Caesarstone has just opened a brand-new flagship design studio in Johannesburg’s Kramerville.

“This showroom, which is the first of its kind in SA, will ensure that Caesarstone is made readily available to the public in a more efficient way, allowing us to be more responsive to local designers, architects and homeowners,” says Trevor King, Marketing Director of Caesarstone SA. “The whole design community will benefit.”

The Caesarstone Design Studio offers a tailor-made shopping process in its experiential space, providing one-on-one service and expert advice on selecting surfaces. It also features interactive visualisers and private meeting rooms.

“The new Caesarstone showroom is the perfect place for designers to bring their clients and for the general public to become more discerning and informed about their surface choices,” says Rudi Eggers, Managing Director of International Slab Sales.

For more information, visit caesarstone.co.za.

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German decor brand KARE has opened its first store in South Africa, located on Appel Road in Kramerville, Joburg.

“KARE is a brand that speaks to all tastes in interior design, whether crazy or conservative, they cater to homes, offices, restaurants, hotel rooms and lobbies,” says Joburg franchise owner Karin Cawthorne. “I’ve always been passionate about interior design, architecture and beautiful things; when I discovered what KARE had to offer, I knew that I wanted to be a part of their story here in SA.”

The brand, started by Jürgen Reiter and Peter Schönhofen in 1981, has opened a 1 000 m² shop featuring its vast range of furniture, lighting and decor accessories. You can shop the entire KARE range at the store, including sofas, tables, tableware, rugs and beds.

You can also play with the KARE Room Designer App, allowing you to place virtual furniture pieces into your own space. The app even has a mode that lets you walk around, enabling you to view the products from different angles.

For more information about the new store, visit kare-johannesburg.co.za.

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St Leger & Viney, one of the country’s most celebrated fabric houses, who stock brands such as GP & J Baker, Zoffany, Mulberry, Elitis and Cole & Son, has launched a new showroom in Kramerville, Johannesburg.

The idea behind the new showroom is to have a space where top tier products are available in one easy-to-access location. The showroom will also provide the team with the platform to showcase products in a more contemporary way.

“In our view, Kramerville continues to be the centre of decor and design in Johannesburg and we are thrilled to continue to be at the heart of this vibrant and thriving industry,” says David Ralphs, Managing Director of St Leger & Viney.

Peter Gordon will be curating displays at the venue, which will include pieces by Christopher Farr, Ralph Lauren and Elitis. You will also be able to see two new local decorative collections, namely Indochine and Panoramic.

For more information, visit stleger.co.za or visit the new showroom at 7 Appel Rd, Kramerville, Johannesburg. 

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Streamlight, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of creative lighting solutions, has now opened a striking new showroom in the heart of Kramerville.

It showcases the latest local and imported lighting ranges. “Our team regularly attends international lighting conventions to keep abreast of evolution in the industry,” says managing director Robert Kalish. “Streamlight offers clients a turnkey solution to their lighting needs.”

VISI deputy editor Annemarie Meintjes attended the opening. “All the lights in this beautiful space are an accurate reflection of the trends on show at the nest international exhibitions,” she says. “The showroom is
 a charming open space that looks absolutely breathtaking at night and is filled with drool-worthy installations. I just wish they were open well into every evening so all customers and passers-by could appreciate the visual spectacle!”

For more information, visit streamlight.co.za.

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The treasure hunter behind Amatuli Artefacts has found a home for his astounding collection of curiosities in an eclectic building in Kramerville.

I’m more of a collector than a dealer says Mark Valentine, looking around the back area of the Amatuli Artefacts showroom in Kramerville, where found objects are for sale. From Yoruba staffs to old vacuum cleaners, the objects in here have been allocated prices. But when it comes to his own collection of artefacts from all over the world, which mean more to him than a sale, the businessman says, “There are many – some I haven’t seen in 10 years!”

Mark beams when he talks about his passion, a brand that was established in 1988 and that “started in a vaguely ugly building where we sold woodwork things”. After many years on Corlett Drive, Mark and Amatuli co-owners Elize van der Merwe and Christine Valentine decided it was time for a move. “Kramerville is the fastest-moving vaguely legitimate design area in South Africa at the moment,” says Mark. Looking to create “an emporium for Amatuli”, they first bought a warehouse that is now the Weylandts showroom. Then they bought the four-storey building on Desmond Street that soon became the venue for after-work drinks and Mark’s 50th birthday party. “I pay no rent for the view from Maboneng to the Cradle of Humankind,” Mark says. It’s this view and the eclectic finds inside that have made people want to rent the space for special occasions.

