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Room displays are a mix of original Tonic items, antiques and art, including Tonic’s blue AF 003 server, works by Norman Catherine and Lucy Jane Turpin, and carpets from Herringbone (which Tonic stocks). -
The new extension. -
Tonic’s green HG cabinet contrasts against the original features of the house and new additions such as the terracotta floor. -
One of the rooms in the original farmhouse. -
Room displays are a mix of original Tonic items, antiques and art, including Tonic’s blue AF 003 server, works by Norman Catherine and Lucy Jane Turpin, and carpets from Herringbone (which Tonic stocks). -
Room displays are a mix of original Tonic items, antiques and art, including Tonic’s blue AF 003 server, works by Norman Catherine and Lucy Jane Turpin, and carpets from Herringbone (which Tonic stocks). -
The new showroom extension is spacious and full of light. -
The new showroom extension is spacious and full of light. -
Tonic’s Roundback armchair contrasts against the original features of the house and new additions such as the terracotta floor.
WORDS Sarah Buitendach PHOTOS Paris Brummer
Back to the Beginning Tonic‘s new showroom is a celebration of decades of exceptional design and the best of Joburg.
Interior-architectural studio Tonic may have had a showroom in the Johannesburg design precinct of Kramerville for 10 years, but it feels fitting that this space has now returned to Parktown North. The old Joburg suburb is a hub of art galleries and trendy restaurants, and is also at the epicentre of the area that Tonic has inhabited since its founders Greg Gamble and Philippe van der Merwe established the company at the end of the 1990s.
In the early days, they had offices up the drag from Parktown North in the then-blisteringly cool Rosebank “design quarter”. In the 2000s, Tonic’s Parktown Quarter shop and office was the stuff of cracking window displays and legendary launch parties. For the last decade, Greg and Philippe have had their studio right around the corner from there, in one of the suburb’s original farmhouses.
Now they’ve jumped at the opportunity to morph this 100-year-old homestead into their showroom too, turning the original front rooms of the property into a series of ever-changing display spaces. These flow into a new extension to the side of the classy old structure. From the road, the new addition might seem modest; in reality, it’s anything but.
Running to the back of the property, the double-volume space is large, airy and warm. Terracotta tiles cover the floor, providing contrast against jute rugs and Tonic’s trademark colourful, contemporary furniture pieces, while a glass-walled courtyard allows light to flood in. “We designed the new section ourselves – we’d have driven an architect demented”, Philippe says. Their exacting design eyes aside, this move makes sense because they’d been in the building for years, and thus knew exactly what would and wouldn’t work. Case in point: that building a structure that doesn’t face north would be okay, and that it would get constant, shifting light throughout the day. Tonic’s rebooted HQ is illustrative of their adaptive furniture and the projects they do across South Africa and the globe – but on a real, residential scale. They’ve combined their own pieces with antiques, collectables and art in the ever-evolving rooms, so it’s instantly possible to imagine how they might work in your own life.
Yes, this is a commercial endeavour – but you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d just wandered into a quintessential, albeit incredibly stylish, Highveld house. The Tonic team has mastered the crafting of eclectic, easy and elegant living spaces, and in doing so created a design vernacular for homes that is utterly, beautifully Joburg.
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