What struck me most about this project was something that I noticed the first time I set foot on the property. From the outside, the big family home in a rambling garden was quite ordinary (and was in serious need of a paint job) but the inside was full of colour, style and distinctly personalised eccentricities that fit the owner, whom I had met and come to know already, to a T! We needed to marry the inside to the outside and give the whole place a bit of a pick me up. there were also specific areas that the owners had not yet renovated, which we would now wrestle with.

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The first task at hand was to replace a sad old patio with a new enclosed living area for this fun family of four. I designed a modern black box to form the patio extension. We would continue the pitched roof from the main house, which would allow for open trusses on the inside and really bring height and volume to make it feel really spacious. In addition to this a slab roof front section would allow us to widen the footprint and increase the size of the whole space. Exposed I Beams and black aluminium frame stacking doors are very mod next to the original architecture, a juxtaposition that works really well with the quirky “contemporary plaashuis” style the owner brings to the mix. Stacking windows wrap around three sides of the room, allowing a real indoor / outdoor effect which is great in Summer and Winter.

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The old kitchen was also in need of an overhaul; we gutted it entirely brought in new white cabinetry, new floors and wall colours. The monochrome basics set the stage for really vibrant firetruck red Smeg appliances and some friendly artworks.

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Thank you M&C for allowing Metaphor to help make your home more homely, I hope you are enjoying the new and improved version!

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Photographs by Astrid Kelli Kingsley