Interior Design Field Trip: African Pride Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

Irwin Weiner ASID - This April I visited my hometown, Cape Town, South Africa. One impressive change since my last visit was the new African Pride 15 on Orange Hotel in the downtown area. Part of a major revitalization around government, museum, and other civic buildings, the hotel is a showcase for what I refer to as "international hotel style."

Contemporary, sleek, boldly designed, and brightly colored - this is the new hotel style sweeping the globe, and it's had a major impact on home design. Go to a mass-market consumer goods website like Overstock.com, for instance, and you'll find objects that could fit easily into hotel rooms and modern-look home decor. And regular readers will know my advice on hotel style: if you decorate in hotel style, remember that hotel rooms have no personality; they're like theatrical stage settings; you must add your personality into your home decor - whether that be family photographs, your collections, travel mementos, or family heirlooms on display in a more interesting eclectic mix.

But I won't steal any thunder from the African Pride. It's a first-rate hotel; absolutely lovely. Enjoy this slideshow of hotel scenes, and also click on this link to see my South African Details scrapbook, design impressions and other "slices of life" from my recent family vacation to South Africa - in it, you'll see an Indian Ocean resort, a tour of an almost-complete luxury home, and neighborhoods and streets in Cape Town.

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How Interactive Do You Want a Designer's Website to Be?

Irwin Weiner ASID - Do you like so-called interactive websites? Designers of such sites like to dazzle you with music, lots of flash animation, arrows, and moveable windows so you can click around and explore different features. Here's a video showing a demonstration of the interactive website from talented fellow South African interior designer David Muirhead. What do you like about this website? What don't you like about it? I'm interested in what turns Internet visitors on or off when they visit a designer's online domain.

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Design2Share Travel Video - The Cellars-Hohenort

Irwin Weiner ASID - I enjoy returning to my native South Africa to visit family and rediscover truly exotic and beautiful places. Last October, Jay and I visited family staying at The Cellars-Hohenort. It's a beautiful resort in the foothills of the Constantia Valley wineland country, just north of Cape Town.

The Hohenort building is a historic Cape Dutch building that now houses 52 luxury suites and rooms, along with a chic lounge and restaurants.

The accommodations, which we didn't get to see, vary from luxury suites to smaller rooms - but we were told that all were meticulously appointed.

But to us, the amazing gardens took the cake. (Perhaps we'll "borrow" a few ideas for our own garden!)

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Hot Home Decorating Trend - African Style

Irwin Weiner ASID - It's not just that I'm noticing this trending towards all-things African in interior design just because I'm from Africa. It's fairly obvious that something has trended towards the masses and it's a big story when you're seeing the front of Home Goods stores plastered with African accessories and tabletop items.

Vernacular African decor uses lots of hand-carved wood, beautiful lacquered finishes, large scale, bold design, and bright prints ranging from overscale florals to metallics and animal skins. "Natural" is what it's all about, but I'd say it's more "super-natural," a bit larger than life, yet still warm, generous, and inviting.

There are colonial influences in traditional African design along with the dominant native motifs. You'll enjoy the following video we just took in my native Cape Town. Jay spent time interviewing Moenieba and Lesley at Colonial House Design. The interior design house and manufacturer typifies the trendiness of the African design movement in everything they create and customize for their clients. Some of their iconic furnishings and accessories are shown in the above photos and in our video. Enjoy!

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