Tired of one-dimensional walls? Annemarie Meintjes shows how to add depth and texture with Styrofoam letters.

All you need

Styrofoam letters sell for between R1 and R10 each, depending on the size. A roll of double-sided carpet tape sells for R33 at Builders Warehouse.

All you do

Stick a random collection of cut-out Styrofoam letters to a wall with double-sided carpet tape. If you are doing this for a short-term display or special occasion, there’s no need to paint the letters, but it is a good idea to give them a coat of paint to protect them and extend their lifespan if you want to keep them up for a while.

Contacts

• Styrofoam letters, The Candle/Flower Spot, 011 804 5449
• Double-sided tape, Builders Warehouse, 0860 008 913
• Inga Sempé Vapeur light, Tonic Design, 011 028 1200.

Did you like this Smart Idea? See others here.

The post Smart Idea: The ABC of accent walls appeared first on Visi.

Architect Jacques Cronje is making the lights to match his exquisite timber houses.

Cape-based architect Jacques Cronje specialises in designing timber houses and now he’s making the lights to go inside his buildings. His Minima lampshades, available in four designs (R800-R1 990), are made from Forestry Stewardship Council-sourced birch plywood. Each design allows for the components to be clipped together without the need for glue or fastenings. Simple, beautiful and functional, just the way we like it.

Jacques Cronje Timber Design, 021 465 7515, timberdesign.co.za

Available from Klooftique, 021 424 9458, klooftique.com

The post Light show appeared first on Visi.

Luxembourg-based designer Charlotte Lancelot is intrigued by our emotional attachment to objects. She is also fascinated by the modernisation of old techniques and handcrafts, which is why she reinterpreted the traditional art of tapestry-making into a contemporary rug range for Spanish company Gandia Blasco. The Canevas range, including this Flower Rug (R18 600), as well as pouffes (R11 900) and scatters (R1 790) makes embroidery as at home on the wall as it is on the floor, creating unexpectedly fresh interiors. Who would have though cross-stitching could be so stylish?

Available from Limeline 021 424 8682, limeline.co.za

The post Cross-stich reinvented appeared first on Visi.

In the fashion world, Prada went deep into the steampunk trend for their fall/winter 2012 menswear campaign. Shot by David Sims, the campaign features well-known tough guys and sometimes sci-fi actors, Gary Oldman, Jamie Bell, Garrett Hedlund and Willem Dafoe, with death-defying stares.

They all look super sleek and macho in neo-Victorian designer swag. However, the steampunk-inspired range does not simply rip-off all things 19th-century, it interprets them into a modern style. The lines are cleaner, and most of the outfits are two-tone bringing through a more modern “Mad Men” fashion sensibility.

Recently, the range inspired award-winning Rotterdam-based design, architecture and culture agency OMA AMO, to create a lo-tech look retro-futuristic video “set within a dystopian society of machines and jagged geometrics” as part of the official Prada campaign. Although not overtly steampunk, the video also depends heavily on the steampunk notion of an alternate future as it might have been imagined in times past.

This fascination with macho styling makes complete sense right now, since after every huge trend, fashion loves to try out the polar opposite – almost as a way to atone for fashion sins committed in the name of a bygone trend. The fashion world spent the Noughties experimenting with a more feminised male fashion identity – the metrosexual, the sensitive new age guy, skirts for men, etc. Now it is searching for a new man; the tough guy, the macho man, the man’s man and the steampunk man is that man, for the moment.

Malibongwe “Mali”Tyilo is VISI’s ubiquitous editor-at-large, to be seen at all the fashionable openings snapping away for Skattie What Are You Wearing. Follow him on Twitter @skattie_what.

See our full steampunk report here.

More from the SPRING FLING edition of VISI

• New and second-cycle
  Renovation and interior design is seldom a stagnant, once-off affair. The best spaces grow into themselves. See the before pictures of the houses featured in the magazine.

• Deft blue strokes
  Fabric, surfboards, shacks… Something is afoot, and not just in South Africa! From Babylonstoren to Russia, browse our full Delft trend report.

• Popcorn architecture
  We have inspiration from the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival to share. Watch our online film festival and read our report back.

• Mechanical futurism
  Some say steampunk is what happened when Goths discovered brown. Others say it grew out of a literary genre. Explore our steampunk trend report.

• Joburg Art Attack
  For at least one week in September, Joburg was hit by an art attack. Read the post-mortem and our guide to starting an art collection, written by the experts.

