Last week we celebrated the launch of Poltrona Frau's flagship store in Cape Town. And we had reason to celebrate. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of this iconic luxury brand. Coming from solid Italian origins with an...

Save the date for our Design Banquet at Toffie Pop Culture Festival on Saturday 31 March. Amsterdam-based designer Hannes Bernard and his team from the Sandberg Instituut (Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam) will be curating and hosting a...

We ventured into our neighbouring Company Gardens for a delightful and unusual expedition with two deliciously green chairs from Raw Studios. Here are some of our encounters in the leafy green garden... Din+ is the latest addition to the RAW product range and was developed as a cost effective extension to their office systems. Solid, sturdy and beautiful in its simplicity, these chairs are a playful fit for any interior, or exterior. Eight apple green Din+ chairs were exclusively produced for our Design Indaba Expo stand, made to compliment our tangerine tango typographic installation. WIN two of these chairs by commenting below or tweeting about this post. The six other Elle Decoration /Raw Studio chairs can be purchased from The Object House in Woodstock at a reduced price of R999 each. Contact Andre James at object@1hoh.co.za or on +27 21 447 6670, or visit www.rawstudios.co.za ------------------------------------------- *Photographs: Charl Edwards

You've just entered South Africa's coolest, craziest and mad office. It's the new headquarters for Missing Link, a Joburg-based presentation strategy company. Missing Link describes its office as a riot of colour and carefully orchestrated chaos...

Ever window-shopped from a car? That's exactly what we did on our way to Sabi Sands for a safari shoot and travel feature. With only a few hours to spend on our impromptu stop-over in Joburg, we produced two shoots and squeezed...

Get ready for another Cape Town City Hall invasion with the third Toffie Pop Culture Festival and Conference taking place from Friday 30 March to Sunday 1 April. Toffie Pop is a three-day creative mash-up of contemporary popular culture,...

This weekend we're exploring our local hoods in Durban, Joburg and Cape Town. First up is DECO's Marketing Assistant Kyllie Hogg, our Durban girl, who's spending her weekend in Cape Town, but wishing she was in fact in her home town...

Durban's own I Heart Market is celebrating its 3rd birthday tomorrow night with its I Heart Cake party and the launch of a poster exhibition – a display of all the market posters designed by Dominic Strauss. This exhibition will...

Five strangers, six days, and a very tiny space. That's the starting point for IKEA's unique activation in the Paris Metro. IKEA recently installed a pop-up apartment in the underground Paris Metro, giving passersby the voyeuristic...

Two years, 500 portraits and 6000 kilometers later, and the Bicycle Portraits Project has finally reached its completion. Photographers Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler have published their two-year journey in a three-part book – officially...

Feast on this! We've taken two ice cream inspired accessories for a stroll on the promenade – with some hilarious results! We also list our flavour of the day – by the coolest new ice creamery in town. PURE INDULGENCE...

Take a look at our current Summer Issue of Elle Decoration, and you'll notice it's filled with homes in beautiful and unusual settings – great escapes, and outdoor living at its best! It's an obvious giveaway of our...

Tatler Magazine has just named Babylonstoren as one of their top hotels for 2012, calling it 'the most delicious new opening of the year'. 'Nowhere else in the Cape Winelands do the worlds of contemporary and historical...

Make sure you pop in at Mr & Mrs the next time you head up Kloof Street in Cape Town (look out for the signature blue and gold facade). Tucked away on the corner of Kloof and De Lorentz Streets, this tiny MUST-visit boutique...

Inspired by Table Mountain's recent naming as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature, and Cape Town being named World Design Capital 2014, we set out exploring Table Mountain to look for inspiration in the form of colour. And what...

ELLE Decoration attended the launch of The Tasting Room and The Kitchen on Maison Estate, the Franschhoek family vineyard of designer furniture retailer Chris Weylandt. What caught our eye, and still has the DECO office talking, is...

Tokara Wine Estate in Stellenbosch invited us to celebrate the first birthday of their 'new' restaurant and taste Executive Chef Richard Carstens' fine four course cuisine, matched with Tokara's award-wining wines...

Remember Joburg artist Kudzanai Chiurai from our 2011 Urban Issue? ELLE's Cheska Liackman popped over to his Jeppestown loft apartment to chat to him about his work, life and his State of the Nation solo exhibition opening tomorrow...

We suggest you pop in at Church gift shop to see their fantastical new shop front window. It's been plastered with thousands of stickers, forming a shiny window wallpaper display. We witnessed quite a few passersby stopping, and...

