KICK BACK 'N RELAX IN comfort & style

Turn your living area into a cosy and elegant retreat.

- Beatrice Moore-Nöthnagel, Elna van der Merwe and Haidee Muller-Isaacs

The chunky leather sofa is ideal for this space. "We have large dogs, so the furniture has to be pet-friendly," says Errieda. The antique cabinet that houses the TV is a "dark British green". "I've resisted the temptation to paint it for years. Its weathered state is part of its story."

#1 Beautiful in blue

WHO LIVES HERE?

Errieda and lan du Toit with their dogs, Poerring and Tjoklit

WHERE Welgemoed, Cape Town

After almost 39 years, her beloved husband is still a romantic who knows how to surprise her, says food writer Errieda du Toit. For her birthday recently, lan pulled another rabbit out of the hat: a striking focal wall that transformed their living room into an art gallery and had the unsuspecting Errieda gasping with delight.

"lan really knows how to make me happy," she says. "Our living room hadn't excited me for a long time; the walls had been the same boring old beige for almost 12 years. I had fallen out of love with them. In addition, we'd collected a lot of paintings over the years that had ended up in cupboards or in the outside rooms."

But when Errieda returned home after a month-long work trip, the dark blue walls had her in raptures. "I barely recognised the space. It was astonishing! And at last our beautiful paintings had been given their rightful place."

The yellow coffee table was a gift from a friend, Serina Chambers, who owns the antique shop Nerf-Af in Onrus River. Errieda refers to this ball-and-claw table as "a ray of sunshine" in the middle of the room.

The perfect choice

"I like surprising my loved ones," says lan. This time round, he had to keep his plans under wraps so that his foodie wife wouldn't suspect what he was up to.