WORDS Steve Smith PHOTOS Supplied

As its name implies, cult American filmmaker Wes Anderson is the inspo behind this whimsical space. It’s both a bar and an eatery with bistro style food conceptualised and designed by food guru Peter Goffe-Wood. Along with an extensive cocktail menu, there’s also a selection of local wines from SA’s Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Hemel en Aarde, Swartland, and Constantia wine regions.

The person behind it all is owner Megan Kritzinger who also founded Stellski Coffee Bar & Café that has stores in Bree st and Salisbury st in Woodstock. We asked Megan to give us the insider info on how The Wes came to be…

“The name and décor drew inspiration from Wes Anderson, the filmmaker behind Life Aquatic, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Royal Tenenbaums, who’s famous for his unique visual style, symmetry, and whimsy. I am a big fan of his movies along with his quirky style and humour.  Our interior design reflects this, thanks to Nicola Orpen and her team at Bone Design. 

“Whilst I’m a big fan of Wes Anderson, I absolutely love a classic French bistro which to me symbolises a passion for food, wine and culture. I happened to live and work in Nice after school, studied French throughout university, and been lucky enough to travel this beautiful country which has always left me feeling inspired … and a little French. 

“My intention with The Wes was to create a truly unique space, one where the moment you walk inside it becomes a feel good experience … where the atmosphere, design, service and food come together to create something special … to delight and inspire our guest by delivering exceptional and unique service and a memorable dining experience.” | thewes.co.za

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The post Paris Meets Wes Anderson at this New Mother City Bistro Bar appeared first on Visi.

Cape Town-based Bone Interior Design Studio is behind the redesign of Steenberg restaurant Tryn.

Dedicated to the estate’s 17th century founder, Catharina Ras, the restaurant is an aesthete’s dream – featuring maximalist interiors, bold colours and luxurious finishes. Far from understated, it demands that one pays attention to all the finer details. However, as much as the interior echoes Catherina’s zest, there is a sense of calm and tranquillity, highly attributed to the surrounding Constantia Valley vineyards.

VISI spoke to Bone Interior Design Studio to find out more about this project and how the team brought the Tryn vision to life.

What vibe did you hope to achieve with the finished space?

The heritage of Catharina was so tangible within the walls of the restaurant that we could not wash away the story with a new unrelated aesthetic and a few disconnected furniture pieces. To modernise the interiors meant we needed to modernise Catharina and bring her into the 21st century. She became Tryn, the nickname to which her friends and family referred – a name more connected to her free and feisty spirit. The space was to exude that same strength and gregarious nature.

How did you go about ensuring this space captured this essence, while also being modern?

We allowed the base floors and walls to remain untouched and honest, paying homage to the past while splashing her personality into the private dining areas with bold and gutsy ruby and jade walls. The use of solid timbers and hardy stones convey her strength while the delicate layering of textured fabrics, wall effects and art coat the space with femininity.  Rich burnt orange and mustard tones on the furniture/soft furnishings added scatterings of her fiery character.

Steenberg has its own classic aesthetic. How did this play a role in the design of Tryn?

It was pivotal to respect the heritage nature of the building, which is why the original features were preserved and only enhanced by colour and textures. The restaurant is balanced on a fine line between traditional and contemporary, which creates a surprise for clients upon entry, yet does not feel removed from the soul of Steenberg.

What considerations were made in deciding what each section in the space would look like?

The spaces were driven by function, which determined the spatial layouts. In terms of aesthetic, the bar is the focal point of the restaurant, with its colourful, custom-designed marble bar front. We pulled palettes from this to create the distinctive private dining areas – layering tone upon tone to make bold statement rooms so that each area had its own personality, yet worked holistically within the entire concept.

In what ways would you say this project reflects Bone’s design sensibilities? 

We love to be progressive in our projects and to dance a bit on the edge while honouring the architecture of the buildings we work within. We dive into the depths of detailing and work hard to ensure that not just the building work and fittings work holistically, but everything, from the flowers and the crockery to styling, creates a striking conceptual and tangible experience for anyone that walks into one of our fitouts.

View more of Bone’s interior design projects here. For more information about Tryn, visit steenbergfarm.com.

The post Cool Spaces: Tryn at Steenberg appeared first on Visi.

Form and function are both important parts of a productive office space at home. Nicola Orpen of Bone Interior Design Studio offers advice on how to create an ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing work area in your space.

