Bringing self-sufficient farm-style living into the superb Brettenwood Coastal Estate.
Wendy Bouwer from Bridgewater Spencer Architecture and Margaret Berichon from B Design Studio collaborated in creating this breathtaking home for a client in one of the most exclusive, sought after estates on the North Coast, Brettenwood Coastal Estate situated in Sheffield.
The house has stunning views of rolling hills, which makes you feel like you are on a quintessentially gorgeous KZN farm, and boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 ½ bathrooms, 2 lounges (both separate), a study, a dining room, a beautiful white modern kitchen, scullery, and a sizeable garage. The house was strategically designed to face north; allowing direct sunlight into the house during the day, especially in winter, so you don’t have the fierce afternoon sun. Entertaining is a big part of the home with a lovely patio comprising a private bar room, an L-shaped pool, a braai area and a custom made outdoor dining and coffee table crafted by a local company, Greenhaus. Greenhaus is a custom furniture and decor manufacturer, who specialise in bespoke furniture, decor, wallpaper, rugs and upholstery. Their involvement with the home extends to the cabinets, outdoor table and coffee table on the back patio, all made from Accoya, a treated timber with a 50-year guarantee against the elements (it even has a 20-year guarantee underwater!). The tops on the braai area cabinets are made from Aurastone, a new moulded product that is UV resistant, mould-proof and has a finish like natural stone.
Come whatever element, the patio entertainment will carry on with the amazing motorised blinds by AC Screens who fitted their ‘Lockscreen’ product on the patio. The Lockscreens use zips welded onto the edge of the fabric, which ‘locks’ the fabric into the guides, thus eliminating any gaps and providing a solid screen for maximum protection from sun and wind. The added advantage of this product is that the screens can be lowered to any position and will lock in place – this gives real flexibility and allows maximum use of an outside area.
The house has a specific design made accessible for a wheelchair, and one of the bathrooms is designed bigger. The house also has a flatlet at the back consisting of a bed, kitchenette and a bathroom. The clients are used to their farm style living, so the house is fully self-sufficient with solar panels by Solttera Solar and is entirely off the grid. Solterra Solar install, service and maintain all their installations of solar geysers, solar Photovoltaic and battery backup systems. For this home, they installed an off-grid solar and battery backup system. The installation comprises 3 x 8kW Victron inverters, 2 x 20kW FreedomWon Lithium Iron batteries and 45 x 410W Canadian Solar modules. The system has a 12kW gas generator as a backup for charging the batteries if there are a few cloudy days in a row.
The interior design of the home is focused on natural light and a neutral colour palette. Beige tones and a few blue accents are used for an elegant but timeless aesthetic and create a sense of calmness and harmony with the outdoors that fill the windows in all main areas. Wooden pieces and finishes are used as key design elements to keep the neutral colour palette throughout the house. The home flaunts high-rise white ceilings and crisp white walls to make the areas lighter and truly highlights the magnificently spatial living space. All the furniture, cabinetry and tables were all locally custom made to match the scale of the home. The client was passionate about keeping everything as locally sourced as possible, everything apart from one lampshade in the home has been locally sourced, including the exquisite artworks by local fine artist, Darylle Iri
The west wing of the house, known to be the guest wing, has one of the lounges, a guest room with an en-suite bathroom, and his and hers studies, entirely private to the rest of the house. Each bedroom has glass sliding doors to allow in natural light, a lovely view, and their own little section of the garden. Bedrooms are decorated, keeping the neutral colour palette and lighter patterned wallpaper to brighten up the space; each room has been decorated with different accents and details. The main bedroom is bright and spacious with a modern walk-in closet, perfect for the clients to relax and get a good night’s sleep.
This house has three walk-in frameless shower screens and two shower enclosures, custom made by Shower Haus, which is a fantastic husband and wife business. 
They’re a hands-on duo and always frequent their sites and do visits to assess the best option shower enclosure for the clients’ bathroom area.
Shower Haus is one of the only companies in KwaZulu-Natal to carry a wide range of shower spares and stock a beautiful collection of framed mirrors suited for the entire home. (about bathroom tiles from Select a Tile)
The home also has technical functionality in mind, with a large flat-screen TV with state-of-the-art audio done by Audio Architex, who have been helping consumers make their home audio/visual dreams a reality. In this home, they installed a smart amplifier with multiple zones of audio in the form of in-ceiling speakers; this allows music to be streamed and controlled directly from your phone throughout the house, playing the same source everywhere or different sources in the different zones.
This home is certainly a dream house, with its simple yet elegant interior design that Margaret pulled through to every room and area in this home. Wendy undeniably ensured that the architecture and layout encompassed all that the client needed and wanted, especially when it comes to hosting and entertaining. With the incredible help of all suppliers involved, the entire team made their clients dream home a reality for them to enjoy and create new memories in.
