Everything & The Kitchen Sink

These readers share the secret ingredients of their stylish – and savvy – renovations.

- Kim Arendse, Shané Barnard, Beatrice Moore-nöthnagel And Frieda Le Roux

 

#1

WHO LIVES HERE?

Andrew and Sonja van Zyl

WHERE Roodepoort, Gauteng

SIZE 17.6m²

Sonja and Andrew used old Oregon pine ceiling boards found at a reclamation yard to clad the kitchen island, and a solid wooden top in African mahogany (lovingly donated and machined by Sonja’s father) finishes the look. Formica square-edge ‘postform’ tops in the colour Saxon Oak have been used on the other cabinets. The pendants were designed and made by Andrew and Sonja for a fraction of the price of similar store-bought ones.

The Van Zyls wanted a floor dark enough to cope with day-to-day spills, their furry friends Lucy and Molly’s muddy paws and the like. “Initially, we were keen to go with seamless cement floors for a farmhouse feel but then we decided on large-format porcelain tiles which offer the same look and feel as cement and are more in keeping with the rest of our house.”

While renovating their impractical kitchen had always been on the cards, the Van Zyls’ plans were set in motion when Sonja was retrenched. That same night, frustrated and angry, she picked up a hammer and had a go at the old-fashioned tiled counters.

Then after receiving an unexpected sum of money from Sonja’s retirement fund, the couple decided to formalise the process and what began as a “let-it-all-out” demolition exercise turned into a fully-fledged makeover.