Tips for Setting Up Your Home Office Aesthetically

• Keep your desk minimalist. Invest in a beautiful, functional desk lamp and a stylish print. A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind.
• When doubling up a guest room as an office, avoid expensive commercial desks and office chairs. The desk and chair, if chosen wisely, can double up as a dresser station. Add textured throws and style with a strong decorative vase or sculpture to add an element of layering.
• The view behind you is as important as the view in front. Keep your backdrop clean – a wall with a simple shelf and a few focal pieces or a single artwork off centre to your chair position will make for an unfussy, yet considered presentation.
• In many homes these days, the office takes a transitory space in the home – a hidden nook off the dining room or a floating desk within a passage. As working life becomes a kinetic movement within your daily life, it’s convenient for the space to live within a passage or in the lounge as our lives move from the typical stagnant 9-5 to a faster pace.

READ MORE: Hack Your Home Office with Tracy Lee Lynch

Tips for Setting Up Your Home Ergonomically

• Position your screen an arm’s length away from where you are sitting.
• Try to have the top of your screen level with your eyebrows to make sure that you sit up straight.
• Keep your knees at 90 degrees to avoid restricting blood flow at the edge of your seat. If your seat height is not negotiable, find a makeshift footstool to raise your feet.
• Although an ergonomic office chair is great, there are pros and cons to a standard chair too. Office chairs move around easily, meaning your body is constantly having to adjust. A good dining room chair with a thin pillow at the back will work just as well.
• If you don’t have a screen stand, books or a stack of magazines make a great stand for your laptop or monitor to lift it to the correct height.
• If you can avoid it, do not have your back to a window that does not have a blind or curtain as the glare can cause eye strain.

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In interpreting the brief to update this two-bedroom 100 m² apartment to appeal to a range of discerning guests looking for a designer rental in Cape Town, Bone Interior Design Studio took a cue from its classic lines and elegant moulding. 

“The owners wanted to set the rental apart from others in the building – to stand out, but also to be neutral enough to have broad appeal,” explains interior designer Gill Deneys. “In terms of materiality as well as layout, it needed to appeal and cater to short-term business guests all the way through to families on extended vacations.”

The response was to prioritise functional, intuitive design solutions and fluid, uninterrupted spaces. Classic herringbone flooring, for example, has been used throughout to reinforce this sense of cohesion, and the same soft, muted paint colour has been used on the skirtings, doors and architraves, too. This modern all-over paint application also makes the apartment feel more spacious.

Gill chose to retain the existing wall, ceiling and door mouldings, employing the sophisticated heritage feeling they bring as a backdrop to layer contemporary finishes and furnishings. The restrained monochrome palette further unifies the overall aesthetic and merges eras and styles. “Neutral but strong accents in various timber finishes lead your eye through the space, creating texture and interest alongside linens and smooth leather for contrast,” she adds.

To avoid creating a visual barrier between the lounge and dining areas, Gill chose low, “lightweight” steal-and-leather armchairs to form a flexible boundary. Weightier pieces have been positioned around the perimeter of the room. Taking into consideration professional and leisure guests, the server in the dining area can double up as a work station, complete with all the necessary charging facilities. The large dining table, which anchors the space and directs the flow, is big enough to host a meeting or to entertain guests around.

Mirrors, lighting, ceramics, artwork and the nesting coffee tables present organic curves that offset the sharper lines of the moulding, joinery and larger furniture pieces. Down lights, architectural pendants and contemporary task lighting create layered ambience, and more opportunity to introduce a modern mood.

Read more about the project on Bone Interior Design Studio’s site and stay up to date with the studio on Instagram (@bonedesignstudio).

The post Green Point Apartment appeared first on Visi.

For the renovation of a large four-bedroom home in Newlands, Cape Town, Bone Interior Design Studio sought to let in the light and the lush, leafy surroundings.

It took just two months to transform and modernise a dark and dated student digs, which was designed in the ’80s, into a family home for young professionals who enjoy entertaining.

“We wanted to maximise the setting by punching through much larger window openings to bring in the impressive mountainscape and light,” explains Nicola Orpen, who is one of the partners at Bone, alongside Hayley Turner. “We extended a large balcony off the master bedroom to allow the owners to enjoy the morning light hitting the mountains.”

A vertical window pan in the staircase lets in the greenery of the oak trees, and the bathrooms received wall-to-wall windows to allow the views to permeate. The back side of the house received double-glazing treatment to combat the noise of the busy road the property backs on.

With the influx of light, the interior design duo opted for soft timbers, white cabinetry, milky stone and contemporary lighting and fixtures, which are bold in their simplicity and all the more important in an intentionally blank canvas.

