The Light Fantastic

When her dream home on the slopes of a mountain became a reality, this reader knew exactly how to redesign and decorate it to best effect.

- Cecile Greyling

Even though she wasn’t the owner of a rather ordinary house situated on the slopes of the Helderberg mountains in Somerset West, Antoinette Stockley knew exactly what she would do with it if it was hers.

For seven years she had been a regular visitor to the house while a friend was renting it. Then, one day about a decade ago, the property came on the market and Antoinette became the proud owner. She immediately set about implementing significant changes.

“All that remained were the foundations and one half of a wall,” she says. “I wanted lots of glass as the property is surrounded by so much natural beauty.”

The central point of the home is the double-volume living area on the ground floor. Glass doors on the west-facing side reveal the garden and indigenous forest beyond and an abundance of light streams through the steel-framed windows, the greenery forming an almost seamless part of the interior.

Although the open-plan space catches the hot afternoon sun, Antoinette loves her surroundings too much to block it out with shutters or curtains. Double glazing helps with the heat, while solid wooden floors, high ceilings and the perfect colour scheme, including white kitchen cabinets and stainless-steel countertops, contributes to a cool aesthetic.

Custom-made glass panels feature in every room, as well as in the roof. “When I approach the house in the evenings and Emma has already turned on the lights, it looks like a glass box. All you see is light. In the daytime, I love that I can see the mountains with the clouds rolling over them.”

Style with soul