Dear readers
It feels great to connect with you again. I’m sure many of you know me from when I helmed Condé Nast House & Garden previously, but for many of you this may be our first date. Either way, I’m excited to host you every month to a refreshed and relevant take on the beauty and diversity in design that’s coming out of our country, continent and world today.
CNHG has led the way for almost two decades by providing you with a showcase of remarkable architecture, decorating and gardens, the people making them and informed views on why they matter. We’ve taken you into design-forward interiors, brought new talents to your attention before they became blockbuster stars, and championed current ideas on what it is to live well. Nothing has changed. But the way you digest the information has and I felt it was time to rethink what you need from a magazine and how it could serve you better, because for a quick dose of trending wall treatments, for example, Pinterest is unmatchably encyclopaedic on the subject. Similarly, if you’re craving in-depth style manifestos, copious fat, glossy-paged tomes are there for the taking via Amazon or Exclusives. On my two-year sabbatical from CNHG, I worked on design and architectural projects. But despite a surfeit of products and advice, I needed more than anything a go-to guide that I felt intuitively knew my needs, and that I trusted. Effectively, I was you. Wanting to find designs that worked in real life and reflected me, not a decorative formula. Like a black locally woven floor rug that would not fade in the sun, for plug covers that matched the walls, for a knee-height bathroom pedal bin that didn’t do a somersault every time you opened it. I wanted to know if there was a velvet that didn’t feel creepy if you sat on it in a wet bikini. Not to be difficult did I need this, but to help me make more savvy choices and so, I hope you grow to relish
CNHG as a source of curated, stylish design inspiration and reliable opinion on it.
And so to the issue in your hand. What better way to embrace a new season of sunshine than with a massive Sa-focused design special. Tour four exclusive unseen interiors that make a stellar point of integrating the surrounding environment. That is how we can live here and it’s becoming a globally celebrated design signature of SA’S way of living in a mindful and experiential way.