• Winning wishes
  In October, Warren Lewis will be giving away four paintings. Up for grabs over October and November is a Bodum Bistro Coffee Maker from Banks Kitchen Boutique. Enter the competitions and win.

The post Prada does steampunk appeared first on Visi.

Browse the pictures above and use the links below for more information.

Carlex Design, www.carlex.pl

Laikingland, www.laikingland.co.uk

Roche Bobois, www.roche-bobois.com

Thomas Heatherwick, www.heatherwick.com

ThinkOrange, www.thinkorange.pt

Katie Thompson’s Recreate, www.recreate.za.net

Xavier Clarisse, clarissedesign.com

Christopher Jenner, www.christopher-jenner.com

Szymon Klimek, www.byk01051953.user.icpnet.pl

Richard Clarkson, richardclarkson.com

More from the SPRING FLING edition of VISI

• New and second-cycle
  Renovation and interior design is seldom a stagnant, once-off affair. The best spaces grow into themselves. See the before pictures of the houses featured in the magazine.

• Deft blue strokes
  Fabric, surfboards, shacks… Something is afoot, and not just in South Africa! From Babylonstoren to Russia, browse our full Delft trend report.

• Popcorn architecture
  We have inspiration from the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival to share. Watch our online film festival and read our report back.

• Mechanical futurism
  Some say steampunk is what happened when Goths discovered brown. Others say it grew out of a literary genre.

• Joburg Art Attack
  For at least one week in September, Joburg was hit by an art attack. Read the post-mortem and our guide to starting an art collection, written by the experts.

• Winning wishes
  In October, Warren Lewis will be giving away four paintings. Up for grabs over October and November is a Bodum Bistro Coffee Maker from Banks Kitchen Boutique. Enter the competitions here.

The post Top 10 steampunk designs appeared first on Visi.

What condition did you find the house in? 

Not much had changed over the years: a bathroom had been added and electricity was installed only in 1985. But as with most old houses, a warren of rooms had accumulated around the kitchen, in which an ancient Aga was still serving the family. 

What did you do to it?

The biggest change was in the kitchen area. Luckily none of the walls were load bearing so we opened it up to create the dining room. The cold room and scullery we combined and extended to create a new kitchen. We enclosed the south side of the roofed stoep, unusable because of the wind, to create bathrooms for each of the bedrooms. The glazed double doors opening off all the main rooms onto the stoep also made a huge difference. Outside, the slaghuis became Derk’s archive and library, and the sheep-shearing shed, with its vast tin roof and old rafters, became the pool house. Everything in it is original apart from the pool in the middle.

For the full article and photoshoot, get the new SPRING FLING edition of VISI magazine. Read more here.

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More from the SPRING FLING edition of VISI

• New and second-cycle
  Renovation and interior design is seldom a stagnant, once-off affair. The best spaces grow into themselves. See the before pictures of the houses featured in the magazine.

• Deft blue strokes
  Fabric, surfboards, shacks… Something is afoot, and not just in South Africa! From Babylonstoren to Russia, browse our full Delft trend report.

• Popcorn architecture
  We have inspiration from the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival to share. Watch our online film festival and read our report back. 

• Mechanical futurism
  Some say steampunk is what happened when Goths discovered brown. Others say it grew out of a literary genre. Explore our steampunk trend report.

• Joburg Art Attack
  For at least one week in September, Joburg was hit by an art attack. Read the post-mortem and our guide to starting an art collection, written by the experts. 

• Winning wishes
  In October, Warren Lewis will be giving away four paintings. Up for grabs over the next two months is a Bodum Bistro Coffee Maker from Banks Kitchen Boutique. Enter the competitions here.

The post Cover story appeared first on Visi.

Lees in Engels.

Warm nuus – Junie 2013: Truth HQ het die kortlys gehaal van vanjaar se Restaurant & Bar Design Awards en is die enigste finalis uit Afrika! Loer hier na verlede jaar se wenners.

September 2012: Die nuwe Truth HQ in Kaapstad is vreemder as wetenskapsfiksie, dit is “steampunk”. David Donde en Haldane Martin wys vir ons hoe dit alles saamgekom het.

“Ons weet nie van enige ander koffie ruimte ter wêreld wat totaal en al ‘steampunk’ is nie,” verklaar die onortodokse koffiekoning David Donde in sy nuwe Truth HQ-kafee-en-koffiewinkel in Kaapstad.

