The country comes to town

PHOTOS: Mark Green | PRODUCTION: Annemarie Meintjes, Klara van Wyngaarden | WORDS: Yvonne Beyers

Clever design and months of hammering transformed a gloomy 1960s warren into this sunny country-style home in one of Johannesburg’s leafiest suburbs.

When the stork presented them with twin boys three years ago, Dennis and Anita Williams realised they were in for a major building operation. As they had already been blessed with one little boy, their smallish Morningside home would either have to be extended or exchanged for a house that would be large enough for three sets of sticky fingers, toy cars and cricket bats.

Architect Joe van Rooyen drew plans for an extension but Dennis and Anita soon realised that it could be no more than a short-term solution. So they went house-hunting and found an old house in the leafy suburb of Dunkeld, which they thought could be their new home.

But Joe first had to see if he ‘could do something’ with this 1960s edifice. The rooms were small and dark, and the windows were scarcely big enough for a dove to fly through. The swimming pool, large enough for an Olympic gala, swamped the garden.

‘The house was fairly grim,’ Joe recalls. ‘There was Spanish plasterwork, Corinthian columns and niches everywhere in the walls. It was dark and rather melancholic. But the basic structure was strong and well laid out, so we could do something with it.’

Dennis and Anita were keen for their new home to have the feel of a farmhouse, but their first priority was that it should be child-friendly, light and spacious. In security-conscious Johannesburg it was also essential to have a high-security living room where Anita and the children could relax in safety if Dennis had to work late.

‘We decided to open everything up – larger rooms, bigger windows, better flow,’ says Joe. Demolition proved a daunting task. It took weeks to break out the concrete moulding against the ground-floor ceiling so that bigger windows could be installed. A number of walls also had to be demolished in order to transform the maze of small rooms into the well-lit living space it is now.

Modern, yet traditional feel

After months of breaking and building, the entrance hall, with its sandstone tiles and traditional stable door (designed by Joe himself), leads into an elegant sitting room with a handsome sandstone fireplace, and a welcoming living room with huge windows that look out onto the rolling lawns. The dining room, where the extended family can sit down to Sunday dinner in comfort, has three doors which open out onto the garden.

The budget was not unlimited, so Joe and his clients decided to leave the kitchen, which was modern and well-equipped, for the time being. ‘We can tackle that at a later stage.’

The roof over the original stoep on the north side of the house was removed so that light could enter through the new wide windows. (The stoep has been replaced with a pergola, soon to be draped with roses, bougainvillaea and jasmine.) A new stoep with a fireplace was added on the west side and above it, a brand-new main bedroom.

The original main bedroom has been made into a snug upstairs living room and a secure evening retreat for mother and boys. A safety gate can be lowered from the ceiling across the stairs to completely seal off the upper floor.

Each of the three children’s rooms has a balcony with cast-iron railings and new cupboards with open cubby holes where the boys can display their toys. Built-in bookshelves and a cleverly concealed cupboard in the passage provide extra storage.

New-style farmhouse

The three upstairs bathrooms are Joe’s pride and joy: sandstone tiles, colourful mosaics by Marina Giovitto on the shower floors and taps by Hansgrohe complement each room. In the twins’ bathroom a skylight was installed to allow more light into its streamlined space; in the main bathroom, shutters of pale wood screen the afternoon sun.

Joe also removed the upstairs ceiling to expose the old roof beams and designed new doors with low handles for all the rooms. The floors have been covered with coir matting. These touches bring a country feeling to the house – wander through these rooms and it is really almost like being on a farm.

The swimming pool was reduced in size so that the boys could run races in the garden and their father, a keen gardener, would have space for flower beds.

Even the garage has had a facelift: its tin roof now has two dormer windows. ‘It’s the first thing you see when you drive in, so it must look attractive and welcoming,’ says Joe.

And so it does. But when you drive into the property, it’s not only the simple detailing of this new-style farmhouse that charms you. It’s also the reception committee – three freckled faces and three pairs of bright eyes peering over the stable door.

• Joe van Rooyen Architects: 011 880 5858, www.joevanrooyen.co.za, joe@jvrarchitects.co.za