We popped into Crema Design last week Friday to welcome the arrival of the new MOOOI products and meet up with new owner Craig Raeside. Stocking some of the hottest international brands like Tom Dixon, Foscarini, Droog and Moooi,...

For the sharpest style in Joburg, head over to hotspot Loom, a newly opened menswear store in Parkhurst. We just can't get enough of the hot colour palette and designer cool details. Created and co-owned by the guys who brought...

For those of you who missed out, we've rounded up some of the hottest installation designs from recent London Design Festival. Brand consultant Lize Theron, DECO's London correspondent, paid these sights a visit. Here are...

Mother’s Day is upon us, and let’s be serious…there will be flowers involved. Don’t do the usual this year, think laterally and give your mum flowers with a difference... Here are a few ideas: Stick them to...

Our DECORATING issue (now on shelf) showcases various deliciously dark and delicious food. Exploring this a little further, we have compiled a list of dark foods to tantalize your taste buds.This is not just a trend; dark fruits, veggies...

utral and natural colour palette is a major trend for 2013. In no way dull, neutrals are evocative and reminiscent of nature. It is about going back to basics, removing unnecessary elements to get to the raw essentials. As described by...

We all know Pantone chose Emerald green as their colour of the year but chosen by the world’s foremost creative designers, architectures and fashion experts from all over the world, was the moody hue of indigo. A rich, intense shade...

  Featured throughout THE DECORATING ISSUE  (now on shelf ) white takes on a new stance. A very warm one.  Traditionally associated with a cool, pure look, we discover how white can inject cosiness. Also the colour of...

Following on from last week's post 'How do you like your eggs?' here are some ideas for laying your table in ways that honour the time and trouble you put into making wonderful brunches on weekends. These rustic settings...

It's worth the work, making your workspace a place you actually love to spend time in. When you consider that it is the place where we spend at least a third of our lives - that's around 90,000 hours of our lives - it makes complete sense...

Guest blogger, Cape Town designer Jaco Janse van Rensburg, sent us a few more images from his Instant Grass interior revamp - and more tips for you to copy at home....

Big thanks to former ELLE DECORATION Deputy Editor Kelly Berman, for sharing her wedding album with us. We love how Kelly integrated plants into the decor for her wedding party, and how...

As seen in the September issue of our sister magazine ELLE, this Chanel-inspired charm is the doing of our DECO designer Gera Smuts. ...

Our interns at ELLE DECORATION have been trying out a few things with fluoro and neon. On their travels, they also found these wonderful inspirational ideas (scroll down) on the beautiful...

This year's pile of invitations to scope out the "Salone Internazionale del Mobile" was a show in its own right. Our editor Laureen Rossouw got bagsful of beautifully designed 'Come See's' for The Milan Furniture Fair 2012...

We just love this vertical garden idea – a refreshing take on the traditional stag head display. These plants mimic the shapes of animal trophy heads in comical fashion. Here are some more contemporary animal trophy head ideas...

We're smitten with these porcelain plate cut-outs we recently produced for a fairytale-inspired shoot in our latest Ideas Issue (page 65). Lucky for you, were giving two away to a DECO reader... WIN A miniature porcelain stag head (above)...

We take the 'hunter gatherer' look to the extreme in our latest Ideas Issue. It's jam-packed with trophy heads, stuffed animals and nature-inspired curiosities, ranging from the more traditional to the more eclectic....

It's Easter weekend, so we went looking in our vast library of past issues for a little treat, and discovered this shoot by DECO contributor Maranda Engelbrecht in our 2011 Revamp Issue. It's a lavish tongue-in-cheek take/twist...

On page 94 of our latest Ideas Issue we’ve created a CIY typographic wallpaper (below) using whiteboard paint, primer and coloured pens. It’s inspired by this image (above) of a bedroom in the beautiful Danish family homestead on...

In anticipation for our upcoming Afro-inspired Ideas and Pattern Issue, we've gathered some more bright finds from the Design Indaba Expo: Dizzying patterns, afro-cool colour, beautiful pattern combos, and colour blocking with wood and steel...

Here's a fun idea: Grab all the plastic you can lay your hands on – garden chairs, tupperware, and plastic tablecloths – and head to the beach for an adventurous and waterproof outdoor dining experience. This is exactly what...

Cooking made easy! Hendrik Coetzee, DECO's talented new stylist and food lover, prepared heart-shaped beetroot for us to enjoy for Valentine's – each one carved by hand. Eat your heart out! Dress with balsamic vinegar,...

Today we visit the beautiful home of the happy-picture-making couple Maike and Travis, the creative duo responsible for the hugely successful wedding photography company welovepictures. We've been following their work for quite some...