Dit is eintlik heel gepas dat ’n onderneming wat stoom gebruik om die perfekte koppie boeretroos te maak, dié nuwe pseudo-Victoriaanse fantasietrend tot sy voordeel inspan. David se personeel dra spesiaalgemaakte uniforms van The Little Hattery, en dan is daar boonop die lieflike interieur wat deur Haldane Martin ontwerp is. David het selfs besluit om ’n snor te kweek! “Jy kan nie net ’n klomp goeters aanplak en dit  dan ‘steampunk’ noem nie – outentiek is immers een van die boustene van die Truth-handelsmerk,” sê hy.

Die ruimte is rondom ’n massiewe vintage-koffiebrander ingerig. ’n Kroegtoonbank wat van herwinde staalplafonpanele gemaak is, skei die werkgedeelte van die sitgedeelte wat met koperoortrekte tafels en leersitplekke spog. Heel voor is “die grootste gemeenskaplike tafel in Kaapstad” met 24 uitswaaistoele wat van industriële pyp gemaak is. Daar is ook kragkabels wat uit die plafon hang vir mense wat hulle skootrekenaar wil inspan.

Truth HQ, Buitenkantstraat 36, Kaapstad, 021 200 0440, www.truthcoffee.com

Haldane Martin Ontwerp, www.haldanemartin.co.za

Besoek visi.co.za/steampunk vir ons volledige verslag oor die sogenaamde “steampunk”-trend.

More from the SPRING FLING edition of VISI

• New and second-cycle
  Renovation and interior design is seldom a stagnant, once-off affair. The best spaces grow into themselves. 
• Deft blue strokes
  Fabric, surfboards, shacks… Something is afoot, and not just in South Africa! From Babylonstoren to Russia, browse our full Delft trend report.
• Popcorn architecture
  We have inspiration from the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival to share. Read our report back. 
• Mechanical futurism
  Some say steampunk is what happened when Goths discovered brown. Others say it grew out of a literary genre. 
• Joburg Art Attack
  For at least one week in September, Joburg was hit by an art attack.
• Winning wishes
  In October, Warren Lewis will be giving away four paintings. Up for grabs over October and November is a Bodum Bistro Coffee Maker from Banks Kitchen Boutique. 

The post Die Kaap se nuwe punk appeared first on Visi.

There is a growing demand for living environments that form an integral part of a person’s personality, fitting like a “third skin”, enabling people to be who they want to be. In line with this thinking, a strong emerging trend in decor is the theme of the “historian” who, according to the Heimtextil Trend Preview 2013/2014, is seen as “a treasurer of the past, seeking value and discovering ways to make history relevant to contemporary life”.

It was this statement from Heimtextil that inspired me to look at who and what is driving South African design today. Heritage seems to be a constant and relevant source of inspiration. The Cape Dutch style is unique to the Cape, and the architecture and decor that fills its historical buildings are providing inspiration for design personalities that in turn inspire me.

The images I share here are a visual celebration of an aspect of Cape Town’s unique history that has been reinterpreted by several creative personalities that live in and love the Mother City. I have chosen to highlight the work of David West, Kurt Pio, Michael Chandler, Deon Viljoen, Karen Roos, Cecile and Boyd’s, Gregor Jenkin, Jacques Erasmus and Haldane Martin.

David West

Award-winning fashion designer David West’s Holbol Collection is a clothing range inspired by Cape Dutch Gables. The garments were first shown in 2009 at the Whatiftheworld Gallery in Cape Town. Pieces from the Holbol Collection were specially reworked in 2010 for Salon Locale at Koopmans de Wet Huis. Finally they were sent to Amsterdam in 2011.

After a six-year hiatus from the local fashion scene, David’s collection employed his signature wit in exploring new frill ideas in nylon knits and traditional shirting. Informed by Cape Dutch architecture, this collection celebrated hand-me-down Eurocentricity made uniquely Capetonian – rundown houses of Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Flats sports club tracksuits and schoolgirl uniforms are all fused through phantom, grandiose ornamentation.

Kurt Pio

Artist Kurt Pio works mainly with themes relating to our country’s Dutch, English and French colonial past. He’s fascinated with the furniture and architecture styles they brought to the Cape and how that furniture and architecture was translated using European styles and African materials and craftsmanship.

His work looks at the colonial past and questions whether we, in the “new” South Africa, frown on our past and what these different colonies brought to our country, or if we celebrate our past in terms of the infrastructure this colonisation created for us.