On the ground floor, one is greeted by the unmistakably African yet cosmopolitan decor of Milk Bar, which is in front of the Amatuli Artefacts showroom. A coffee shop and intimate eatery that has a chesterfield in one nook and charming tchotchkes in others, Milk Bar is the first of a planned franchise in the province.

Overseen by Rob Laing, Milk Bar is based on the story of three characters. Borrowing from the tale of how coffee was discovered in Ethiopia’s Sidama Valley, Tekalign is a goat herder-cum-coffee-trader who perfects the art of brewing coffee. On a mission to share his brew with the world, he meets an artefacts trader and adventurer named Manasse in Rwanda and falls in love with Amina in Tanzania, who represents the brand’s love for food. “Milk Bar is the coming together of these characters and the places they’re from,” says Rob.

David Ballam portraits shot in the Omo River Valley in Ethiopia line the walls, and anything from ’80s bubblegum to contemporary Afropop plays softly in the background. Fynbos gin is served alongside 2M beer from Mozambique, Tafel Lager from Namibia, Black Label quarts and Coca-Cola in small vintage glass bottles. Notably, Milk Bar supports ethical sourcing and fair trade, is supplied by Bean There, and serves Ethiopian and Rwandan single origin coffee and a blend from Ethiopia and Burundi.

On the first floor is the Sir James van der Merwe Bar – a composite of Mark’s son’s first name and Elize’s surname. In this popular Wednesday evening venue, Mark’s love of all things vintage is displayed through a combination of armchair sophistication and nostalgia thanks to distressed chairs, fading posters and more.

Katy’s Palace Bar, named after Mark’s daughter, is a palatial space on the third floor that is characterised by matching furniture and clean lines.

Above that is what Mark calls his man cave. Take a look around this apartment and it becomes clear what he means when he says he’s more of a collector than a dealer.

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Home Fabrics and Design Team have both opened impressive showrooms in Kramerville. We chatted to Marc Shotland, group PR and marketing executive at Home Fabrics, and Lise Butler and Amanda Haupt, co-owners of Design Team.

Which new ranges do you expect to fly?

Marc Shotland from Home Fabrics: Some personal favourite collections are Linen Roots from the Home Fabrics Basics collection. It’s a buffet of 100 % linens in natural, earthy colours in the most gorgeous floppy linens. Another favourite is Saraphina from Fabric Library – a broad collection of timeless paisleys, all the way through to modern interpretations of this classic design in deconstructed chenille textures, organic shapes and everlasting small prints and stripes.

Lise Butler and Amanda Haupt from Design Team: Our new Jungle collection. It is made up of very simply drawn leaves and natural elements with designs such as Foliage, Frangipani and Coral Cactus. Oversized scale or delicate line work gives the elements a contemporary look.

Which international fabric trends excite you right now?

Marc: Designers Guild’s latest collection, Caprifoglio. It demonstrates the versatility of a Designers Guild floral – whether a structured stripe of garlanded roses, a blushing multi-colour or one of many restrained intimate palettes – all on voluptuous velvets, crisp cottons, luxurious linens, swirling silk jacquards and glittering antique damasks.

Lise and Amanda: The renewed appreciation of beautiful hand-dyed indigo fabrics and exciting new natural fabrics in which hemp, linen and cotton are blended.

What sorts of trends do South African consumers adopt most readily?

Marc: Trends can be quite diverse, so I’d say it depends on personal preference. For example, fans of florals would find something to love in Designers Guild’s biannual launch of a new collection, including the florals for the season. It really comes down to personal style and choice.

Lise and Amanda: I suspect platforms like Pinterest are starting to play a major role in giving South Africans trend ideas that they can execute in their own homes. Trade shows such as 100 % Design, which make curated design and decor accessible to consumers, have a significant impact.

The colour of the season is…

Marc: Ballerina pink. It’s a timeless option for little girls’ rooms and French Provençal interiors, but can also work with a simple contemporary look. Try combining it with charcoal or black. 

Lise and Amanda: For us, the introduction of emerald as a print colour has delivered a vibrant new colour palette when paired with natural and charcoal base fabrics.

Which textures and patterns are hot right now?

Marc: A standout is a surprising number of chic experimental patterns and textures highlighting embroidery and digital printing. Embroideries are vibrantly coloured and boldly geometric, sometimes featuring fringed elements. Style trends include florals and African designs, which are earthy and modern in shades of brown sparked with unexpectedly colourful accents. Technical standouts include chic geometrics and animal prints.