DECO's Charl Edwards and housemate Katrin Coetzer have created a little garden on wheels in their Cape Town apartment. Sourced from a second-hand furniture store in Wynberg, this trolley has become the perfect indoor mobile garden,...

As a colour, as well as an earthenware material,Terracotta (terra cotta: baked earth) is fast becoming a favourite, with more and more designers harnessing its unique properties. Its brownish/orange colour varies considerably in...

We spied this prototype,the Cube Light, amongst all the people, art, gadgets, furniture, colours, techniques and food etc at Decorex this weekend. Perched at illustrator, graphic designer and thing-maker Lauren Fowler's stand,...

In celebration of Earth day we decided to feature the idyllic and eco-friendly home of Graphic designer, Tino De la Carrerra. A desire to escape the hustle and bustle of city life in Madrid led him to the mountains of Segovia, Spain...

We are thrilled that it is this time of year again, hello Decorex Cape Town 2013! Taking place at the CTICC between the 25th and 28th of April, we look forward to being inspired by what is new in decor, design and lifestyle and trying...

shopping may become a thing of the past with the newly renovated Siam Center in Thailand which incorporates a refreshing mix of technology, art, fashion and design to create an interactive digital interior between shoppers and retailers:...

DECO talent is always on the scout for talent of all kinds and when great art and furniture are found in one amazing creative space, we can't help but get excited. WHATIFTHEWORLD is a project space situated in the heart of Woodstock in Cape Town...

    Featured on page 11 of the DECORATING issue (on shelf now) we commemorate the one hundredth year of Piero Fornasetti and his eye-catching designs (excuse the pun!) and also gives a nod to the black and white...

Tomorrow night, pop on your social hat and join the Elle Deco at Crema Design in Cape Town for the launch of their new Tom Dixon 'Shop in Shop'. Designed by the Tom Dixon team and including many of his recently launched...

We're big fans of the Soweto Theatre and our Editor Laureen Rossouw put in a vigorous punt for this extraordinary building, one of the top ten finalists in the 'Most Beautiful Object in South Africa' 2013 awards. The...

rtesy of maxrollit.com and Jasper Conran The announcement of emerald as Pantone Colour of the Year - 2013, inspired us to scope out at these heady infusions of green (see Laureen Rossouw's top emerald pick in Ed’s Letter of our TRENDS issue, now on shelf)...

Elle Decoration stand at Design Indaba Expo 2013 Thanks to the amazing cleverness of Graphic Laminates, our Elle Deco stand at Design Indaba 2013 last weekend made us incredibly proud. We loved every minute, sitting around such a...

t comes again... a showcasing of stellar international design ideas along with South Africa's top creative talents at the Design Indaba 2013. Taking place at the CTICC in Cape Town this week, creativity of all sorts will reign. From...

  Inspired by the Beijing house on P82. and Trend 13 in our TRENDS Issue No. 88 (now on shelf), we explore pendant lights in all their hanging glory. From industrial minimalistic cool to clustered and unusual, there are pendant lights to match any taste...

Art director and graphic designer Tatjana Buisson is the creative mind behind Postick, an innovative way to transform virtually anything into a personalised postcard. Whilst living in Barcelona, Tatjana got busy and enjoyed collecting...

Yesterday Elle Deco Managing Editor Maryke Olivier zipped up her travel bag and flew off to the Black Forest, to get an eyeful of Duravit Design Days 2013.  A collection of the most beautiful bathrooms in the world, including design-minded...

In our Trends Issue, our trend piece 'Memphis-Meets-Africa' looks at the colourful revival of the famous 1980's Memphis design movement and explores its links to local South African design. We featured a beautiful...

LLE DECORATION SOLVE New Talent Search is back, now in association with Pick n Pay. For 2013 SOLVE, creatives are asked to turn their ideas for the perfect piece of green design into reality. The inspiration for the competition is simple:...

    We know emerald green is the Pantone colour of the year for 2013. But beyond that, what else is on the horizon for the forthcoming year? Just when we were beginning to wonder, guest blogger Jaco Janse van...

    Last week, Kartell celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Louis Ghost chair. It seems like just the other day that L.G. entered our realm and left our jaws on the floor on account of its...

Freshly launched online, Africandy calls itself ‘The Definitive South African Design Emporium’ - an assertion that's anything but hot air. The store is packed to its virtual rafters with the very hottest local design...

Moroso presents 'Metamorphosis - Moroso Collections, from design to visual arts': the inaugural exhibition at Casa Cavazzini, the new modern and contemporary art exhibition space in the Udine, Italy. Masterfully designed...

