Issue 54 - National Geographic

Neil Stemmet of Koncept Design and Architecture has built himself an extraordinary beachside home at De Kelders on the Cape south coast. Mark Williams' pics on pages 94 -103 are already quite dizzying, but if you're ready for more, dive right in...

The interior is filled with a lifetime of collections, and also amazing textured surfaces, like the feature wall made of sections of branches.

Striking blocks of colour are a feature of the house. Just look at those amazing kitchen blue tiles and the deep red curtain and sofa in the living room.

My favourite colour statement is those blocks of well-thumbed National Geographic magazines on Neil's curiosity-filled shelves.

Outside, the house has been carefully designed to work with the natural environment, with a low-maintenance indigenous garden, and smart use of recycled and re-used materials wherever possible.

Along the sea-facing side of the house, a canal runs the length, cooling the house and bouncing reflections onto the interior walls.

The good news is theres still more to come from the marvellously Issue 54 before the week is up, so check in again soon.

PS: Neil also has a beautiful apartment right in the centre of Cape Town. Check it out here.

Top Tip - book colour

Neil Stemmet's use of the vibrant colour of National Geographics (see previous post) is such a simple and effective way to use a bookshelf as more than just a support structure.

A quick whip around the Web found me another example, this time from the Flickr page of dcfox...

...and this let me to hunt down a couple more clever ways to use books in your decor.

Happy Mundane posted about using the gold leaved pages of a book as decoration - something he spotted in an issue of Elle Decor last year.

His post about facing spines in rather than out attracted quite a lot of comment, so check it out, and see what you think.

And, of course, everyone's arranging their books according to the colours of rainbow these days. Here's the freshly-hued bookshelf of OneGoodBumblebee...

... and this is in the house of Chotda.
I imagine there's some smart lighting going on here, to make those colours stand out so brightly.

The pic below is not really decor, but it's so pretty, I just couldn't resist. Marcus Ramberg took a pic of the shelves of a printing company, where you can choose the colour of your book cover before printing.

There are heaps more of these at the Rainbow Bookshelf Flickr group, as well as an inspiring article on the subject at Colourlovers. I just wish we'd used this system when I was a school librarian - so much more fun than that pesky Dewey method.

Time out

Also spotted in Chris Tate's house (see below) was this Karlsson Mixed Numbers Wall clock.

It's available in red, black and silver too. And if you have some time on your hands, take a minute to check out all the other great Karlsson clocks right here.

Issue 54 - Trunk Call

Our cover story this month is about Chris Tate's amazing glass box house deep in the dense New Zealand rain forest.The house has no driveway access, with just a slim timber staircase snaking down into the forest ravine to reach the deck.


Inside, the house is all clean lines and a simple palette of black and white, broken by vibrant dashes of lime green.


Love the green Leaf chairs by Lievore Altherr Molina for Arper, and the slatted timber Glide chaise by David Trubridge.

Find out more about this house that manages to marry style and sensitivity to the environment so well by visiting Chris Tate's website.

Giveaway - Homemakers Expo

The second annual Garden Route Homemakers Expo is on from 3 - 6 April, showcasing the latest trends in home improvement and home enhancement.


This year’s event will be held in George, and 20 lucky Deco readers have the chance to win a set of 20 double tickets , by just emailing us at elledeco@elledecomag.co.za. Quick, it's almost April already!

For more information on the Expo, visit the Homemakers Expo website.

Issue 54 - As it is in Heaven

The story about trekking in the Himalayas on pages 146 - 150 of the latest issue of Elle Deco SA will to stir the wanderlust of even the most committed couch potato. Here are more of Ruan Benade's photos of magical Nepal to get those itchy feet of yours all a-twitch.

Read more about how to go about organising your own trekking trip on page 150 of Issue 54, and see more of Ruan Benade's photographs at his Flickr page.

Issue 54 - House of Spirit

If you have the latest issue of Elle Decoration SA, I'm sure you were enchanted as I was by the beautiful home of Cape Town architect, Victoria Perry on pages 104 - 111.

Victoria's Sea Point cottage was so charming that our photographer Mickey Hoyle couldn't stop snapping away! We ran out of pages in the magazine, but have lots more dreamy pics to show you here.

Victoria's Isamu Noguchi coffee table takes centre stage in the living room, and she displays books and treasures on the concrete plinth that also doubles as additional seating.

In the magazine, you'll see that Victoria has her own swing in the garden, and this element of girly fun is evident in her bedroom too, where she has an adorable collection of quirky softies.

I'm sure I can spot one or too Woo-men amongst them.

A confessed ceramics nut, Victoria has a wonderful collection, including handpainted tiles and retro treasures.

You can spot a bit of Signal Hill from the balcony, which is a great place to unwind on a balmy Cape Town day.

What a beautiful home. I hope it gives you lots of inspiration for yours too. It's important to dream, after all...

Jan van Mol

Thanks so much to Jan van Mol of Addict Lab for guest blogging for us all week.

His Open Lab 2.0 event closes on 10 April, and interested readers can email him for more information at jan@addictlab.com.

Read more about Jan and his work on page 70 of issue 54 of Elle Decoration SA.

Holland, South Africa, Belgium.

I wanted to share three concepts from three different countries - Holland, South Africa, and Belgium - all on show at Open Lab 2.0 currently on in the Design Quarter.

Holland.
This is Peter Van Riet's Sit'n Read from my previous post, but in Tord Boontje's funky colours.

South Africa.
Haldane Martin's newest couch came straight from the Joburg Art Fair to Open Lab 2.0. Respect. To be honest, I would recommend the people from Design Quarter to buy this couch, as it works perfectly in that architectural surrounding.


Belgium.
Urban forest is a light installation aiming to bring back nature into our cities, or at least respect for nature. This is a concept that I wanted to show in a commercial environment like Design Quarter.

Urban Forest consists of objects shaped like irregular tree trunks, made from recycled plastic. It criticizes our consumption attitude, using waste to start reflecting on our human behaviour. The built-in LED lights can change colour depending the atmosphere, the soundscapes, the seasons or other emotions linked to the location of the forest or the reason for gathering. The forest therefore can be silent and contemplative, or assertive and loud.

The inside can also be used as drinks cooler, turning the light objects into a lounge accessory. The art installation becomes a guerilla tool or a design object, to be used at outdoor events in cities and forests, but always creating reflection and respect for our surrounding. Material: recycled plastic, LED spots, ice, cool drinks

(The Urban forest shown here is a prototype in perspex. It looked better with the ice and the beer. But for some reason the cold beers have gone...)

In tempore non suspecto

The MAX5000W candle holder is an interesting concept from Kathi Stertzig and Albio Nascimento, as part of their DESIGNFORFUTURE project, also published about in my Ad!dict 'World 2.0'.

DESIGNFORFUTURE is an annual exhibition focussed on design projects that contemplate environmental and social impact in their stages of development and through their usage. Eco-efficient design is not defining itself through ecomaterials, or efficient production only, but also through understanding and reflecting on common ways of using our objects, which is what this design does so humorously.

Although it wasn't created with the South African power issues in mind, I must admit that MAX5000W could be a great solution for Eskom, no?

Take a look at Kathi Sterzig's Labfile on Addictlab.