home comfortable in its surroundings, and the décor scheme features wood, raffia and basketry prominently.
Kim and Anthea were each other’s monitors here, and put each other right if either strayed slightly off, or too far into beach-house territory, always pulling it back to the boho brief, a complementary partnership that kept the house on point.
“We were each other’s counterpoints – I sometimes tempered Anthea’s wilder ideas, but she also stretched my creativity, as this house is non-conformist in many ways,” comments Kim. Her approach that a cocooning base needs to balance high drama was perfectly in sync with the family’s need for easy elegance – playful, but perfectly appointed.
PHOTOS: WARREN HEATH
STYLING: SVEN ALBERDING
