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The new Farmhouse at Babylonstoren has a spa, heated swimming pool and ozonated vitality pool for Farmhouse guests exclusively. The double-glazed glass unit closes up completely and is perfect for winter breakaways. -
The new Farmhouse at Babylonstoren has a spa, heated swimming pool and ozonated vitality pool for Farmhouse guests exclusively. The double-glazed glass unit closes up completely and is perfect for winter breakaways. -
The pool loungers and trolley are from French outdoor furniture manufacturer Fermob. All other furniture imports were done by Cape Town-based Limeline Architecture and Interior Design. -
The Queen Bee Loft suite overlooks the heated swimming pool and, beyond it, the spa. Inside, there’s a salt room, sauna, steam room, experience shower and ozonated vitality poo -
A magical spiral staircase takes you up from the Butterfly Room to the Queen Bee Loft suite. The ceiling has been lifted and the beams exposed. The bed and the large walk-in closets at the far end of the room were made by Prowell. The green ceramic-tiled stove in the centre of the room is by Dutch company Weltevree. The golden swing chair is from Ikea. -
The spacious bathroom with a view features a magnificent freestanding bath from Victorian Bathrooms. -
The Butterfly Room in the Farmhouse is a spacious lounge with a library and a fireplace. It houses a rare butterfly collection, hence the name. The metal table is from Gregor Jenkin and the reading lamp from Weylandts. The chair on the left, called Kiss me Goodbye, is designed by Tokujin Yoshioka; the green sofa is from Masquerade; and the red velvet chairs, called Lisa, are designed by Laudani & Romanelli for Driade. -
Karen Roos and Terry de Waal make an excellent team: She dreams up the spaces and he makes them happen. -
Karen commissioned Tonic Design to do the interior design of the tasting room. There’s a magnificent green tiled bar in the centre, a conversation area on either side, and a host of tables and chairs for some serious tasting and a view over the vineyards. -
The extension to Babel restaurant features a mix of Gregor Jenkin’s heavy metal tables and a few wooden tables with Fermob chairs. The German Factory Light is from a salvage yard in the Netherlands, Piet Jonker Historische Bouwmaterialen. -
The spectacular tasting room is another new space at Babylonstoren, completed just in time for the launch of the farm’s Sprankel MCC. The glass-walled tasting room links two cellars. The executing architect was Edwin Swanepoel. -
The Farmhouse is the latest addition to Babylonstoren, a Cape Winelands farm with a must-see fruit and vegetable garden, guest accommodation and fine food. A 1960s house was converted into the nine-suite Farmhouse by Babylonstoren's owner Karen Roos and general manager Terry de Waal, in collaboration with Chris Fick of Malherbe Rust Architects.
PHOTOS Dook PRODUCTION Annemarie Meintjes WORDS Ami Kapilevich
The latest addition to Babylonstoren is a natural extension of the estate’s founding principles and a symbol of its enduring hospitality.
“We are all about the garden,” says Babylonstoren proprietor Karen Roos. “It all stems from there. We built the restaurant as an outlet for the fresh produce from the garden. And the Farm Hotel was built to accommodate the patrons. So none of this was really planned. There was no commercial goal or motivation. It came from the garden.”
We are sitting in the Butterfly Room, the lounge area of the Farmhouse, the latest addition to Babylonstoren. This nine-room lodge was converted from the original resident farmer’s house. It will supplement the eleven-room Farm Hotel, just as Babel, Babylonstoren’s internationally vaunted restaurant, was extended with an adjoining property after the waiting list for a table began to stretch from weeks to months.
Unlike the old farmworkers’ dwellings, rooms that now constitute the Farm Hotel, the building converted into the Farmhouse had no heritage restrictions, as it was built in the 1960s. This gave Karen a lot more leeway in terms of what she could do with the structure, but it also meant she needed to add something special.
“The Farm Hotel rooms have an authentic history and look out over the garden,” Karen says, “but with the Farmhouse it was trickier. We had to give it something extra, something a bit more refined and luxurious.”
The Farmhouse decor bears the unmistakable stamp of Karen’s own style. There is a deliberate sense that the Farmhouse is an extension of the main homestead, the manor house. The walls of the Butterfly Room are lined with books, and the furniture is eclectic yet classic.
“We kept it simple, but we used the best quality materials. We want it to be timeless, to last. When we got here, the Cape Dutch house from the 1700s was still here, so we want the same permanence for what we do. A hundred years from now,” she says, laughing, “this bed must still be here.”
Karen used many reclaimed and antique pieces. The beautiful spiral staircase that leads to the Queen Bee Loft suite was imported from a specialist salvage company. The tiles were also salvaged, and cut from larger pieces.
The ceilings in the rooms have been lifted and there are deliberately large walk-in closets. “As someone who is a bit untidy,” says Karen, “I like to just throw everything in the cupboard. Especially when I’m on holiday.”
The Farmhouse opens out to a swimming pool, and beyond that is a sophisticated spa in what was once the farmer’s braai room. The spa alone is so impressive it could attract even more visitors to the Farmhouse.
“It can’t get any bigger than this. That would put us in another category. This is still personal and intimate, a space left by our ancestors,” says Karen.
Make no mistake, Karen Roos means to leave a legacy. But it all started with a garden.
