True To Form

The integrated interiors OF A SPACIOUS FAMILY residence IN PRETORIA are TESTAMENT TO A masterful relationship BETWEEN PROPORTION and materials

- Graham Wood

The design-conscious owners of this home in Eldoraigne, Pretoria, made a smart decision before they started building – they called on interior designers Megan Hesse and Andrea Kleinloog of Joburg-based interior design firm HK Studio.

Although Grant Bullard of GWA Architects designed this house as well as an adjacent property with a shared garden for the owners’ parents, Bullard has since relocated to Cape Town, and it became clear to the owners as they consulted with Hesse and Kleinloog on the interiors that, rather than bring in a project manager to oversee the upgrade, the studio should handle the entire project.

The result is that the architecture and interior design dovetail to the point that it’s hard to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. Hesse says the design took three years in total, but there were many advantages to this lengthy time span. ‘We had the chance to make changes and design as we went along,’ she says. Not only did the process allow them the time to order and wait for certain imported materials – so that there were few compromises on those kinds of design details – but it also offered opportunities for problem-solving that meant, as Hesse puts it, ‘things evolved naturally and became better versions of themselves’.