Capturing the Essence of a Room

The restoration of Towerwater was done to realise a passion for old buildings that started with the restoration of two Victorian Cottages in Cape Town. My memories are dotted with whitewashed buildings during my high school years in and around Swellendam, visiting family in Gamkaskloof, Barrydale and Prince Albert.

When one descends into Gamkaskloof the beauty of the place is overwhelming and the buildings seem humble in the presence of the majestic Swartberg Mountains. To me the buildings captured the spirit of people that built and lived in them. Vernacular buildings seem more human because of the handmade feel of the whitewashed cottages and buildings in the "Kloof". I remember the "leivore" and fruit trees bathed in the herbal smell of the mountain fynbos, with the echo of barking baboons in the kranse. The inside of the cottages smelled of wood fires, baked bread and coffee roasted in the black pot with a bit of sugar that made them look shiny.

I remember the kitchen of oom Stappies Cordier's house in Prince Albert where the smoke from the hearth stained the chimney breast and hearth beam black and turned the cottage into something medieval. Listening to the conversations of the adults that lingered on the edge of my daydreaming made me feel safe.

My grandma's house in Barrydale with its white walls and black thatch was cool in summer and it felt like it was dwarfed by the apricot orchard where I could sit with my feet in the leivoor eating royal apricots with their red cheeks and throat burning sweetness.

Towerwater was always this beautiful place to us because we looked at it through our happy memories of special people framed like precious photographs in clay and thatch buildings.

 

The Dining Room

When we planned the interiors I dreamed of white walls, clay floors, aloe stained reed ceilings and cleaned Oregon pine doors. Scraping patches on the wall to see what colours were used revealed that each room was painted a different colour. The colours reflected a very Georgian palette and we had to respect the building and restore the original colours on the walls.

The Voorkamer

A company could give me lime wash in the shades that we wanted and we restored the rooms to their historical look.

The Voorkamer and Stinkwood bedroom

While stripping the doors I discovered that they were stained very dark, a practise for making what was regarded as a cheap wood look more expensive in the 19th century. I could match the stain and after stripping them I restained them.

The Stinkwood Bedroom

The Yellowwood Bedroom

The house guided us in the restoration and the final product just felt right and when the carefully collected period furniture was introduced we realised that we have captured the essence of the house.