Project beach house by Ruan Steenkamp
Ruan is our interior designer at our Pretoria showroom, and recently completed a very large and exciting project in Jongensfontein.
I was blown away by the result, so I asked Ruan to walk me through the process of how he, in close collaboration with his client, created this space together.
This home in the coastal town Jongensfontein, was an incredible project to work on.
The client and her family bought this beautiful house close to Hermanus as a holiday home. They wanted to create a relaxing space where the whole family can escape from their high pressure jobs and busy lives.
The goal was to create a toned down, but still exciting, colour palette. That’s why all the colours and fabrics were chosen with comfort in mind.
The main lounge:
The lounge is the heart of the home and forms part of an open plan living area. We chose the comfortable Swellendam couch in Hertex Giza fabric and paired it with one of Incanda’s most popular products – the Clarens chair – and Caledon couch.
This room serves all the family’s needs. Besides being practical and user-friendly, it’s in line with the main goal for the house – comfort.
The kitchen:
The client chose all the wood and tile finishes in the kitchen. When I saw the renderings for the kitchen I thought the only thing I can do to add to this incredible design is to try and complement what’s already there. That’s why I thought the Sahara kitchen stool was the best option. It’s almost like drawing a picture and then taking a fine liner to just exaggerate or accentuate the image. That is what I feel the Sahara kitchen stool does here.
The downstairs TV lounge:
The brief for this room was to create a multi-purpose space that can be used by adults and kids alike and that serves as an extra sleeping area. It had to be a room that could ‘wear’ different hats on different occasions. The client already had this classic antique cabinet that she upcycled and painted herself as a feature. She was also quite set on the wallpaper, which is another strong feature here. Again, I didn’t want to take anything away from the look she had already created, only to complement it.
I usually prefer not making any single thing the main feature in a room. To achieve optimal balance, or well-balanced symmetry in a room, I believe every element should complement the others. Here we placed a 2m Square Arms sleeper couch in leather which is very practical. I feel the leather also helps balance out the colours in the room.
The Clarens chair was added to support the other elements. Here we decided on blackwood frames. The blackwood ties in nicely with the tan leather while the fabric used on the chairs almost blends in with the rest of the room. The small arm caps on the couch adds to the practicality of the space.
Main bedroom:
The client wanted to create a very relaxing sleeping area. Even though the entire home is already filled with relaxation areas and well-balanced, comfortable furniture pieces, the main bedroom had to be quite an intimate space.
We wanted to create a little cosy corner in the room, and since the client is obsessed with the Clarens chair, that’s what we went for. The client also loves Incanda’s Oryx Butterscotch leather. While the rest of the room’s colour palette is quite clean, almost cold in colour tone, we wanted to warm it up a bit and add some depth. The Clarens chairs in Oryx Butterscotch, which has a lovely natural texture to it, helps to achieve this. The same goes for the headboard in Oryx Butterscotch. It also helps to create a sense of continuity in the room. Combined with the lovely fireplace in the bedroom, I think we succeeded in creating the intimate space the client wanted.
The foyer:
The pendants hanging from the ceiling is a great illustrations of how small touches of texture and natural tones can help to warm up these seaside homes that often have cold and monotone colour schemes.
They really help to create an inviting feeling, which again ties in with the main goal for the whole house – to be the ultimate relaxing space. When this family decides to leave the city, this is a home where they can completely unwind.
Lastly, but definitely not least, the use of similar textured pendants, scatters, throws and baskets throughout the house are all meant to serve as relatively inexpensive elements that can easily be updated over time.
This way the family won’t have to spend too much money on keeping their home on trend. Small changes in décor or colour will do the trick.
It was such a pleasure to work in this project as the client had a natural instinct for interior design. This home was one of four coastal homes I recently completed and the clients brief allowed for such an unique and different result.
The combination of natural African textures with modern colour ranges was very refreshing.
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