Deon Viljoen

Deon Viljoen is a leading Cape Dutch expert with a keen interest in local and current design. He curated the exhibition Manet Is Too Tight to Mention at the WhatiftheWorld gallery in Woodstock in November 2010. The show combined pieces dating back to the 18th century alongside modern designs. The startling freshness of these combinations served to revitalise the antiques and lend them new cachet as devices in a contemporary decorator’s arsenal. Deon now runs a gallery in Stellenbosch, where you can see this dynamism at play.

Michael Chandler

While Michael Chandler was studying art history at the University of Cape Town (UCT), he began working at Stephan Welz & Sothebys – a prestigious fine and decorative arts auction house. Spending every day examining and cataloguing beautiful things, Michael learned an enormous amount about design over the past 400 years and was snapped up as a research assistant to Deon Viljoen (the leading expert on 18th, 19th and 20th century Cape Visual and Domestic History mentioned above). Deon’s passion for early Cape furniture and Dutch trade pieces quickly seeded itself in Michael, and this is easily recognisable in the work that Michael does today.

Deon approached Michael “to find a solution to upholstering a fabulous set of eight Cape Stinkwood dining chairs, circa 1810. Georgian English in taste, but made in the Cape, they are a wonderful example of a Cape interpretation of an English style that had just reached its zenith.” The result was embroidery inspired by shards of pottery that Michael has collected during walks on Table Mountain.

In July 2010, Michael started a small design studio – Chandler House – and his work is largely associated with these interests. Michael is currently doing research into arts and philosophies, and has great ambitions to contribute towards a revival of all things Cape.

He says: “The Cape has such a rich and unique history of design and interiors that it is only starting to be tapped now. The fulcrum between the West and the rest, which Cape Town straddled, juxtaposed and wove all sorts of different pieces into its own unique song.”

It is this siren song that has Michael designing wallpapers inspired by 18th-century Imari Vases – crockery that gives a nod to the pepper trees at Kersefontein and tea cloths printed with Vergelegen’s orchard layout. And he seems to be having fun doing it.

Michael’s beaded pieces, such as the reworked chandelier in the shapes of antique brass pendant, relieve us of the bead fatigue we have from the glut of beaded crafts sold on the side of the road.

For Mandela Day 2012, Michael joined a group in Delft, Cape Town, to help paint houses in bright colours with paint sponsored by Plascon. They “decided to bring a touch of blue-and-white Delft to our local Delft. The locals really loved the work as much as we did painting them. Happy Birthday Tata Mandela!”

Jacques Erasmus

So much more than a poet, Jacques Erasmus is an artist, a designer, a stylist, a chef, a baker, a curator and creator of all things beautiful, and Hemelhuijs is his home from home. It is in this welcoming, beautiful restaurant – which serves as a showcase of all that Jacques does so exceptionally well – that you will be able to experience, in some small measure, the passion of a man obsessed with beauty in all its myriad forms.

Karen Roos

One of the best-preserved werfs (farm yards) in the Cape Dutch tradition, Babylonstoren was founded in 1690, and the manor house dates to 1777. Today it has been reworked as a destination hotel, with a farm garden that pays homage to the Cape’s historical supply gardens, and places today’s farm revival trend and organic consciousness top of mind.

The interiors were designed by Karen Roos, former editor of Elle Decoration, South Africa. Karen used Plascon’s Canvas White in the hotel rooms. You can find her design-related posts on the Babylonstoren blog.

A Delft mosaic in the garden is inspired by Cape Dutch pottery, which also puts you in mind of the Delft carpet design by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders for Moooi.

Cécile and Boyd’s

Under the creative direction of Cécile and Boyd’s, the Hout Bay Manor hotel is now a bravely refreshed beauty. The 1871 Cape Colonial landmark has transformed the way we use colour, by allowing it to reflect the multi-hued cultural vitality of South Africa’s people. An otherwise dated colonial look is made contemporary through African reinventions of traditional decor techniques.

Haldane Martin

Haldane Martin’s Riempie furniture collection was inspired by early Cape Dutch furniture. The lines and proportions have been simplified for a more contemporary look. The traditional leather thongs have been replaced with more durable, colourful, recycled plastic. The timeless Malaysian rattan pattern has been scaled up to amplify its beauty. Visit Haldane’s website for more information and to see his entire collection. It is worth the visit!