Lise and Amanda: We love unexpected combinations of colour and texture, such as seen in Ronel Jordaan’s felted pebbles – the beautiful softness of wool but in a gilded brass colour. We will also see a lot of florals and tribal geometrics coming through this season.

The Home Fabrics Showroom is situated at 8 Desmond Road, Kramerville, Johannesburg. The Design Team is situated on the 1st floor, T Maldini Building, 12 Kramer Road, Kramerville, Johannesburg.

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The new rockabilly-inspired Dakota Lee is more than just a tattoo parlour. Designed by Tristan du Plessis for studioA, it also features a retail space, art gallery and bar area.

“Our inspiration was to create an approachable tattoo shop, while still staying true to its roots, a place where someone would feel comfortable coming in for their first tattoo, or their tenth,” says Tristan.

As he wanted to create a space that would evolve over time, Tristan decided to cover the walls in chalkboard paint, allowing artists and patrons to sketch their latest tattoos or thoughts on the shop’s walls. “This store is an eclectic mix of tattoo culture,” says Tristan. “From the art and books to the vintage barber chairs, it’s all held together with a very subtle contemporary design aesthetic.”

Dakota Lee is located at Shop 7, Design on Appel, Appel Road, Kramerville. It’s open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9am until 6pm and Thursdays to Saturdays from 9am until midnight.

Visit studioa.co.za for more information.

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Amatuli has grown from a fleamarket venture to a major decor hub in Kramerville, where international clientele can browse and buy objects from all over the world. In the new April/May 2014 VISI, we featured the house of Mark and Christine Valentine, owners of Amatuli.

The modern world owes much to nomads and traders. From ancient times the silk and spice routes played a major role in the exchange of goods and raw materials as well as cultural and artistic ideas that have shaped the world as we know it today.

While it might not exactly be Palmyra or Petra, in the eyes of Amatuli’s owners and nomadic traders – Elize van der Merwe, Mark Valentine and Christine Valentine – the innocuous peri-industrial land of Kramerville, Johannesburg is transforming into an important node on an international decor and design route.

“On any given day you might meet a top international designer, a New York antiquities dealer or a Cameroonian trader who has come to explore here. It’s a fun place to be,” says Mark. “The area is growing organically into a legitimate design hub… It’s developing from an ugly place in a great location, into an exciting area with a diversity of bars and restaurants.”

As one of the original decor businesses in the area – situated conveniently close to Rosebank and Sandton – Amatuli is at the centre of this cross-pollination of designers, architects, foodies, fabric houses and furniture suppliers. Crammed full of beads, baskets, heavy wooden furniture, masks, figurines, light shades, vases and just about any other object you can imagine, Amatuli is an ever changing showcase for beautiful found objects and aesthetic treasures. 

To step inside the multi-storey warehouse is akin to browsing an international souk with tribal antiquities from Africa, Asia and India rubbing shoulders with curios and knickknacks. Amatuli’s owners all embark on frequent buying trips and try to personally obtain their objects as close to the source as possible. “We love to explore, the world is our playground,” says Mark. “If someone can’t find what they are looking for we say ‘come back on Thursday’, our stock changes all the time.” 

The only certainty seems to be that the owners will continue to have fun while their business grows around them. The additions of Katy’s Palace Bar and the recent launch of Sir James van der Merwe Wednesday Bar Nights is as much about adding to the new vibrancy of the area as it is about the owners’ social needs. “We wanted to create places where we want to hang out,” says Elize.

“As a small operation this is the most exciting business around,” says Mark. “We experiment and explore. Most of the time we don’t know what is going to happen from one day to the next.”

Amatuli, 6 Desmond Street, Kramerville, Johannesburg, 011 440 5065, amatuli@global.co.za

See inside Mark and Christine Valentine’s house in our April/May 2014 REWIND REDO RENEW edition, now on shelves.

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Joburg’s monthly Collective market has spawned a sibling in the form of a Supper Club, the second edition of which takes place on Saturday 2 November 2013 from 5pm.

As the weather heats up to summer’s dizzy sizzle, the Supper Club is a relaxed way to celebrate the weekend, interact and meet new people, and enjoy the best weather the city has to offer. It’s a great option for Joburgers who are hungry for the new forms of entertainment, far from the mall culture, that are popping up around the city.

Held on the rooftop of the now well-known 3 Desmond Street in Kramerville (read our guide to Kramerville here), expect to toast the setting sun with craft beers and bubbly before sitting down at the long rows of benches and tables, and making some new friends. What the food stalls lack in quantity, they make up for in quality and there is an excellent range from organic pulled chicken and pork paninis to cheese platters, muscles steamed in white wine and pan-fried prawns. Cupcakes and poffertjes (Dutch crumpets) are available for those with a sweet tooth.

