WORDS Graham Wood PHOTOS Elsa Young
A creative, hands-on couple transformed an ordinary house into an enchanted wonderland of interconnected spaces with inspired design combination and easy-going glamour.
Rhys and Meg Ralph hadn’t intended to live in this house. Rhys, a property developer, originally acquired the derelict stand with the intention of “flipping” it. Hidden away in a quiet nook in Parkhurst, opposite a park with the Braamfontein Spruit running through it, the setting was beautiful, but the stand had been vacant for some time when he took possession and had clearly been used by local builders as a dumping site. At that point, the park was, as Rhys puts it, a “no-go zone”.
While clearing the rubble and building a house, Rhys took on the rehabilitation of the park, too.“We ripped out all the Spanish reed,” he recalls – the invasive species that choked the space. “I planted grass. I put in trees and benches. We secured it, and got rid of all the rubble.” He also added signage, bins, benches, swings and a trampoline. By the end, it had become a “pretty spectacular little park”. His efforts gave this somewhat-neglected corner of the neighbourhood a significant lift, and he and Meg soon realised the property had the potential to be quite special – special enough to live there themselves. The went so far as to give it a name – Cartref, inspired by Rhys’s Welsh roots. “It’s the Welsh name for home: a place of feeling, family, laughter and love,” he explains.
Owners Rhys and Meg Ralph’s daughter, Lily, relaxes on the sofa of the glassed-in terrace of their Parkhurst home, which features an enormous fireplace. The glass doors can slide away to open it to the garden completely. On the right are Mara chairs, which Meg designed for Marataba Mountain Lodge. The sculpture is by Lionel Smit.
Owners Rhys and Meg Ralph’s daughter, Lily, relaxes on the sofa of the glassed-in terrace of their Parkhurst home, which features an enormous fireplace. The glass doors can slide away to open it to the garden completely. On the right are Mara chairs, which Meg designed for Marataba Mountain Lodge. The sculpture is by Lionel Smit.
In the main living area, the arch-backed High Noon chairs are by Meg Ralph Spaces (MRS), as is the Blake ottoman with belted detail.
The guest bathroom, with Kelly Wearstler-inspired wallpaper and a hat display featuring several by Meg’s grandmother, who was a milliner.
Meg and Rhys with their daughters Lily and Scarlet, their housekeeper Happy, Scout the Great Dane and Indie the Labrador.
Meg’s garden studio; Rhys’s upstairs study, which opens onto the roof terrace, features a Bau chair – a prototype of one of Meg’s designs.
Looking back at the house from beyond the swimming pool, it’s clear how the building and its environment “live into” each other. The glassed-in terrace is immersed in the garden, and the garden, in turn, flows into the main bedroom and kitchen. The box hedges on the stairs and the roof planters integrate landscaping and architecture.
Looking back at the house from beyond the swimming pool, it’s clear how the building and its environment “live into” each other. The glassed-in terrace is immersed in the garden, and the garden, in turn, flows into the main bedroom and kitchen. The box hedges on the stairs and the roof planters integrate landscaping and architecture.
The window above the kitchen counter opens to the garden. Faro’s Retro chandeliers complement the vintage bar stools. In the background are a pair of Meg’s Luella tables.
The pergola at the front entrance of the house, where tickey creeper has begun spreading onto the timber ceiling.
The alfresco dining area was once used as a boules court.
One of the internal courtyards, this one off the TV room. The spiral staircase leads to a roof terrace.
The main bedroom suite overlooks the swimming pool. The furniture is a combination of heirloom pieces – like the chest of drawers and refurbished Mid-century chairs – and contemporary local designs, including a Cha Cha occasional table by Haldane and Meg’s Bau chair.
The main bedroom suite overlooks the swimming pool. The furniture is a combination of heirloom pieces – like the chest of drawers and refurbished Mid-century chairs – and contemporary local designs, including a Cha Cha occasional table by Haldane and Meg’s Bau chair.
In an antechamber between the kitchen and the main bedroom, which opens onto one of the internal courtyards, an antique sofa has been paired with Meg’s Luella sidetables.
The Florence daybed in the main bedroom is by MRS. The rug is vintage Hertex.
In the main en suite bathroom, a scalloped blue custom vanity unit by MRS adds a bold note to an otherwise serene and neutral setting. Curves and arches, notably in the mirrors from Arkivio and custom shower by MRS, soften the linearity of the tiles by Union Tiles.
In the main en suite bathroom, a scalloped blue custom vanity unit by MRS adds a bold note to an otherwise serene and neutral setting. Curves and arches, notably in the mirrors from Arkivio and custom shower by MRS, soften the linearity of the tiles by Union Tiles.
After moving in with their daughter Lily, they started making adjustments – a skylight here, a door or porthole window there – and when their second daughter, Scarlet, was born, they made a more substantial alteration, adding a new bedroom suite and an upstairs room that Rhys uses as an office. They also moved the swimming pool, and built a covered terrace with a vast fireplace inside and a roof garden above.
“It was all ad hoc,” Rhys says. “We need another hidey-hole. We need another nook.” Meg is an interior designer, known best for her work on lodges and hotels, including several at Lion Sands in the Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, Madikwe and Marataba, and the Cape Cadogan in Cape Town. They joke that whenever Meg showed him an idea for a project she was working on and it caught Rhys’s eye, “I’d go and get it done,” he says. And so, bit by bit, the house and garden morphed into a wonderland of interconnected spaces. Everywhere, rooms open onto courtyards or lead up to rooftop terraces. For every indoor room, there’s an outdoor room, sometimes to the side, sometimes above, sometimes below.
Like the house itself, the interiors came together gradually. “It was never really intentional,” reflects Meg. She doesn’t seek out furniture with a preconceived idea in her mind. “I fall in love with pieces,” she says. What she refers to as “stuff that we’ve collected over the years” has been eclectically combined. Heirloom pieces rub shoulders with Mid-century Modern and contemporary designs. Almost inevitably, prototypes of several of her own furniture designs are dotted throughout. Unexpected combinations and serendipitous pairings abound, layered with rich textures and tactile materials. The result is a kind of easy-going, organic glamour that can only come of the constant refinement of a designer’s own home.
The abundant greenery of the garden – a boon of living so close to a stream – has been encouraged to cover the house. “My vision was to green all the walls,” says Meg. Tickey creeper and Virginia creeper envelope the courtyards. Creepers also make their way into the glassed-in terrace and along the underside of the pergola at the entrance, which has an enchanting effect in the way it blurs indoors and out.
Rhys calls it a “lifestyle home”, perhaps the result of borrowing ideas from the lodges and hotels that Meg designs. But more than that, what the expression captures is a sense of endless possibility. You could have lunch at the long outdoor tables under the trees, or on the terrace, or in the open-plan living room. There’s a firepit, and a roof terrace where the Ralphs screen films with a projector on summer nights. (Often, an owl will come to perch on a planter while they do.) You can lounge by the swimming pool or retreat to your own private courtyard. They refer to it as their “bubble” – and it is indeed like a self- contained world that you cross into through the door in the wall. It’s the perfect retreat. | megralphspaces.co.za
Don’t forget to sign up to our weekly newsletter for the latest architecture and design news.
