For one Hong Kong couple, an impulse buy on holiday in South Africa leads to their dream home
When Hong Kong-based interior designer Anji Connell and her husband saw this thatched property near Cape Town, they knew they had to have it
When it comes to impulse buys, Hong Kong-based British interior designer Anji Connell is in a different class. Her gotta-have-it moment came in 2016 after a week-long holiday in South Africa, and took the form of this 10-year-old thatched house in Franschhoek, in the Winelands, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town.
“We’d had a fabulous week, tried everything and loved it, and had heard about Franschhoek so we stopped off on our way to the airport,” Connell says. “I was in an art gallery and my husband, Barry, was looking at the window of an estate agent next door. He called me over and asked if I liked this house. We arranged an immediate viewing – we had just 15 minutes before we had to leave to catch the plane. The house was perfect, so we bought it. It was complete madness.”
Several months later, it was a nervous Connell who returned to the house, on a 10,000 sq ft plot, wondering whether it would look as good as they’d remembered. “But we got there and I thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s gorgeous. Phew!’” she says.
The garden is so beautiful – it was the reason we bought the house. It’s well known in the area because the previous owners held open days. I call it my incredibly tiny Versailles
The architecture of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom, single-storey, L-shaped house nods to the area’s Cape Dutch heritage, with high gables, a thatched roof and deep verandas. Inside, whitewashed walls butt against high wooden roof beams and exposed thatch. Small windows and thick walls keep temperatures cool in summer – without the need for air conditioning in the living areas – and warm in winter. Each bedroom overlooks its own perfect piece of garden, with a private stoep (veranda) for the master suite.
“It really isn’t my kind of house at all. I like modern and this is more French country. The previous owners had built several houses but lived in this one,” Connell says. “He was a builder and she was a gardener and had a designer plan the garden.”
Although there was no structural work to be done, Connell quickly set about making her mark, lending a contemporary edge to the rusticity.
“This is the first time I’ve ever had exposed kitchen appliances, not built-in, so I had to hide them [behind a pretty curtain]. But that is about it.”