Bright delight

In the indoor-outdoor living space at this Bishopscourt, Cape Town home, interior designer Kim Stephen used furniture and accessories to add colour to an otherwise monochrome palette. These pops of colour add a fun touch and balance the strong architectural elements that Kim describes as “Georgian lines with modern edges”. The centre of attention is a collection of multicoloured dining chairs – Eames replicas that Kim bought at Chair Crazy. Stunning!

It’s in the detail

A large wall-hung mirror reflects the garden greenery.

Ottoman coffee table custom made by Changing Spaces

A sofa puzzle

Cheryl Herweg of interior design company Changing Spaces custom made this L-shaped sofa for a client’s home in Blouberg, Cape Town. It’s made up of five individual seats, which can be moved around as needed. Since the walls are neutral, Cheryl decided to brighten up the space by upholstering each section in a different colour. She finished off the look with patterned scatters that pick up on the sofa’s various hues.

It’s in the detail

The fireplace surround clad with quartz from Ceramica Cleopatra adds texture to the neutral walls.

 The bee’s knees!

The children’s bathroom in the Boshoffs’ home in Somerset West was simple with white walls and tiles – but mom Kylie was keen to inject an element of playfulness. She introduced hexagonal hive-like mirrors and pops of yellow in the form of 12 x 12 cm tiles sourced by Not Just Tiles, creating a subtle bee-inspired theme. “It adds happiness and an element of fun to the space,” Kylie says.

As a backdrop…

Stylist and Home contributor Amanda van Wyngaardt initially wanted a full grey focal wall in the double-volume dining room in her Randburg home. “But it ended up looking too gloomy, so I painted the wall white again and decided to paint just one grey stripe for interest and to serve as a backdrop for an art piece,” she says. Amanda used masking tape to demarcate the dimensions and diluted some paint with water to blend the grey from dark to light with a paint roller. She also painted the artwork on the canvas – a charcoal copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine.

Jungle fever

Belinda and Gareth Mountain tackled a quick, affordable makeover in the kids’ and guest bathroom in their Newlands, Cape Town home. The walls and floor were covered with dated grey-and-black tiles but Belinda was keen on a “jungle feel”. She was concerned that going all green might be too dark and after consulting with interior design company Nowadays Interiors, she opted to colour-block the walls using green (Plascon Conifer) and white (Plascon Kitchens & Bathrooms). Belinda painted the lower tiles green after they’d been prepped with Plascon Tile & Melamine Primer and the floor tiles were simply covered with a black-and-white diamond vinyl print from Smart Art.