Real Life Fantasy

Two deck chairs arranged on the roof terrace of a house in Cape Town, South Africa, is spoiled for views of the extraordinary Table Mountain in the distance

Behind the quite ordinary facade of a typical Bo-Kaap cottage in Cape Town, you will find a world of contrast, imagination and luxury brought to life. The space is extremely diverse, touching on everything from the outrageous to the dark, and at every step there is something for a visitor to feast their eyes on

Photographs by Fritz Von Der Schulenburg

A patio has been constructed from a rocky outcrop to take advantage of a natural water feature and a rustic armchair is placed among the ferns

Antiques dealer and interior designer Keith Skeel’s South African holiday home is full of exuberance and feels truly alive - as you might expect from someone in the business of sourcing unusual items from history and making rooms look theatrical.

Behind the quite ordinary façade of a typical Bo-Kaap cottage in Cape Town you will find a world of contrast, of imagination and luxury brought to life. The space is extremely diverse, touching on everything from the outrageous to the dark, and at every step there is something for a visitor to feast their eyes on.

‘This house was a wreck when I moved in,’ Keith explains. ‘I think four families were living here.’ It’s all a far cry from the décor today. In the entrance hall, there are items to get you questioning and smiling. A hippopotamus’ jawbone hangs from one wall, setting a mischievous tone for the house.

Structurally too, the home was reconfigured for Keith’s idiosyncratic tastes and desires. He sank a garden right through the Antique, with rooms opening off at different levels, and with terraces and trailing plants. The internal courtyard with its three-story rock wall is in fact made of artificial rock, with water trickling down its side.

The flat roof of the house is now a garden overlooking the harbor; to the west lies Table Mountain. Keith knew when he first arrived in Cape Town in the 1990s that this astonishing natural wonder would form some sort of backdrop to where he lived. Ever theatrical, he saw drama in the rock, like something from a dream. His mother was born in South Africa, but Keith grew up in a London suburb, which quite possibly lead to his lifelong fight against dreariness. ‘I hate ugliness. Beautiful things don’t have to be expensive - fresh flowers, bits of junk done up, driftwood, perfect linen sheets,’ he confesses.

Keith started ‘redecorating’ as a child. He removed the legs from kitchen cabinets and cut the ends off beds when his mother was out shopping. It seems even from infancy he has had definite ideas of how he wants things to look. He says that today, people who pay him to work on their houses value his eye. He thinks they don’t want to be considered as having bad taste. ‘They’re successful in business, are captains of industry and so on, but they worry that their houses will not be up to scratch…’ he says.

This keen eye brings the sense of drama to Keith’s own home. Inside you can find old French shop fittings, a collection of marble busts, bits of statuary, suits of armour, Victorian wheelbarrows and bicycles, garnitures of pewter, giant shells and varnished tree roots veined with burnished gold, to rooms papered entirely with maps. The designer confesses to a love of wood and natural forms, with many types dotted around the home. The floor is made of railway sleepers that have been sliced into boards.

However, this is not some heavily clichéd home. There are brave, bold statements everywhere, as you might expect. There are also those artificial rocks, old tree trunks, outrageous Gaudiesque plastering and floors made from shards of china. It feels at times like a film set, in fact. Rather than pile on the colour, Keith has let the texture speak for itself throughout the home, combining softly grained wood with stone, pewter and old fabrics, such as a Napoleonic quilt in a palette of rich, dark shades. The house is functional too however. Keith throws his dressing gown over an old statue in the bathroom, but the showerhead is state of the art. Kitchens are workable, although machinery may be hidden behind antique panelling.

In this dining room an antique plate rack and massive refectory table dominate the room which is, again, abundant in wooden furnishings and flooring

Keith recently decided to open a small shop in Beccles called Eccentricities, and within a few months had also opened his Distinctive Interiors store. He concludes by admitting he has a motto for his homes and work. ‘Never be afraid to like something,’ he says. ‘If you don’t want to play it safe and you like a bit of fantasy, I’m your bloke.’