Zebra-print carpets from South Africa form a foundation for designer pieces from Europe, creating a dynamic interplay of colour, pattern and texture in this French family-owned Cape Town home.

After looking at a number of palatial South African houses featuring multiple living rooms and kitchens, a French family of six happened, aptly, upon a Provençal-styled home. Not only did it have a European layout and the requisite number of living rooms and kitchens (one, respectively), it was near the schools in which they planned to enrol their children. And when you’ve got four children at three schools, proximity is integral. 

“It was a very big decision,” says the matriarch of the family, of her husband’s decision to sell his company and transfer their children. “We didn’t want to make a mistake.”

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In a subsequent whirlwind trip to Cape Town, they met with the builder and interior designer — then jetted back to Brussels, where they were living at the time. And apart from one more trip at the start of the revamp and a check-up three months later, they proceeded to do the four-month decorating job via calls, weekly Skype sessions and emails. 

The couple found the interior designer, Andrea Graff, on the Internet. Andrea is one of South Africa’s top designers, known for her irreverent colour, texture and graphic pattern mash-ups. “We had four months to totally strip this home, redo seven bathrooms, redo the entire interior of the homer she says. “Everything was planned meticulously before and we had the most unbelievable builder, Paul Wolpert.”

The time restriction was mitigated by an instant rapport between the owners and Andrea — a job that she describes as “a total joint venture”. “She’s possibly been the client that I’ve wished for my entire career,” Andrea says. “She just got me. We did so many daring things. It was just a dream come true.”  

For the couple, whose last house was a study in white, grey and black, they wanted “an easy-living house” – one that was practical for a large family. Even though this was the fifth house they’d redone, including one in the bush in the north of South Africa, it was the first in an outdoorsy lifestyle place like Cape Town. “It was the first time that we had a house under the sun so we wanted a colourful house, a fun house. We chose Andy because we wanted colourful things and Andy is colourful,” says the patriarch of the family. 

Pick a pattern: The swan chairs are a vintage find of Andrea’s. In the younger daughter’s bedroom, the wall colour was matched to the colour of one of her mother’s handbags. An iridescent dragon fabric silk bed cover by Jean Paul Gaultier covers the guest bed , and the master bedroom floor is clad entirely in Norwegian rose marble.

There are teal blue walls and carpets in the living area, bright yellow walls in the guest room, bright lime-green walls in the boys’ bathroom, and a variety of black and white fabrics and tiles – creating a kaleidoscope of pattern and animal print. “There is a continuity,” Andrea says. “I love colour – there’s always colour. There are always things that don’t match – but match. It’s about mixing and layering, and not making it obvious and predictable.”

The owners wanted to bring all of their furniture and art from Europe but put none of it in the same place. These pieces were supplemented with local art and fabrics plus finds from Andrea’s stock of vintage and auction buys.  

“In South Africa, our standard of upholstery, craftsmanship and selection of fitted furniture is completely on par with overseas standards, if not better. But to find the bamboo sideboard or the Lalique lamp or the old Maison Jansen table, we don’t have it here. And if the odd person brings it here, it gets snapped up so, for me, the opportunity to source and find things was just amazing.”  

Originally from the north of France, the couple had visited Cape Town on holiday for 20 years. Having lived in England, Spain, Asia and the United States, and most recently in Belgium for seven years, they wanted to give their four children the same international experience.  

“One day, we just decided that we should move here for a better quality of life,” he says. “I used to have a big job working all day and all night, all week long, and now I’m breathing a little bit here. So now it’s different for me, and also for the family, because I see them every day. The balance between your job and your personal life is much better. Here, people stop working at 5/6pm, whereas in France people stop working at 8/8:30pm. Here, it’s very sporty and everything’s outdoors, with the sea, the mountain, the vineyards. You have 300 sunny days in a year. In northern France, we have about 300 days of rain.”  

“The sky there is just above your head,” she adds. “Paris is a beautiful city, but we’ve never lived in a beautiful country, and South Africa is a beautiful country. Everything is beautiful.” 

In living colour: The guest suite features a custom-made headboard upholstered in Christian Lacroix fabric, vintage bamboo chairs and a Nguni skin on the floor. Above (left), the family dog, Happy, sits in the vintage bamboo rocking chair. Above (right), the outside area offers plenty of space for entertaining in Cape Town’s Mediterranean climate. “It was very easy for us to imagine our lives here,” says the couple.

Animal instinct: In the master bedroom, the custom-made sideboard is by Tonic in Johannesburg and the standing lamp by Serge Mouille. Hand-printed zebra carpets, custom made by Rowley & Hughes, are in all the bedrooms. “Animal skin is one of my obsessions,” says Andrea.

By: Dominique Herman
Photography by: Greg Cox, Supplied
Text courtesy of Livingspace magazine 

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