This covetable mid-century home has been sensitively renovated and is now the centre of a family’s life as well as a unique showcase of 20th-century design.
As one approaches the front of the house, its Bauhaus-inspired lines are very evident. A pair of tree aloes stands out graphically against the white-painted exterior of the house and, with the other greenery, sets off the terracotta paving.
This very feminine sitting room is situated adjacent to Laureen’s en suite bedroom, and is furnished with a round table and Josef Hoffman chairs that were sourced from the now-defunct Wynberg Antique Shop. The rattan ceiling fan is from Newport Lighting and the fluted copper wall sconce is by Ernst Eloff and was sourced from Liam Mooney, Laureen designed the rug herself.
The kitchen area as seen from the garden. Laureen and Renée created the double-volume kitchen space – which incorporates areas for dining and lounging – by removing the small bedroom that had occupied the first floor above it.
In an open-plan format, the dining room connects with both the main living room and the kitchen, and opens to a patio and the garden beyond via double-volume, steel-framed windows that were custom made by Jambmax. The large porthole window was added during the renovation. “I wanted to put a big circular window in to emphasise the special round shapes that the house already had,” says architect Renée Rossouw. The green glass table top is by Architectural Glass Design and the brass table base by Alexander Abrizzi.
Laureen and Renée removed the old kitchen ceiling to create a dramatic, double-volume space that opens onto the garden beyond and incorporates a petite dining and living area too. The floor is finished in custom-made tiles by Moroccan Warehouse, which works very well as a complement to the original wall tiles. Open shelving allows Laureen to display a variety of kitchenware pieces collected over the years including wooden spoons, glassware and vintage crockery.
