KIM H NIEU FRESNAYE HOME: SANDTON BY THE SEA
Between Lion’s Head and the deep blue of The Atlantic is where a Joburg family have chosen to make their place at the sea.
For Kim H.Nieu, the design team behind this work of art, the brief was to turn this four storey home into something more rustic, a beach getaway for the family of five.
To achieve a rustic feel, the team paid close attention to detail through the use of natural textures throughout the home, from the grass lanterns to the bamboo chairs. An interesting touch has to be the carefully selected wooden surfboard displayed to frame the breathtaking ocean views.
When done as well as this, attention to detail has the effect of evoking an atmosphere rather than focusing the eye on specifics. And the atmosphere in this Fresnaye home is by far a calming one. In this home, no detail was overlooked.
“With this being Fresnaye and built against the hill, yard space is not a luxury you have,” explains Ehrardt Nieuwoudt, Managing Director at Kim H.Nieu, “you have to make the most out of every outdoor area you have.”
And in this case, the team decided to create a transition from the inside to the outside through the use of soft furnishings. The key feature outside has to be the dupe coffee table made from different columns of solid wood, sticking to the natural textures used throughout the home.
A plunge pool was essential given the home’s distance from the beach, with a rustic, hammock-like daybed to soak in the glory. And if the weather turns, they’ve got you covered.
“When you’ve got a multi-level house like this and there’s a massive amount of storage space at the bottom, it only makes sense to give it a function and in this case, we turned it into a home cinema,” he says.
Fall asleep during the movie and you’re practically in bed but if you can make the effort to get back up to your top-floor suite, waking up here in the morning is heavenly.
The bedrooms of the home have all been designed to be sea-facing, giving you the opportunity to start and end your day with the beautiful view of the ocean. Then there’s a whole other kind of holiday you can have, by walking out the back door.
“The main bedroom has this little hidden gem of a balcony at the back which is one of the only two spots in the home where you can see Lion’s head from,” says Ehrardt. While the whole house has been designed to focus on the ocean view, this balcony has given the owners an opportunity to take in the mountain.
Needing some outsized charisma to fill the stairwell, Che Guevara more than answered the call – as have the entire design team.
Achieving such a natural seaside feel in the midst of this ocean of glass, rock and steel is a job we’d be just as proud of.
