A 115-year-old Victorian beauty full of décor surprises
Despite her intention to buy, renovate and sell this property, the owner fell in love with its potential and has created a home full of décor surprises.
you might expect to see more of the same. After all, the pristine exterior with its white doorframes and neat grey walls looks deceptively predictable.
That is until you spot the whimsical pink front door and realise that this house in Oranjezicht, Cape Town is anything but ordinary.
“I love juxtaposition – like plain white doors with something completely out of the ordinary behind them,” says Lisa with a smile.
She bought the house four years ago, although at first she wasn’t keen on the property; Lisa’s dream home involved a couple of ducks and a tomato patch, so this spot didn’t strike her as nearly big enough. “However, I was convinced by a friend and my trusted real estate agent, who at that stage had shown me about 60 properties, that this was a good home to buy, renovate and sell,” she explains.
“Victorian houses have such good bones, so in that sense it was perfect – right down to the old Aga stove in the kitchen. But it hadn’t been well maintained and the interior was in dire need of an update.”
Halfway through the renovation, Lisa found herself buying expensive wallpaper and tiles. “These were personal purchases and not indicative of a flip job at all!” she admits with a chuckle.
These days, Lisa and Ben, whom she met and married halfway through the renovation, are very much at home here and enjoy entertaining friends in their charming space.
Upon entering the 115-year-old Victorian beauty that’s home to Lisa Peters and her husband Ben,
Wallpaper provides an added dimension that paint and paint techniques can’t and it creates that instant wow factor. – Lisa
A rich history
Once she’d decided to buy the house, Lisa commissioned Cape Town Property Histories in Woodstock to research her home and compile an informative booklet. She is the 14th owner of the house, which originally formed part of the Oranjezicht Estate that was subdivided in 1901.
Over the years, various owners made changes – some more successful than others. Lisa, who has renovated homes in a number of countries, tackled the project herself with the help of what she describes as a “motley crew”.
“We hacked off damp plaster, replastered four of the rooms, removed the ghastly carpets and sanded the old Oregon pine floors. We laid screed on the kitchen floor, opened up the space between the kitchen and living room, and installed another bathroom so all three bedrooms have en suites,” she explains.
And throughout the process everything was done “with the utmost respect for the original style of the house”. But that did not stop Lisa from injecting enough personality to make it her own! >>
Full of fun!
When it comes to décor, Lisa doesn’t believe in sticking to just one style. Each of the three bedrooms has a unique, playful theme: Deadly Sinful, Dog House and Boudoir.
As a kinesiologist, Lisa says she is highly attuned to energy. “So the wallpaper, paint and décor had to resonate with the mood of each room and its specific features,” she explains. “For instance, the kitchen has a fabulous dark blue-purple feature wall that adds interest and acts as a dramatic foil to the tumbling green vertical gardens visible through the windows.
“In the dining room, I wanted to create a sense of voluptuousness, so I painted it in Plascon’s Rafter; this way, the walls visually ‘absorb’ the built-in cupboards that came with the house.”
Lisa loves to entertain at home and her décor often serves as a conversation starter. “I love it when visitors ask: where did you find it or how did you choose it and what possessed you to create this?”
She also likes to add more than one layer of detail as well as a few surprise elements – whether it’s the little red hearts sown into the canopy in Boudoir, the pooch bathrobe handles behind the door in Dog House or the birds in the alcove of Deadly Sinful, there’s always something that calls for a closer look. >>