ROOM TO GROW
For two wedding and event planners, a century-old barn in the Western Cape Winelands provided the perfect setting for raising their family
With all the requisite characteristics of a modernindustrial barn, from lofty pitched ceilings and corrugated roofing to solid raw brick walls, Hannes and Tina Maritz’s home has been brought to life out of a
former dairy.
“Old buildings have fascinated me ever since I can remember,” says Hannes, who together with his wife, Tina, owns Kraak, a wedding and events company. “When our relationship was still in the early stages, I remember telling Tina that I wanted to live in a barn one day, and that I wanted to be able to pull my car right up into the living room and get onto the couch. It was the ultimate bachelor vision.”
After trawling through property sites to find his dream barn, Hannes landed on this storage facility — a century-old dairy in the small agricultural town of Wellington, 45 minutes outside Cape Town. The building’s bones were in good nick, but it was lacking infrastructure so the couple set out on a nine-month renovation installing plumbing and electricals and building a bedroom.
While this renovation didn’t include Hannes’s bachelor-fantasy car hatch, the simple yet effective configuration was perfect for the two of them: one long open-plan ground-floor living space, comprising kitchen, dining and lounge areas, with their bedroom, a peaceful whitewashed room, upstairs.
“When we found out Tina was pregnant with Jacob (now 4), we realised we needed a space for him. We got this crazy idea to build a Wendy house inside the downstairs area,” says Hannes with a chuckle. A few years later, the pair prepared to welcome Kranhold (now 18 months old), into the fold, and they knew it was time for another major renovation, eschewing the Wendy house for two additional living zones.
Big swathes of glass were installed to separate the kids’ bedrooms downstairs from the communal living zone, but to allow the sense of openness on the ground floor to prevail. Another narrow pane on the opposite side of the space intersects the wall, reaching right up to the roof of the top-floor bedroom. True to the style of the building, the glass sheets recall old factory windows and make it feel airier, more elegant and doubly spacious.
Tina and Hannes’s decor has also undergone a metamorphosis since moving in. “In the beginning we tried to fit in as much as possible. We packed two lounge areas and two kitchen tables to fill up the ground floor,” says Hannes. “And when we brought our furniture together, it was difficult to make it work.”
While Hannes’s style lent more towards extravagant pieces in bright, bold colour, Tina’s aesthetic comprised elegant lines in white and oak. Today their look is a sophisticated blend of warm wood pieces in neutral tones with eye-catching vintage furnishings and accessories.
Avid collectors, the two hunt secondhand and antiques stores in search of covetable objets and lucky finds. They seek out items from old factories in the area, rescuing retro pendant lights from becoming junkyard scraps.
“We are at a place now where we both really feel comfortable with each item,” says Hannes. Most of the pieces that decorate the home have a story, such as the extra-length Chesterfield couch that belonged to a friend who passed away, or the piano that sits in the kids’ room, inherited from Tina’s family. Then there’s the Etsy stove, a rare find which took eight people to lug indoors.
“I’m very sentimental,” admits Hannes, a self-confessed hoarder, who likes the proximity of an on-site storage unit for when the urge strikes to revisit the interior. “Because we are creatives, we get bored quite quickly, so we change it up a lot — and I don’t sell anything! We’re constantly stimulated with events and designs of spaces, so we are trying to keep it natural and neutral at home,” he says.
Wooden tables and wicker seats texturally play off the soft velvety feel of the cushions, pouffes and an outsize deepbuttoned ottoman in the living area. Against the exposed brick walls and screed flooring, the earthy tan and leather tones are complemented by indoor plants.
“It’s a bit of a greenhouse,” says Hannes, of the botanical element that pops against the industrial finishings. Tropical hues spill out to the verandah seating area, which features a green velvet sofa set — the vestiges of Hannes’s flirtations with colour — surrounded by fresh bursts of flora.
“The house is under two gigantic ficus trees. Because nothing can really grow under them, we built the stoep for plants. It’s very cool there in summer.” As you walk from the stoep indoors, you can’t help but notice the detailed Delft tiling that covers the front steps. It’s then that you remember that Kraak, their brand name meaning “crack” in Afrikaans, is also a type of Chinese porcelain which influenced the painterly blue-and-white Dutch ceramics of the 17th century. “We absolutely love Delft,” says Hannes. It’s yet another of the couple’s precious collections imbued with history and character — just like their family home.