Irving Harper is one of the most iconic living figures in modernist style industrial design. Harper, who was born in 1916, worked for George Nelson Associates, Inc. creating designs for Herman Miller furniture. During that time...

  Do you feel like you need an excuse to party someplace wonderful? You can win an exclusive party for you and 30 of your friends at The Snug, with R3 000 worth of Canapés. (You can view the canapé menu online at http://societi...

Our DECORATING issue (now on shelf) showcases various deliciously dark and delicious food. Exploring this a little further, we have compiled a list of dark foods to tantalize your taste buds.This is not just a trend; dark fruits, veggies...

Following on from last week's post 'How do you like your eggs?' here are some ideas for laying your table in ways that honour the time and trouble you put into making wonderful brunches on weekends. These rustic settings...

Melissa's Eggs For Hiding So this long weekend, what'll you be doing ... besides staring at those shelves in that your pretty pantry of yours, eating chocolate, hiding chocolate away from people, cooking, sleeping and eating? A...

Vovo Telo is an idea that started in Port Elizabeth, and ended up just about wherever crumbs land on tablecloths. We love everything about Vovo Telo. Their sarmies, their salads, their incomparable pizzas, and of course their wonderful...

For a while, Superette has been an icon of Woodstock cool, uttered in the same breath as words like Instagram and amazing or as concluding remarks in a property trend report. So what's new? What's new is that Superette has...

Our November 2012 Johannesburg Elle Decoration reader event was held in Sandton City. Since we find it virtually impossible to go to Sandon City without popping into Walnut Grove, it seemed so right to meet our readers there. Walnut Grove is an institution...

Our beautiful Eastern fusion food feature in Elle Decoration Trends Issue No. 88 has had a few of our readers feeling hungry for more. So here you have them. The shots that didn't make it into the magazine. Turn to P89 in our latest...

Elle Decoration Trends Issue No. 88, now on shelf, offers a DECOKids cooking feature, with fun, cool recipes that kids can easily pull off. This chicken pie, for instance, raises an instant smile and is as easy as falling off a rolling pin...

Melissa's, The Food Shop, has come to Joburg. Finally. And if you're anywhere near Parkhurst, then please help yourself to a large slice of one of the Cape's most adored institutions in food. Melissa's...

The Elle Deco team was lucky enough to be invited to a Le Creuset event with chef Reza Mahammad at Cape Town's Sillwood Cooking School earlier this month....

Nook in Stellenbosch is a daily eatery that does breakfast, a seasonal lunch buffet, light snacky meals and home baked pastries. 'We love meeting and serving people in a space filled...

It's hard not to like the look of Durban's 'Love Coffee'- muchas gracias to Durban photographer, Bron Fourie of Vanilla Photography, whose pictures gave us a look-see...

Cafe Paradiso of Kloof Street, Cape Town, is about as old as we are. And we're going to say it again, loud and proud. Elle Decoration celebrated its 25th birthday, last week. So Paradiso stood us to a birthday lunch on Friday...

Have you ever made lamb koeksisters? Not? Really? Well scribble down the recipe below. If you can plait hair, koeksisters and wool, you can plait lamb belly. And what a great party trick. The plaited lamb belly, up top, was served...

O goes to Creation Wines in The Hemel-en-Aarde Valley There's a tickbox approach to living well. On the list (which could and should change periodically) there are a few mandatories. For instance, we need to all have cake once a week...

What a treat to have dinner with world-renowned Food Network chef Reza Mahammad. On 31 May, Reza treated ELLE DECO readers to an intimate cooking demonstration, preparing a three-course meal using Le Creuset cookware. The warm and inviting...

The souffle On Wednesday night, DECO stylist Hendrik and I joined 15 of our readers at a Lindt chocolate workshop held at the Lindt headquarters in the Cape Quarter, Cape Town. Chocolate, its provenance and all things cacao related, was the main event...

It's Easter weekend, so we went looking in our vast library of past issues for a little treat, and discovered this shoot by DECO contributor Maranda Engelbrecht in our 2011 Revamp Issue. It's a lavish tongue-in-cheek take/twist...

Save the date for our Design Banquet at Toffie Pop Culture Festival on Saturday 31 March. Amsterdam-based designer Hannes Bernard and his team from the Sandberg Instituut (Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam) will be curating and hosting a...

On our first encounter to this street-side burger joint we walked in and asked for a business card. The response: "We prefer word-of-mouth." That was late last year and it hasn't taken long for the word to spread. This...

