Fresh ideas: Something blue

Photographs Francois Oberholster • Styling Marian van Wyk

A loving touch

Over the years and in bits and pieces, Rosemary Barker has updated the façade of her Simon’s Town home. Paying homage to the 1890s Victorian villa, she retained many of the original features of the house, such as the sash windows (two of which still boast their original glass panes!), and had new shutters made to replicate those that had perished. 

A boring strip of tar was dug up at the front of  the house and replaced with rosemary, lavender  and wild buchu bushes. Inspired by the open skies and sea, Rosemary  added touches of cool blue to the exterior of her otherwise white house. Too beautiful!

We love this!

Custom-made heart-shaped broekie lace  by African Forge adds a touch of whimsy  to the stoep’s corrugated-iron roof. 

A safe space

Security bars create a cottage pane effect on the home’s original sash windows.  On either side of the front door, Rosemary painted the words for peace and hope in different languages, starting under the windows and writing downwards, vertically. 

We love this! A wooden bench has been bolted to the wall and an old headboard serves as the backrest. The marine ply angel wings were custom made by a friend. “I have various angel wings around my house; they provide me with a sense of comfort and fun,” says Rosemary.  

All the right curves

Rosemary added a garage to the side of the home – mainly for storage – with a deck on top. She found the old teak doors at Ross Demolition. All 

A cement floor was laid in front of the garage; since the space is used for storage it doesn’t have to contend with vehicles, only foot traffic. “I applied an undercoat (Midas Masonry Primer) and was measuring out neat squares for the finish when a friend walked by and suggested I create a pattern instead,” says Rosemary.

“So I took a hosepipe, laid it down and traced curved lines from north to south across the whole driveway and then from east to west to cross the lines and create the curved ‘squares’, before colouring them in with paint.”  To keep this surface clean, she simply splashes it with soapy water and then rinses it off.