Home Tour: Our Jozi Apartment

I am totally over the moon about sharing our Jozi apartment tour with you today, but I’m also slightly nervous. Until a bit over five months ago, we called this home & I’m almost scared that showcasing it will make me sob. Yes, it was one of my happiest living spaces to date. Possibly the happiest. Don’t get me wrong. I love our new home. It is perfect in so many ways & I love living here. But back to the apartment: we were totally in love with the space itself. I was equally smitten with the lifestyle (which I wrote about quite a bit over here).

It all began after our return from a six month sabbatical from our busy lives in Johannesburg in 2012. We had a very specific list of things that we wanted. We were looking for a place with a little garden. Essentially a spot where we could live for six months or a year until we would find our first ‘grown up home’. We love entertaining (as you probably know by now), so we needed enough space. We also wanted to have enough space for when a little addition to the family arrived.

Needless to say: this place did not fit the original spec, but it could not be more perfect! If that makes any sense.

The location is über convenient. A corner unit on the second floor & so spacious at 180m² (1 937 square foot). Because it is located furthest from the super busy road, it is a surprisingly quiet spot with a view of many trees and gardens of surrounding buildings. It couldn’t be more perfect for our lifestyle – close to work, between two stations & also two malls, right on the bus route and across the road from some of Johannesburg’s trendiest eateries and coffee shops.

Uncertain about how long we would be in the apartment & hesitant to buy many custom-made furniture pieces, we still wanted to make the space our own, so we worked with existing furniture pieces. I tried to be clever about adding a personal touch, without breaking the bank. We unpcycled, painted & rearranged furniture & spaces.

When I decided to introduce a splash of yellow into the room, the cupboard got a lick of yellow paint for a more contemporary look without taking away any of the precious memories.

Luckily, the landlord was very lenient & was happy for us to paint, so the very first step was to make the very large space a bit cosier with ceiling to floor curtains for some of the rooms. We also painted the living area (which is a massive 10 x 5 metres) in a dark grey.

The kitchen was also perfect!

When our little Oliver arrived in 2013, one of the three rooms became the nursery.

We have never used a heater in this apartment except in Oliver’s room when he was new-born. It is just so wonderfully sunny.

We love entertaining and this is the perfect apartment for it.

I’m hoping to share some before & afters soon. Did you enjoy the tour…? I know I did.

Lots of love,

Yolandi ♥

All images: Marsel Roothman