Small is beautiful in the redesign of this Cape apartment.
This tiny clever space conjured from a pokey one – bedroom apartment of a metropolitan pied-‘a -terre-those New York or Paris apartments from which you emerge charged for social events to be held elsewhere. In contrast to Cape Town’s suburban lifestyle where entertaining space is not in short supply, it demonstrates the chic of an intimate nest in the heart of the city.
‘The person for whom I designed this space is a modern-day princess, a successful businesswoman who is always impeccable and glamorous, with a dress sense that is up to the minute. This is a pace for her to come and perch two or three times a year and sip on a martini before going out,’ explains Zwiegelaar. Feminine luxury is further underscored by the fact that functional domesticity is spirited away in a kitchen that is more like a bling bar, with oven and fridge concealed behind cut mirrored doors.
Less is more was certainly not the guiding maxim. Bold detailing and calibrated finished combine with an abundance of textures to create a cosseted environment. ‘I like dramatic perspectives, dynamic spaces, light play on reflective surfaces. The room must have energy,’ explains Zwiegelaar. ‘I also place a lot of emphasis on structural detailing and colour, so that even if you take away all the soft furnishings, you have a beautiful shell. Decorating flows naturally from he Big Idea that is the spatial concept’. An example is the kitchen: ‘We gave it back some dignity with heavy cornicing and skirting, replacing a poor man’s cornice, and a light tiled floor in Casa Stone – this looks like French Loire Valley limestone and gives the space some serious resonance’.
Zwiegelaar talks like an old hand. A measured confidence and aesthetic vision belie his youth and the fact that his company, John Jacob Interiors, was founded in 2004. But with a prodigious list of blue-chip assignments nearing completion, it is a matter of little time before his name becomes more than an insider secret. The private home and five – story Bree Street clinic of plastic surgeon Des Fernandes, Marianne Fassler’s apartment, Anthony Beck’s Clifton Second Beach bungalow and Graham Beck’s Franschhoek wine-tasting facility opening in July are among his projects. Another is the five-year Steenberg Hotel revamp, in Constantia, where a completed pool bar gives a taste of the fine things to come.
There’s always a prologue to overnight success. A consummate chef and gardener, Zwiegelaar’s aesthetic apprenticeship goes back many years to an unusual childhood. ‘As little children, we were dragged around gardens in Europe by my mother in particular those of the chateaux in the Loire valley.’ When he was 24, he and his siblings found themselves juggling the roles of chefs, decorators and gardeners of the vast family farm. ‘In Standard Six, my sister and I furnished a 2 500-square-metre, nine-bedroomed house and landscaped the gardens.’ Taking inspiration from the dramatic approaches of those Lire Chateaux, he established a five-kilometre avenue of plane trees underplanted with agapanthus leading up to the house. ‘It remains my biggest landscaping project to this day,’ he laughs
Asked to define a signature style, he replies, ‘I step into the client’s shoes to choose for him or her from the range of things that I like. It inspires me to create stage-sets for people so that they shine in those spaces. And because it is so person-specific, nothing looks like anything else. Bree Street’s pared-down masculinity is the complete opposite of this ultra -feminine apartment, and Steenberg is a modern take on the Cape Dutch’.
That affinity for the theatrical runs through Zwiegelaar’s decor narrative. The ornate reflective surfaces of the kitchen are an example, as are the mirrored concertina doors that conceal the balcony-like shutters, or the über-sized objects furnishing this small space. Neoclassical tonality is another element that emerges from many of his projects, ‘To try and convey a concept I use colour in a monochromatic manner.’ Rooms range from white to mother-of-pearl, shot with oyster grey. Dark accents anchor these tones, with mahogany floors lacquered in ebony, a gun-metal grey sisal in the living room and cast-iron table base in the kitchen. This richly primed neutral backdrop is nuanced by the time of day, as light playfully glances off sliver-leafed Oriental furniture, clusters of cut-glass decanters or the many mirrors.
‘I love detail. I’m most proud of the pelmet above the bed, made up of 450 pieces of Venetian mirror. I drew it up to scale in my office on pieces of cardboard. Signed by the artisan too. So bespoke, so cool,’ he says. A place this small invites close scrutiny and that is perhaps what led Zwiegelaar to create a place that beguiles.
Scale varies by project. His favourite commission, the yearly styling of a safari destination for the Saudi royal family, is the quintessential mise dayntyi scene. ‘We take over a bush camp and transform it to the highest standard of bespoke luxury. I love having to improvise’. There’s no fretting about details, no long lead times. ‘You create about 35 dinning rooms for the duration of their stay, bringing in half a forest of thorns or an oasis’ worth of palm fronds to create a scene from an African One Thousand and One Nights. It’s almost absurdly fabulous and ephemeral.’