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My kitchen has a slanted window. It was installed by the previous owners, probably two decades ago, because it gives you a view of Table Mountain (provided you stand in a specific spot and crane your neck). This window had a wooden frame, but wood that receives no attention for two decades eventually turns to sawdust. And sawdust isn’t waterproof. I became aware of this fact during my first winter in my 100-year-old house when rainwater started running down the wall one stormy evening. Luckily, the new kitchen cupboards were not attached to the wall – there was a gap – but all the plugs for the fridge, stove, washing machine and tumble dryer were on that wall! I frantically tried to divert the water away from the plugs with…

“We’ve always referred to the flat at the back of our house as ‘the hole’,” says Yvette Makaum of Bloemfontein. “When my husband Rohan and I bought the property in 2014, we renovated the entire house and used the flat as a storeroom. Everything was dumped there.” The flat, situated next to one of the boundary walls, was in a bad state: the walls were dirty and full of holes, the ceiling was sagging, and the kitchen cupboards and drawers had suffered water damage. “You could hardly walk through the rubbish and in-between all this was my poor husband’s desk; he used it as a temporary workspace,” says Yvette. When their eldest daughter Lucille moved out at the beginning of 2017, the Makaums decided to utilise one of the bedrooms…

On the tiles Faith du Plessis designed and hand-painted these stunning tiles before they were baked in a kiln at her regular pottery class. We love how the varying sizes and shapes of the tiles all fit together to create a frame around the fireplace in the braai area at her newly renovated Knysna home. Textured! The courtyard in the middle of Louis Heyneman’s Cape Town property truly reflects the character of his ecofriendly home as the natural wood and raw materials, mostly recycled, come together to create a striking, textured space. The stones for the retainer wall and slate for the focal wall are from the original house, which was demolished before this home was built 10 years ago. The slate was cut into thin strips to create a…

Their dream had always been to buy an ‘empty shell’ of a house and then put their own stamp on it, says Laetitia Brits. At the end of December 2014 this dream became a reality when Laetitia and her husband Shaun bought their first home. “We decided to start off the new year with a bang!” Ticking them off on his fingers, Shaun lists the number of rooms the house had before they started demolishing and rebuilding: “It had a living room, entrance hall, dining room, kitchen, one bedroom, two multipurpose rooms, a small bathroom and one large room divided in two by means of shutters – and in the one corner it had a shower.” But, says Laetitia, despite the weird collection of rooms and awkward flow, there was…

An old fisherman’s cottage, centrally located in Strand, was the perfect project for creative couple George and Carina Taylor. They bought the neglected two-bedroom house in September 2016 and by the following February had renovated their new home from back to front. “Both of us enjoy working with our hands, so this project presented the ideal opportunity for us to put our skills to the test,” says Carina who, like George, is a talented furniture maker. Although the couple have renovated the entire house, the kitchen was definitely a highlight, showcasing the Taylors’ budget-savvy transformation. “The cabinets cost us only R15 000 because we built them ourselves,” says Carina. “The initial quotes for the job came in at about R80 000!” The kitchen was desperately in need of a revamp:…

Shades of grey The darker tiles in the shower (400 x 400mm Walkway Steel Ceramic) contrast beautifully with the lighter tiles on the floor and walls (600 x 600mm Wash Cement Grey Hardbody). Robert and Amanda Randall firmly believe that going the DIY route shouldn’t be an excuse to take forever to get things done. So when they decided it was time to renovate their bathroom, they were thrilled to get it done within two months The Randalls bought their home in Roodepoort three years ago with the intention of renovating it sometime in the future. However, they decided to err on the side of caution initially and rather get a feel for their home before blindly tackling a renovation project that might need to be changed later. “We eventually…

We kept our eyes open and were brave enough to ask friends and strangers for their unwanted goods.– Victoria When Andrew and Victoria Zekveld walked off with the big prize in our annual Fix it with Flair competition last year, we knew it wouldn’t be the last we’d see of them; it was clear that this creative couple was on a roll with the renovation of their townhouse in Clarendon near Pietermaritzburg in KZN. “One of the things we wanted to change was the cramped yard,” says Victoria. “The property is only a little more than 400m² and the house is plopped awkwardly in the middle of this uneven and steeply sloping site. A dark 1.5m-wide veranda was the only entertainment space we had.” When a friend dismantled his deck…