Selecting and placing the lighting played an important role in the overall design. Minimal downlights perform as functional task lighting, instead of general runway lighting, and wall lights function as art pieces. The cables for the pendants were installed before the ceiling was skimmed to avoid the necessity of a cup fitting and resulting in a more sophisticated finish.

The existing timber ceiling trusses were retained and sprayed white, as was the wall-to-ceiling timber within the cottage loft, which was painted in high gloss. Internal face brick walls were freshened up with a coat of paint that still provides a textural element that complements the clean, modern finishes, and the external face brick was plastered. The staircase was moved to create wider passageways, breathing room and a new internal flow.

“For me the triumph is in the overall dramatic change in energy,” says Nicola. “The house had a dark, heavy feel and we were committed to changing that completely. It’s now more connected to the mountains, light and surrounding leafy vitality. The master bathroom has a special luxury feel as does the dressing area and I still love the concept of the guest toilets’ wild personality contained to its tiny space.”

View more projects by Bone here, find the studio on Instagram (@bonedesignstudio) and check out other striking before-and-afters here. 

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This trendy Cape Town office space for Rain, SA’s mobile data-only network, merges classic heritage with a contemporary cool aesthetic.

The project for the Rain office overhaul was tackled by local interior design studio Bone. The company gave the studio a brief to source locally and implement the renovation while the team were still working in-house.

“As the site is a heritage building, dating back over 200 years, the space is divided up into rooms, which we had to work within,” explains Nicola Orpen, co-founder of Bone. “In terms of aesthetic, we wanted to give each space its own identity and retain the feeling of home within the building.”

Moving away from traditional tables and chairs, the space features a comfortable meeting lounge. “The ‘office canteen’ is presented as a kitchen and separate dining room with a family-sized table, the position of this being selected as it is slightly separate from the office building to allow for a physical separation from work when having your lunch,” says Nicola. “This design ethos was carried throughout the space where possible.”

Bone carried out the facelift with the utmost respect for the beautifully preserved heritage site, creating moody and quirky pockets throughout, with bold colours, vibrant patterns and complementary wallpapers used together with carefully curated furniture pieces.

“The building, while historic and presenting lots of characterful elements, is still quite severe and stark as many of the original elements were lost during rebuilding in the 1800s,” Nicola continues. “This allowed us the opportunity to create bold and unique elements within each room. Window treatments within these rooms include bold velvet curtains, which help with acoustics, the drafty windows in winter and fit the homely feel we set out to create.”

Visit bonestudio.co.za to see more of their work.

The post Cool Cape Town Office: Rain appeared first on Visi.

Headed up by chef Kieran Whyte, this trendy new restaurant on Cape Town’s Bree Street serves up a mix of Peruvian and Japanese inspired dishes, otherwise known as Nikkei cuisine.

The menu features treats like Dirt Rubbed Tuna Tacos, “New Style” Ceviche, BBQ Pork Belly and Toasted Quinoa Creme, alongside cocktails like Orange & Buchu Sours and Chevere Raspberry Daiquiris.

The interiors, designed by Bone Interior Design Studio, are as appealing and innovative as the food. It’s a sophisticated example of urban design. From raw concrete and exposed brick to copper detailing, mosaic flooring and trendy pendant lighting, the decor is completed with a one-of-a-kind mural by renowned SA street artist Faith47.

Charango is located at 114 Bree Street, Cape Town. To book or find out more information, contact 021 422 0757. The restaurant is open every day from 12pm until 3pm for lunch and from 6pm until 9:30pm for dinner. The bar is open from 12pm until late, with food served until 10pm.

The post New To Bree Street: Charango Peruvian Grill and Bar appeared first on Visi.

Popular health food franchise Kauai is set for a national interior facelift and menu change.

The brand has been bought by Real Foods, the umbrella company for Nü Health Food Café. The idea behind the new space design is to create a fresh, modern and sleek feel, with simple features, neutral palettes and striking graphics. Kauai will also introduce new food experiences such as customising and building your own meals.

In need of a contemporary re-brand, Kauai looked to Bone Interior Design Studio for a resurgence of spirit; of good, clean living, where minimalism and honesty live not just in food, but in the built surroundings. “We drove down a path of simplicity through which the unobtrusive use of materials and fittings celebrated the concept of  ‘food theatre’. This is a path of refinement: a cool, clean palette where honest materials were key, allowing the food to be the hero.”

The studio made use of natural marbles, warm and dark oaks, simple graphics and performance podium type seating concepts as the backbone on which Kauai can solidify their fresh identity.

The first concept store is located at The Zone in Joburg’s Rosebank. Changes can be expected across all stores from October 2015. Have a look at their exciting new menu here.

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