Today, we’re looking at the out-takes from pages 72 – 81, showing an apartment in the glorious Mutual Heights building in central Cape Town.

Mutual Heights is an Art Deco gem that originally housed the offices [...]]]> It’s a brand new week, and still there’s more to share from the brand new issue of Elle Deco SA!

Today, we’re looking at the out-takes from pages 72 – 81, showing an apartment in the glorious Mutual Heights building in central Cape Town.

Mutual Heights is an Art Deco gem that originally housed the offices of Old Mutual insurance, and after standing empty for a few years, it was renovated for residential apartments.
Now the high ceilings, prismatic windows, grand entrance and old world detailing makes it a landmark address of in the Mother City. (Photos above from the Mutual Heights website)

This apartment is a pied a terre in the city, occasionally rented out to style-seeking visitors. Interior designer Camilla Fraser was commissioned to undertake the aesthetic overhaul.

High volume ceilings and windows meant that blinds and curtains needed special attention, as they take up so much of the visual space.

Deco touches, like this drinks trolley, link the past to the present.

Philippe Starke’s Louis Ghost chairs at the dining room table add a playful touch to the serious air of luxury, as does the laser cut wooden chandelier by Mila.

Drawings of Cape flora by local artist Kurt Pio grace either side of the highly symmetrical central living area.

Production: Lauren Shantall
Photos: Mark Williams

Philippe Starke’s [...]]]> Elle Decoration SA editor, Karen Roos, was recently at the Milan Furniture Fair. On page 13 of Issue 46, Karen has made a selection of her favourites from the Fair. Here’s a bit more about each of these:

Karen enjoyed the natural inspiration evoked by Mann Singh’s silvered brass Kachnar III bowl for Driade .

Philippe Starke’s quilted leather Monseigneur sofa , also for Driade, has front legs of stainless steel, and back legs of dark wood, reducing, as Karen says, “a cumbersome Chesterfield into a reduced, modern marvel”.

Another chair that caught Karen’s eye is the perfectly formed JJ small armchair by Anonio Citterio, manufactured by B&B Italia.

The Sibal table, designed by Carlo Colombo for Cappellini is bigger than it looks, but the elegant chromed legs and chamfered edges of the wood top give it a light-as-air aspect.

And I’ve saved my favourite of Karen’s choices for last: it’s Tom Dixon’s brand new Mirror Ball on Stand. Ball-shaped lights are firmly clamped to a central steel rod, in a sculptural lighting tree standing almost 2m tall! If you ask me, it’s enough to get any party on the go.

More images coming from Issue 56 tomorrow. Keep ‘em peeled!

This weekend house’s exterior is a hybrid of traditional East Coast clapboard beach house [...]]]> Dave Southwood’s pictures that accompany the story about the magnificent beachside Grey House in Salt Rock on pages 82 – 89 are a feast of architectural detail, but here on the blog we have a few more intimate spaces to show you.

This weekend house’s exterior is a hybrid of traditional East Coast clapboard beach house and something a lot more forthright and modern. Reflecting this, Interdeco’s Andrew Irving has put together an interior that is a mix of Durban colonial, and something with a lot more daring and dash.

The client wanted the same palette through the whole house, and so the black, white and chocolate scheme, with outrageous dashes of yellow is followed in all the rooms.

Here are some additional pics from the shoot, showing more of the magical nooks and crannys [...]]]> Have you ever wondered what the inside of a stylist’s house must be like? Well, pages 90 – 97 of the Issue 56 gives us a delicious peek into uber stylist and our Joburg Bureau Chief, Kerstin Eser’s lovely home.

Here are some additional pics from the shoot, showing more of the magical nooks and crannys spotted by photographer Nadette Clare-Talbot chez Kerstin.

Kirten’s house is full of treasures, like her daughter’s first pair of ballet shoes, sweetly displayed in a glass bowl.

This little still-life in one of the kitchen windows demands a moment’s attention. Kerstin has painted this wall in Plascon’s charcoal, to which she added a dash of green, creating a mutable shade that changes in the light.

The top of a hallway cupboard is another opportunity for a still life of ordinary objects to be made extraordinary.

You don’t have a copy yet? Then rush out and get your hands on one, or click here [...]]]> There’s a brand new issue of Elle Decoration on the shelves today, with a big focus on kitchens. My copy is waiting on my rug, with a cup of tea getting cold as I write this post!

You don’t have a copy yet? Then rush out and get your hands on one, or click here to get in touch with us about taking out a subscription. Then keep checking in all week as we show you all the little extras that we didn’t manage to squeeze into our 168 glossy pages.

Watch this space…