WORDS Amelia Brown
Season Five of Win a Home sees three competing pairs of designers face off over 13 weeks as they transform three white-box penthouse apartments in Balwin’s Paardevlei Lifestyle Estate in Somerset West, Cape Town, into dream homes.
Rather than being the mentors, this time around three editors, including VISI’s Editor-in-Chief Sumien Brink, are the fictional clients. (You can check out the recap here of the VISI team’s home in Season 4.)
Sumien is the “client” who will be working with Team R&K (aka “The Dynamic Duo”): Rekopile Belebesi, founder of furniture design company Belebesi Décor, and Koketso Marole, part-time model and full-time interior designer, met at the Design Joburg Expo in 2018 only three months prior to being selected as a Design Duo. Their urban approach to design combines sophistication and minimalism.
Team Contrast Control met at design college: Kehumile Mate, previously an interior designer at dhk, and Nicholas Smit, finance-turned-design student who worked at ARRCC Interior Design Firm, will be working with SA Home Owner’s Editor Kelebogile Nondzaba.
Melissa Oosthuizen and Sinead Turner make up the third and final pair, Team Perma Peeps, whose client is Debbie Loots, Editor of REAL|life magazine. Sinead, who met Melissa seven years ago at design college, comes from a background in corporate design, and Melissa is the owner and designer at her own company, East Haus Interior Design and Custom Furniture.
Team Contrast Control Nicholas Smit and Kehumile Mate; Team Perma Peeps Sinead Turner and Melissa Oosthuizen; and Team R&K Rekopile Belebesi and Koketso Marole.
Once again, the Design Duos will have world-class products available to them as they design their apartments. This year’s products include cutting-edge appliances from Samsung, furniture and homeware from Weylandts, paint from Duram, original Oggie Hardwood Flooring, and signature quartz surfaces from Caesarstone.
Teams will battle it out for two prizes: the Judges Choice of R100 000 and the Viewer’s Choice of R20 000. By voting weekly for their favourite Design Duo, viewers stand a chance to win amazing weekly prizes live on air, such as smartphones and appliances, local getaways and shopping sprees. And by entering the weekly giveaway, viewers automatically stand a chance to win the Grand Prize: a brand-new three-bedroom designer penthouse at Balwin’s Paardevlei Lifestyle Estate in Somerset West, Cape Town, worth over R3 million.
Meet the Design Duos and their magazine editor “clients” in the introductory episode and tune in to SABC 3 on Thursdays at 7:30pm.
