WHO LIVES HERE? Rial Visagie and Daniel SwanepoelWHERE Robindale, RandburgSIZE 325m²
Stone floors, a paisley-shaped swimming pool, raw bricks, old-fashioned paving stones and tongue-and-groove ceilings were right up Rial and Daniel’s alley.
“When we first saw this 1970s house online, it immediately reminded us of British artist David Hockney, who is known for his swimming pool paintings,” says Daniel.
“Our first thought was that with our love of interior design and architecture, we could renovate the house with the theme ‘art imitates life’.”
Rial and Daniel live on the family farm Clairvaux outside Robertson in an area of the Western Cape known for its wine and roses.
In 2024, they temporarily swapped farm life for Johannesburg to expand their ceramics and décor business, Rialheim.
“We were keen to invest in property in Johannesburg and the suburb of Robindale offered incredible value – there is more than enough space, plenty of trees and a multitude of birds,” explains Daniel.
The three-bedroom house with a 200m² apartment upstairs had no working toilets and all the windows were broken. It was also divided into four units with several tenants on the premises.
But this didn’t deter them as people from the platteland always make a plan!
“Our idea was to honour the original style of the house but renovate it for a modern lifestyle,” says Daniel. “We wanted to embrace the Highveld and make the most of Jo’burg with its tree-lined views.”
Today, it’s called Hockney House with several of the artist’s prints adorning the walls. There’s no sign of the previously run-down property.
The renovated house with its clean lines and bushy surroundings is now as picture-perfect as a Hockney painting.
Colour in the kitchen
Although the existing kitchen on the mezzanine level and the surrounding walls were completely demolished to create an open-plan living space that includes a dining room, the footprint of the house was kept the same.
The kitchen cabinets were retained but given new saligna doors with a custom stain to complement the walls.
The main attraction in the kitchen is definitely the trendy Spanish terracotta tiles on the walls.
“South Africans are sometimes afraid to use terracotta because it reminds us of kitsch from our childhood, but it can be very sophisticated,” explains Daniel.
“The colour of the kitchen cabinets was chosen to complement these tiles and we painted the ceiling in the same shade – typical of the colour-drenched look that is so trendy right now.”
As in the rest of the house, the old-fashioned steel-framed windows were retained to honour the home’s original aesthetic. Where necessary, rusty window frames were replaced with new ones in the same style.
“The old windows bring a sense of nostalgia – something we both love,” says Daniel. “I think there’s nothing more soul-destroying and sterile than buying everything new off the shelf.”
Include the ‘weird’!
Rial and Daniel’s creative flair is evident in the downstairs living room.
Here, handmade 3D tiles from the Rialheim range take pride of place.
“We are the only company in the country that produces such tiles and we wanted to showcase them,” explains Daniel.
The room boasts a mid-century modern look and the furniture is a combination of newly purchased and second-hand pieces.
“Re-trend repaired a lot of our old furniture and reupholstered it,” says Daniel.
“Our style is nostalgic, eclectic, elegant and playful,” he adds.
“Our advice to people is to also buy a few ‘weird’ things and combine them with antique pieces as well as some new ones. Don’t try to make everything match – it’s super boring!
“The artworks in the house include items that I painted, pieces by illustrators and, of course, the David Hockney prints.
We wanted to pay homage to Johannesburg, so there are a lot of prints of the city, like the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Newtown, and we also have a ‘Free Mandela’ poster.”
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