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Nicholas de Klerk stands at his front door, which features his fingerprint. African Mediums created the design by applying sandblasted vinyl directly to the glass. The doormat, in Nicholas’s signature shade of chartreuse, was found at Game. -
The table in the living room with its multiple legs was designed by Nicholas as a feature piece. Flat-pack puzzles of iconic towers from around the world were sprayed black – the display echoes the towers of the Johannesburg skyline. -
The upstairs living room was designed especially to house Nicholas’s impressive collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia. The display shelves were designed by Nicholas and built by RollSet. -
Nicholas designed the main bathroom – featuring tiles in his favourite shade of green – in a way that elevates ordinary fittings into a very pleasing whole. He made the towel rails of aluminium rods suspended from steel cables. -
The bedroom with its collection of artist’s mannequins has wooden feature walls designed by Nicholas and made by RollSet. The striking black-and-white carpet is from Jambo Imports & Exports in Woodstock and the pouffe by Ronel Jordaan. -
The study on the mezzanine level, tucked under the stairs, features an antique desk from Amatuli, a giant anglepoise lamp from Weylandts and small glass tables from Mr Price Home. The chandelier was designed by Julian McGowan and made by crafters in George and Calitzdorp. “I don’t believe in buying specific brands,” Nicholas says; “I buy what is right.” -
Although not a foodie by any means, Nicholas redesigned the kitchen three times, the final time after coming across the cork bar stools by Wiid Design. He hopes that the kitchen will inspire him to take to the pots. An original architectural drawing of the house by Jo Noero hangs on the wall. Cubic Metre Designs built the kitchen cupboards. -
Nicholas enlarged and purposefully pixelated an image of lush green ferns to decorate the entrance to the guest bathroom; African Mediums executed the design. Nicholas created circular steels disks to transform plain light fittings into a design element that’s repeated throughout the house.
PHOTOS Dook PRODUCTION Annemarie Meintjes WORDS Bibi Slippers
We showed you the empty shell of a small villa in Richmond, Johannesburg designed by architect Jo Noero. Here, we take a look at how Nicholas de Klerk has turned it into a wonderfully eclectic home.
Nicholas De Klerk is not afraid of anything… except of being ordinary. Looking at his house and listening to his stories, it soon becomes apparent that he has nothing to fear.
“As a young boy I would sit on my grandmother’s veranda in George for hours, just looking at the neon lights. I’ve always yearned for the city, and I always thought I’d want to live in a flat. I searched for a house for two years by climbing onto the roof of every property I was interested in. As soon as I got on the roof of this house, I knew I had found what I was looking for.”
What Nicholas had been looking for was a space he could transform into “a loft on a plot”. His brief to architect Jo Noero was based on the design of the media centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London – he loved the idea of adding something to the top of an existing structure. Nicholas wanted his house to channel the simplicity of Japanese architecture but with some of the panache of Art Deco. “I believe in small and original.”
Together, Jo and Nicholas have achieved nothing short of a feat of practical magic.
Nicholas has put his distinctive fingerprint all over his house – quite literally. The front and back doors are embellished with a massive version of his index fingerprint, while other indicators of his identity characterise the house in the same bold way. Splashes of chartreuse, his favourite colour, are found throughout the house, and his sense of humour is reflected by quirky elements – like a set of shiny limegreen garden gnomes in the kitchen – and collections of various descriptions. “If I happen to have more than two of something, I immediately start collecting more. This isn’t an impulse I can explain; it’s just the way I am.”
Whereas the walls boast a serious collection of South African art and ceramics, the bedroom plays host to a happy band of artist’s mannequins and a specially built cabinet displays a collection of V-shaped pressed glass vases. But the intense commitment to his collector’s impulse is certainly best encapsulated by his incredible collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia.
The top-floor living room doubles as a Coca-Cola museum. The cans, bottles, toys, clothing, artworks and other items featuring the distinctive red-and-white Coca-Cola logo are displayed on shelves designed especially for this purpose. The mass of objects could potentially have been a cacophonous and chaotic shambles, but Nicholas designed the display to form a solid wall at one end of the room that gently fades into the rest of the space, reading as a single design element that draws you into its intricacies without dominating the rest of the space or taking anything away from the magnificent views.
The house is a marvellous merger of high and low art and pure playful mischief – very much like its owner.
Have a look at our Q&A with Jo Noero here.