Bright idea! The curtain is actually a white linen tablecloth to which loops were added; it now hangs on a copper pipe. Bright idea! The ottoman consists of two pallets on top of each other with a comfy cushion; castors have been added to make it easy to move around. If you’re in need of a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, the Little Karoo is just the ticket. Here, on the farm Uitsig in the Hoeko Valley between Ladismith and Calitzdorp, Narine and Jurgen Prins have converted a dilapidated labourer’s cottage into a comfy guesthouse. The couple settled in the valley, where Jurgen farms, in 2016. Jurgen and Narine, a former Grade R teacher, were ready for a new challenge and the house – practically a…

W“We met online in 2015. She was already 83 years old, but her looks appealed to me. Only three months later, she was mine.” This is how Retha Alberts described her instant attraction to the home of her dreams when she entered our annual Fix it with Flair competition. It was love at first sight. “I negotiated and concluded the entire purchase online, since I was living abroad in Muscat, Oman in the Middle East at the time. I’d never seen her in person, but my feelings about this old lady were good.” When Retha visited South Africa three months later, she was excited to see her new home in person for the first time. “But when I entered the house, I felt depressed and despondent. It was dark with…

“A European farm-style villa” is how Ruben and Tracey le Roux describe their home in the south of Johannesburg. And if you think that’s a mouthful, listening to Tracey describe their influences, inspiration and the many places they sourced the materials they’ve worked with will convince you that it’s not far off the mark. “We had a basic idea of the layout but when it came to the interior, each room would ‘tell us’ what would work in it,” Tracey says. “It’s been an organic project. From the beginning, the whole idea was for our home to look like an old French farmhouse that’s been restored, even though we built from scratch.” The Le Rouxs spent a lot of time and energy designing their dream home and at last they…

In restoring the façade and stoep, we restored the original look of the house. It’s like she got her pride back and now stands a bit taller.– Catherine For years, avid DIYer Catherine Pate spent her free time tackling décor projects, restoring old pieces of furniture and doing minor renovations. So in 2013, when she came across a derelict house in her hometown of Porterville, not far from where she and her husband Warwick live, she jumped at the opportunity to get stuck into a “real” renovation. First up was the home’s façade, which included a 10.5m-long stoep. Since they had a limited budget, Catherine, the owner of PR and copywriting company CP Communications & Publicity, and Warwick, who owns a waste transport business called Waste Pro, did most of…

FFor years, the wooden deck at the front of Mark and Annie’s home in Oranjezicht, Cape Town served solely as an extended entertainment area. Here, friends and family could gather to relax and enjoy the views of Signal Hill and the City Bowl. But underneath the 10 x 5m deck, a vacant space presented the perfect spot for rainwater tanks – something Mark and Annie have come to see as a necessity rather than a luxury with the ongoing water shortages in the Western Cape. Mark wanted to make full use of the space and decided on 10 000L of storage. “At first, it didn’t occur to me to do it myself, so I got quotes from two plumbers,” Mark explains. “To my horror, they were R43 000 and R48…

Cost: R300–R600/m² This includes installation; prices vary depending on the thickness of the application. HOW TO... Screed your own f loors One of the most frequently asked questions is how to lay a DIY screed. Although a variety of DIY options are available, it is recommended that a specialist does the job. But 2015 Fix it with Flair finalists Anton and Julie Oosthuizen from Greyton used Technical Finishes Smooth ’n Patch with great success. It is a decorative, pigmented, cement-based top layer that has to be mixed before application. It is self-levelling and can be applied over concrete or tiles. How to do it First, prime the surface with Smooth ’n Patch Liquid or Seal & Strengthen. If you’re installing Smooth ’n Patch over tiles, prepare the surface with Technical…