Furnished with treasures and memories from a lifetime of collecting, an interior designer’s Oudtshoorn retreat is an intermingling of country charm and cosmopolitan flair.

All Karoo towns have their own rustic appeal, but Oudtshoorn has panache. The flamboyant spirit of the feather barons lives on in its lavish sandstone buildings with their broekielace fretwork – and in its feisty charm.

Interior designer David Strauss succumbed to this charm five years ago while looking for a house to buy for once-a-month getaways from Cape Town. He found a solid old sandstone classic, built in the town’s Victorian heyday, in West Bank. No palace this: a deep stoep, a string of small rooms off a wide central passage, the only flourish a wagon-wheel precast fence. Some renovation was necessary, but the age of the house meant the exterior could not be modified and any alterations would have to be undertaken under the strict eye of the heritage authorities.

“I was a bit lost to start off with because I knew nobody,” says David. “But this is such a friendly town. And everybody knows everybody else, which is very helpful. If you get stuck, you just ask somebody, anybody.”

It took only a few enquiries for help to come flooding in, in the capable form of builder Seun de Jager, landscaper Henties de Villiers, and multitalented mine of local information Morkel Mulder. Their combined skills helped David to create the spacious retreat, which he has now made his home. He keeps only a small pied-à-terre in Cape Town and spends as much time in Oudtshoorn as his work will allow. “Which is wonderful, because it’s quiet here; you can do all your admin, and the city is rush-rush-rush.”

The main house, where his mother lives, has remained basically unchanged. “I removed two interior walls to make bigger rooms and ripped out most of the built-in cupboards, but that was about it.” His next step was to build a cottage studio for himself right next to it.

“And then I thought: Why not build a summerhouse? And it’s worked so well, because it has created a courtyard. I’ve always been a courtyard person. I like places to be enclosed. It gives you a sense of being elsewhere, not in suburbia.”

David had more than enough furniture and art for both the main house and the summerhouse. Some of his most precious things are inherited; the rest come from a lifetime of collecting, each piece selected for its appeal and intrinsic quality, and arranged with the same unerring eye.

“It’s eclectic, not typical old-house. But I wanted to respect the house and be sympathetic to its age. My furniture all seemed to fit in easily and I hope there’s harmony. I choose things only because I like them. I can remember the day and place I bought each item, but I often can’t remember the artist or the maker. The meaning of something is much more important to me than a name or value.”

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South Africa’s architectural riches are painstakingly documented by Nini Bairnsfather Cloete and beautifully captured by photographer Craig Fraser in Remarkable Heritage Houses of South Africa, a new coffee-table book from Quivertree Press.

WHITEHALL COURT, JOHANNESBURG

An Edwardian wedding cake of a building, Whitehall Court is a sought after apartment address. The original main apartment is divided into three glamorous living spaces, one of which belongs to couturier Howard Green. “I collect very strange kinds of furniture,” admits Howard, who is passionate about new ideas and new fashions in every sphere.

PRYNNSBERG, FREE STATE

A grand and golden sandstone affair, Prynnsberg was designed in England as a Victorian take on the Elizabethan style and constructed in 1881. Then owner Charles Newberry’s daughter Winifred was responsible for the astonishing friezes painted in some of the rooms, including the sublime Nile Lilies painted in the music-cum-billiard room.

MEERLUST, STELLENBOSCH

In 1757, Meerlust was acquired by Johannes Albertus Mijburgh – and so started a dynasty of ownership by descent that continues to this day. Hannes Myburgh is the eighth generation of his family to be in command. An inveterate collector of fine decorative things, he continues to augment Meerlust’s collection with varied and intriguing pieces.

WATERHOF, CAPE TOWN

Whitewashed and thatched, this house – built around 1785 – is graced with several gables. A pale palette dresses the elegantly proportioned sitting room; white slip-covered wing chairs take centre stage alongside an Austrian day bed with horn legs and a pair of Italian Driade Flo chairs.

The book retails at R600. To get your copy visit Quivertree Publications here.

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