Clifton beach apartments

Recently a design trend has made its way into the traditional cottage style Constantia homes and even the trendiest Clifton apartment, that is, the re-trend, where local designers are taking old, worn out , already existing furniture items and re-working them.

For example, Katie Thompson received much attention for her plush chair made from an old opened suitcase at the design Indaba earlier this year, a secondhand, remade chair that could easily fit into the décor theme of the afore mentioned Clifton beach apartments.

But this trend does not stop at furniture design, for example, rather than demolish the old Turbine Hall building in Johannesburg, architects renovated the entire space instead. While fashion designer Clive Rundle has reconstructed a previous season’s couture range for a recent collection. On a smaller scale, a Cape Town company, Rewardrobe invites customers to bring in their old clothes which they refashion into an entirely new outfit.

Any visitor on a Cape Town South Africa travel expedition should stop in at the small Cape Town based company, Liv Green, who utilize waste materials  from the urban environment such as factory waste and cut offs to create innovative décor, for an original souvenir.

But this trend is not to be just found in South Africa, the Rotterdam based studio, Makkink & Bey, for a recent exhibition, reinterpreted existing studio projects into 19 handmade pieces, including a chair made from two broken chairs.

Acclaimed London designer, Peter Marigold has re-made furniture from simple throw away items such as cardboard boxes, subverting assumptions of durable materials. Our slickest apartments in Clifton are bound to be filled with such gems of furniture design. Gone are the days when the mark of well decorated Clifton beach apartments was that they contained the exact same furniture and décor elements as the apartment next door.