Not To Shabby!

Filled with interesting junk shop finds and decorated with abandon, this charming holiday cottage in Stanford epitomises shabby-chic style without compromising on luxury.

- Kim Arendse

Susie Potgieter insists that she doesn’t have an eye for décor.

But just one look at the interior of her family holiday home in Stanford will set the record straight!

Still, she maintains that this humble three-bedroom house is “just a collection of colourful junk shop finds added bit by bit over the years, like a good patina.”

“I certainly didn’t have a decorating plan when we bought the house 11 years ago,” says Susie, who lives in Rosebank, Cape Town with her husband Tom. “We just fell in love with this little town after visiting a few times and couldn’t pass up the opportunity when the cottage went on sale.”

Susie says her love of Stanford grows with every holiday spent there and that the town has been her greatest inspiration when it comes to decorating the interior of this home away from home.

The house is located opposite a large open field and on balmy summer evenings, the family gathers on the front stoep to watch a game of cricket or rugby played by locals and holiday-makers.

“It’s moments like these that make Stanford feel unspoilt,” says Susie. “There are the old dirt roads, there’s an abundance of birds and fynbos, the Klein River runs through town and you’ve got the ocean nearby on one side and mountains on the other…”

The interior of Susie’s home reflects this love of simplicity and nature with its floral fabrics, local landscape artworks, rich textures and tapestries, reclaimed wooden furniture and a palette of pale neutrals paired with varying shades of blue and green.