Arts and crafts villa

High on Johannesburg’s Westcliff Ridge, this historic home has an eclectic style that draws you in

Perched proudly on a South African hillside, this grand dame’s historical character is complemented by eclectic additions and a restrained restoration.

When Annabelle Desfontaines first walked up the drive towards Stonecrest Manor 30 years ago, her heart was pounding. It was immediately apparent that the house, a beautiful Arts and Crafts home on the Westcliff Ridge in Johannesburg, would be a perfect match for her family. This feeling was enhanced when she noticed a crest featuring a noble-looking hound that bore a striking resemblance to her own dog. ‘I was told that one early owner had 17 dogs,’ she recalls.

Original charm

The mansion was built in 1902, although it has had some alterations along the way. Part country pile, part suburban grande dame, it perches on the top of a hill, with its slate roof rising above Johannesburg’s urban forest. Celebrating earthy, honest local materials and handcrafted details, the house is rooted on a plinth of stone, above which is red brick and, higher still, Tyrolean stipple. Terraced gardens fall away so that the bedrooms seem as if they’re up among the treetops.

Inside, Annabelle was eager not to renovate the house beyond recognition, but instead to imbue it with her beautifully eclectic style while very much retaining its original character. ‘I really love the features of old houses. I didn’t want to try and make it new,’ she says. ‘It’s not a case of wanting to make it perfect. It’s more about keeping it in a good state of repair and not trying to do plastic surgery on it. It’s important to have those imperfections to show the history of the building, otherwise it just becomes another bland, perfect house.’

Tour de force

Throughout the manor, grand features such as wood panelling, large bay windows and elaborate mouldings all recall the taste of the property’s original ‘Randlord’ owners - Johannesburg’s rich, turn-of-the-century mining magnates, moguls and captains of industry. The layout is a wonderfully eccentric maze of rooms. ‘There are four reception rooms that lead into each other, and all of them are generously sized with very high ceilings,’ says Annabelle. The house is laid out across multiple levels, and a trip upstairs reveals a realm of bedrooms, sun rooms, attics and landings. ‘There are 12 fireplaces,’ she says, ‘and amazingly all of them work.’ Back downstairs, off the kitchen, there is a dedicated breakfast room and a wing with a series of rooms Annabelle thinks was part of the butler’s suite in a previous time.

eccentric eclectic

Rather than make any permanent alterations, Annabelle’s approach has been simply to reinvent every space. Apart from adding the odd bath and shower, the structure of the house has remained unchanged. In fact, there have been several times when Annabelle has ended up sanding skirtings or door frames as preparation for a fresh layer of paint, but has stopped short, preferring the way the sanding has revealed the layers of history. ‘There’s a century of paint and life and energy and people who have been through this house,’ she says. ‘It’s so beautiful – why would I paint it a flat colour?’ And with a loose and spontaneous approach to furnishings, the result is a house of wonderful character with a graceful, yet eccentric, equilibrium.