Gregor Jenkin

Gregor Jenkin’s Turned Table collection is an unexpected mix of delicately turned legs with steel tops. The slim legs are a contemporary interpretation of a classic Cape Dutch table design.

Originally published on the Plascon Trends website. Like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @Plascon – we do!

Celebrating the Delft theme of the new SPRING FLING edition of VISI magazine, we have published a full Delft trend report online.

More from the SPRING FLING edition of VISI

• New and second-cycle
  Renovation and interior design is seldom a stagnant, once-off affair. The best spaces grow into themselves. See the before pictures of the houses featured in the magazine.

• Deft blue strokes
  Fabric, surfboards, shacks… Something is afoot, and not just in South Africa! From Babylonstoren to Russia, browse our full Delft trend report.

• Popcorn architecture
  We have inspiration from the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival to share. Watch our online film festival and read our report back.

• Mechanical futurism
  Some say steampunk is what happened when Goths discovered brown. Others say it grew out of a literary genre. Explore our steampunk trend report.

• Joburg Art Attack
  For at least one week in September, Joburg was hit by an art attack. Read the post-mortem and our guide to starting an art collection, written by the experts.

• Winning wishes
  In October, Warren Lewis will be giving away four paintings. Up for grabs over October and November is a Bodum Bistro Coffee Maker from Banks Kitchen Boutique. Enter the competitions here.

The post Cape Dutch now! appeared first on Visi.

In one of the quiet streets that lie just behind Franschhoek’s bustling façade of cafés and restaurants, lies the private home of local-boy-made-good Reuben Riffel and his family.

The celebrity chef and his wife, Maryké, bought the property in 2007 and are only now nearing completion on the extensive renovations.

In the new SPRING FLING edition of VISI magazine, we went to take a peek. For a sneak preview, enjoy this behind-the-scenes video of creative extraordinaire Sumien Brink and photographer Micky Hoyle at work.  

For the full article and photoshoot, get the new SPRING FLING edition of VISI magazine. Read more here.

More from the SPRING FLING edition of VISI

• New and second-cycle
  Renovation and interior design is seldom a stagnant, once-off affair. The best spaces grow into themselves. See the before pictures of the houses featured in the magazine.

• Deft blue strokes
  Fabric, surfboards, shacks… Something is afoot, and not just in South Africa! From Babylonstoren to Russia, browse our full Delft trend report.

• Popcorn architecture
  We have inspiration from the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival to share. Watch our online film festival and read our report back. 

• Mechanical futurism
  Some say steampunk is what happened when Goths discovered brown. Others say it grew out of a literary genre. Explore our steampunk trend report.

• Joburg Art Attack
  For at least one week in September, Joburg was hit by an art attack. Read the post-mortem and our guide to starting an art collection, written by the experts. 

• Winning wishes
  In October, Warren Lewis will be giving away four paintings. Up for grabs over the next two months is a Bodum Bistro Coffee Maker from Banks Kitchen Boutique. Enter the competitions here.

The post Behind the scenes: The Riffels appeared first on Visi.

Delft porcelain has been used in Cape households since the 1700s, when the VOC established a settlement to feed the fleets sailing between Asia and Europe. While working in the garden, we regularly encounter shards of discarded Delft crockery from different centuries. So we were inspired to use the Delft heritage in new original forms.

Originally published on the Babylonstoren blog.

Food stylist and founder of Babylonstoren’s Babel restaurant, Maranda Engelbrecht will be talking at the fourth Trend Talk afternoon at the Plascon Design Centre on Thursday 11 October. 

More from the SPRING FLING edition of VISI

• New and second-cycle
  Renovation and interior design is seldom a stagnant, once-off affair. The best spaces grow into themselves.

• Deft blue strokes
  Fabric, surfboards, shacks… Something is afoot, and not just in South Africa! From Babylonstoren to Russia, browse our full Delft trend report.

• Popcorn architecture
  We have inspiration from the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival to share. Watch our online film festival and read our report back.

• Mechanical futurism
  Some say steampunk is what happened when Goths discovered brown. Others say it grew out of a literary genre. Explore our steampunk trend report.

• Joburg Art Attack
  For at least one week in September, Joburg was hit by an art attack. Read the post-mortem and our guide to starting an art collection, written by the experts.

• Winning wishes
  In October, Warren Lewis will be giving away four paintings. Up for grabs over October and November is a Bodum Bistro Coffee Maker from Banks Kitchen Boutique. Enter the competitions here.

The post Creating Babylonstoren appeared first on Visi.