This will be the second Supper Club, with the first pop-up dinner held in August. Happening more regularly is the Collective design pop-up, like clockwork, on the first Sunday every month. So after enjoying dinner on Saturday, make sure to come back on Sunday 3 November from 10am to 4pm to shop the latest design, decor, jewellery and fashion trends (read our interview with Collective’s project manager Catherine Corry here).

For more information email info@collective-jhb.com, www.collective-jhb.com.

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In a 21st-century in which space, time and natural resources are experiencing massive constraints, it’s time to redefine the bathroom says Philippe Grohe. Hansgrohe’s designer brand Axor’s main man, Philippe was the driving force behind the WaterDream project that we featured in the new SPRINGLOADED VISI 68. Recently he was in Joburg to launch the Hansgrohe Inspiration Centre in Kramerville and the Starck Organic range of designer bathroom products. VISI chatted to him about life, butterflies and beautiful bathrooms.

When you were a child, what did you want to grow up to be?

That’s a difficult question! My grandfather was a doctor in Switzerland and when I was a little boy, I often visited his office. I was always so intrigued by all the prescriptions and receipts lying around and one day, I scratched out his title on one of the cards and replaced it with what I wanted to be one day – a researcher of insects. I love research! But today, although I have a scientific and photographic background, I don’t run around with a white shirt and net chasing butterflies anymore. I still do research in a way though – through travelling a lot and really taking in all the amazing things around me.

What is a good bathroom to you?

In today’s society, where we have to make do with less space and people are on a budget, I think the absolute minimum requirement is a good shower. One that evokes maximum emotion with minimum stress on natural resources, in this case water. In other words, getting the best feeling from using the least amount of water. Today’s bathroom is not the same as some decades ago when it was purely a hygienic and functional space. Modern ablutions are often small these days and they somehow have to manage a combination between nature and technology. Water is a very demanding element that needs to be respected and controlled. We are in fact highly functional animals who mostly live in cities where things move faster and on tight schedules. It’s not natural. It’s demanding. Thus, the modern bathroom should incorporate nature through intelligent use of natural light in economical shared home spaces to maximise emotional benefits and help balance the demands of modern life. 

What do you do in the business?

I am responsible for Hansgrohe’s luxury designer brand, Axor. I function as a type of bridge between the company and the creatives we work with on experimental projects like the Axor WaterDreams (read more about it in the SPRINGLOADED VISI 68). I have to fight for that kind of freedom in the company, as there are always questions about how much money creative projects generate for the business and how viable they are. It all inspires the team though and together we explore the possibilities of new concepts and design.

Tell us about the Hansgrohe Inspiration Centre.

Water is a commodity that must be respected. It’s a global phenomenon that most people don’t realise the value of water enough. They do what their parents have always done: start their day by opening a tap, the same kind that’s always been there, in the same way, expecting the same thing. We have researched the water and the bathroom issue extensively. Lifestyles need to change. We have to question the meaning of the house, learn to value what is important to us. Bourgeois 20th-century ideas of neatly compartmentalising space into sleeping, living and washing areas need to change. Once people start thinking creatively about their living spaces, a lot of new possibilities will open up then, like combining it with a gym, a garden, etc. The Inspiration Centre is just that, a place that will inspire people to think of their living spaces as experiences in ambience as well as being highly functional. It’s for everybody, from interior designers and architects to people who want to create their own perfect bathroom.

How is the new Axor Starck Organic range special?

It’s simply a new cocktail made up of the highest technology and creative design, and it does exactly what we at Hansgrohe strive to do – getting the best out of it while treating it with respect. The Axor Starck Organic range works with half the quantity of water than usual taps! It’s an intelligent, environmentally conscious, ergonomically designed product with handles integrated into the body of the spout. We have been collaborating with Philippe Starck for 20 years now and over time we have gotten to know each other well, and know how to work with one another’s strengths and limitations. Philippe pushes you and addresses new product designs with a buoyant freshness, like a kid (see Philippe talk about his Axor Starck Organic range here).

What inspires you?

Everything, frankly. I am privileged to be able to travel often and I have learnt that one has to look at the smallest things in order to see everything. It’s how we observe things that bring us inspiration. This can happen in the most unexpected places and with the strangest of things. 

www.hansgrohe.co.za

Read more about the pioneering WaterDream project with Scandinavian design trio Front and Japanese topical Japanese design studio Nendo in the SPRINGLOADED VISI 68 available at selected stockists or get the digital edition right now. 

See more of our coverage of the budding Kramerville design district here.

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