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“Ruan and I both love ‘box houses’,” says homeowner Janine Vermeulen of the recently renovated home she shares with her husband, Ruan, their young son, Louw, and the family’s cocker spaniels, Mymy and Mila. The pleasingly chunky, massed proportions of the house and outbuildings have been updated, and the interior organisation completely repurposed with the help of architect Werner Lotz of Hours Clear. -
Werner reoriented the house towards the garden, which now features an area for alfresco dining – adjacent to an outdoor “kitchen” conceptualised by Ruan that includes a braai/wood-burning pizza oven/ prep counter unit – as well as a swimming pool and koi pond, placed side by side and traversable via a stepping-stone pathway. The outdoor table and benches are by Pedersen + Lennard. -
The kitchen is anchored by an oak-clad island, with countertops and backsplash made from engineered stone by Infinity Surfaces. A dining table and wood-and-wicker Milk benches by Houtlander are illuminated by a pendant from Spazio. -
The large porthole window was Werner’s key intervention in the main dining space. -
Sleek poured-concrete floors by MaxiCoatings complement the warm tones of the kitchen island. -
Making the most of the home’s compact footprint, a work station with built-in storage is placed along the wall within a space that also functions as a hallway. -
A dining nook is furnished with a built-in bench, and a table and curved Milk bench by Houtlander. -
The “transparent” staircase leading up to the main bedroom is one of Werner’s light-enhancing design interventions. -
In the guest bedroom, a Willow bed by My Space pairs perfectly with sculptural bedside tables from Superbalist and wall lamps from Iconomy. -
Luxe yet understated, the main bedroom features a custom bed, vintage wardrobes and botanical artworks created by Janine for her floral design business, Foraged. -
Textural combinations abound in the main bathroom, with basins from Eurotrend, an oak-and-granite vanity by Holz Cabinetry, mirrors by Story Design Collective and brass lights by Hoi P’loy. -
The main en suite bathroom includes a freestanding bathtub from Flush Bathrooms and tapware by Meir, with wide-plank oak flooring by Oggie. The chunky wooden sidetable is from Decofurn.
WORDS Robyn Alexander / Bureaux PRODUCTION Sven Alberding / Bureaux PHOTOS Greg Cox / Bureaux
A smart, savvy and budget-friendly renovation has made the very most of this young family’s home in Cape Town. Here, Japandi-style simplicity reigns – and the indoor-outdoor living is easy.
“I don’t think we would have bought this house if it wasn’t for our architect,” says homeowner Janine Vermeulen of the relaxed, contemporary home she moved into in 2022 with her husband, Ruan, and their son, Louw. Even the architect in question, Werner Lotz of Hours Clear, initially had his doubts. “The existing house was in a bad way,” he says. “Multiple additions had been done on the cheap over the years. My first thought was no, do not buy this!”
But as Janine, Ruan and Werner walked around the garden, something began to shift. “It had potential: two large oak trees and the lawn promised lazy Sundays with the family,” Werner says. “And the building itself had something in terms of its proportions – it was almost elegant. But everything was in the wrong spot, and the house turned its back on the garden, which definitely had to change.”
The extensive renovation enhanced the home’s boxy, modernist proportions, and its exterior appearance has been kept as minimalist as possible, with the flat roofs and a series of angular volumes finished in white- painted plaster creating an overall impression of symmetry and order. The home now sports a delightfully contemporary orientation outwards to the beautiful old oak trees and spacious garden, which also includes a sleek new swimming pool and koi pond placed side by side and traversable via a stepping-stone pathway. There’s loads of space in which Louw can play with the family’s two cocker spaniels, Mymy and Mila, as well as an expansive area for outdoor dining and a combination braai/wood-burning pizza oven that gets almost daily use during Cape Town’s long, sunny summers.
Werner describes the Vermeulens’ design brief in terms of the everyday usability the couple wanted their house to encapsulate. “They wanted a family home,” he says. “And it’s one in which I personally would love to live, and share with my own family.” The key changes were, he explains, all about simplification of the overall structure – and adding texture and natural materials to the interiors. “There was a tight budget and we had to be smart,” he says. “We proposed strategic punctures to allow natural light to flood into the living spaces, and simplified the elevations to complement the massing.”
Ruan and Janine also brought their own aesthetic sensibilities and experience of creating several previous homes to the project. An animation director and serial entrepreneur, Ruan owns three creative businesses – Bewilder Animations, Rave Growl content creation studio, and his new clothing brand Etiket – while Janine is the visionary force behind Foraged, an environmentally conscious floral service. “We knew that we wanted an open-plan home,” says Janine. “Having a lot of space for movement was important, as was keeping the aesthetic minimal, but warm and liveable.” Her love for Scandinavian design and the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which celebrates the imperfection of the natural world, were also key influences for the home’s interiors. “The warm minimalism of Japandi style was 100% what we wanted to bring about here,” she says.
The use of natural materials and tactile textures has also been essential in bringing the look and feel to life. Wood is used everywhere, from the treads of the new stairs up to the main bedroom suite to the kitchen- island cladding and other built-in furniture items, the locally designed dining tables and benches, and more.
Asked about the family’s favourite space, Janine doesn’t hesitate in identifying the central, open-plan kitchen and dining area. The true heart of the house, this is both “the first room you walk into when you arrive home” and the one in which “we spend all our time”, she says. Not only is the kitchen “a dream to cook in”, it also flows directly into spaces perfectly designed for eating, working and playing, as well as outside onto the deck and the always-inviting garden. “We just wanted to create a home that you never want to leave,” she says – and that is exactly what the Vermeulens have achieved. | hoursclear.com
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