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EDITED BY HATTA BYNG

Design Solutions

In this Cape Town apartment, by John Jacob Interiors, kitchen units faced with Venetian-style mirrored panels create the ‘rock-and-roll-Marie-Antoinette’ look the client desired. Beautifully executed by Extreme Elegance, the panels mask the workings of the kitchen (fridge and dishwasher). The kitchen also functions as an entrance hall.

Wonderful trickery can be achieved with a well- placed mirror: increasing the perceived size of a space, illuminating a dark corner or adding sparkle to a room. Mirrors exaggerate a space’s architecture or add a new dimension to rooms that lack impact.

Verre églomisé (glass decorated from the back with a layer of colour – usually gold, silver or black) or antique glass will add glamour to a scene, while modern mirror glass has the advantage of giving an entirely regular reflection. Unframed mirror glass within an architectural framework can trick the eye, creating an illusion of a vista of rooms or views.

Work in progress

Interior designer John Jacob Zwiegelaar is in the process of bringing a Victorian terraced house back to life.

John Jacob Zwiegelaar was asked to revive a Victorian house that had suffered last during the 70s. There was ugly granite everywhere, small windows and dark paint. And there was an assortment of strangely altered rooms, haphazard additions to front and back, and tired finishes.

The client’s brief was to bring the house back to life and to rationalise and enhance the spaces, and to create a place for entertaining. This is currently a work in progress.

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