If you've picked up a copy of our latest Colour Issue, you would've noticed a second person on our Editor's page picture (below), alongside Editor Laureen Rossouw. While shooting this photograph, Ezzy, a drummer at the...

Recently launched at the Woodstock Foundry, the Benedikt-Taschen bookstore stocks the very best of Taschen titles, as well as a handful of carefully selected international magazines such as Frieze, The Gentlewoman, Architecture Now and Frame...

  What better way to start the year than with a fresh eye: our Trends Issue - showcasing stunning homes from all over the world and everything you need to know about the looks to get in 2013 - is out this week. Our cover...

We're popping out of our skins with excitement, since just yesterday morning Label Orange agreed to have our Elle Decoration Xanita-sponsored pop-up alongside their stunning 7-day showroom in Woodstock's Salt Circle Arcade....

We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we loved putting it together. We're proud to say, our Summer Issue No. 87 is ready to hit the street. Look out for it at a magazine stand near you, later this week. (On the cover: our Ed's holiday house in St...

The daffodils are out, the tulips are out, and so is Elle Decoration Spring Issue No. 86. Grab bunches of great ideas from these 160 pages of Springy pleasure, from a newsstand near you....

The wonderful thing about the shoots we do is this. We bring home literally hundreds of beautiful shots. And not all of them can make the cut. So we thought we'd show you a few of our art director's selects of our Winter Karoo...

We've just hit 'print' on our upcoming 'Country Fresh' Winter Issue – best described as the most collectable issue of ELLE DECORATION to date. So you better save the date. It's on shelf 21 May 2012. We've...

We just love this vertical garden idea – a refreshing take on the traditional stag head display. These plants mimic the shapes of animal trophy heads in comical fashion. Here are some more contemporary animal trophy head ideas...

We're smitten with these porcelain plate cut-outs we recently produced for a fairytale-inspired shoot in our latest Ideas Issue (page 65). Lucky for you, were giving two away to a DECO reader... WIN A miniature porcelain stag head (above)...

We take the 'hunter gatherer' look to the extreme in our latest Ideas Issue. It's jam-packed with trophy heads, stuffed animals and nature-inspired curiosities, ranging from the more traditional to the more eclectic....

On page 94 of our latest Ideas Issue we’ve created a CIY typographic wallpaper (below) using whiteboard paint, primer and coloured pens. It’s inspired by this image (above) of a bedroom in the beautiful Danish family homestead on...

In our latest Ideas Issue, our radar has honed in on Christopher Jenner (page 31). While he might look like the lovechild of Don Draper and Tom Ford, jet around the globe the same way the rest of us go to the supermarket, have bucket...

We're proud to introduce you to our special GROW supplement in association with Pick n Pay – your guide to inspiring ideas for the urban interior. It's filled with the latest in green news, trends, ideas and buys. Read more...

Feast your eyes on our bumper Ideas Issue. It's filled with top tips, easy updates and design inspiration from cover to cover. We also introduce our special 'Create the Look' pages, a must-see for great interior ideas...

If you've picked up a copy of our latest Colour Issue, you would've noticed a second person on our Editor's page picture (below), alongside Editor Laureen Rossouw. While shooting this photograph, Ezzy, a drummer at the...

Our next issue is going to print in a couple of hours, so things in our office are, as expected, a little busy. Add to that the buzz of the Design Indaba Conference and Expo, and you've got a pretty good idea of our schedule. But...

In our latest Colour Issue you'll find a streak of colour running throughout – our colour-blocking trend pages kicks it off with a burst of refreshing colour combos. Which is why it's no surprise we're still obsessed...

In our latest Colour Issue we've compiled a handy little black book of ideas, trends, tips and a listing of useful contacts. 'There's nothing better than a recommendation from a good friend when you're renovating',...

In our latest Colour Issue, we’ve selected six of local fashion’s avant-garde – people whose inherent style we admire and whose trend-savvy we trust. Today we chat to designer and shop-owner Peacemaker Hliso, stylist Lulama...

Kartell, the Italian furniture company known for their collectable contemporary plastic furniture, has opened shop in De Waterkant, Cape Town. The company, with its headquarters in Milan, began manufacturing automobile accessories...

If you've had a look through the pages of our Colour Issue, you would have noticed an abundance of colour. Our upfront trend pages reveal decor's current obsession with electric blues, acid yellows, tangerine tango, soda pop...

In our latest Colour Issue we breathe new life into the desktop. We explore green avant-garde desktop installations featuring suspended gardens, shots of acid-bright blue, delicate pressed flowers, grainy timber, and chalky weathered walls...