Babylonstoren’s new Fynbos Cottage in South Africa’s winelands offers a private sanctuary where nature takes the lead.

WORDS Tracy Lynn Chemaly PHOTOGRAPHY Warren Heath

Fynbos, the vegetation that forms part of the diverse Cape Floral Kingdom, calls for closer inspection when viewed from a distance. Its hardy, evergreen leaves and unusual blooms reveal a mosaic of colour and herbaceous scent to those curious enough to approach. Blending into its surroundings, it’s a zoomed-in view that reveals the full wonder of this indigenous South African flora that includes the country’s national flower, the protea.

The same can be said for Babylonstoren’s new Fynbos Cottage. When seen from afar, the white walls of the cottage, built to resemble vernacular farm dwellings of the Western Cape region, seem to disappear into the surrounding environment. The cottage is integrated into a landscape of mountains, vineyards, streams, dams, gardens and orchards making up this wine and fruit-and-vegetable farm located an hour’s drive from Cape Town.

Similar to the plant for which it is named, the magic of Fynbos Cottage is best experienced up close. It’s inside that one discovers the subtle, sensuous secrets that lie within its thick stone walls and the scenic backdrop revealed beyond glass façades.

South African model Jenna Pietersen and her seven-year-old daughter Ruby are well versed in these treasures, calling Babylonstoren their ‘home away from home’, with Fynbos Cottage being their favourite weekend retreat on the 300-year-old property.

Owned by South African décor doyenne Karen Roos and her husband Koos Bekker, the farm is a haven for fynbos, many species endemic to South Africa. Each month provides a new experience for Jenna and Ruby as these indigenous plants burst into bloom and fruit and vegetable gardens produce their seasonal bounty.

“There is so much to do on the farm,” Jenna enthuses. “It caters for all of your senses.”

Having grown up in a family of safari enthusiasts, Jenna holds the outdoors close to her heart, and because she’s often travelling to big cities for fashion shoots, she finds her grounding back in such natural environments. Fynbos Cottage has become a welcome retreat from her daily routine in the town of Stellenbosch, 30 minutes away.

“Here, I’m able to reconnect with nature and myself,” she says. “This is the place I come to when I need to breathe and focus on what’s important to me.” This sense of oneness with oneself and nature is exactly what Karen envisioned when designing the cottage.

“I wanted it to be harmonious so that visitors can fully relax inside,” she explains. “The cottage needed to be simple, like its exteriors – whitewashed and pure. All the emphasis had to be on the beauty of the setting.”

Presented mainly in white, with natural elements of wood, leather and jute, the interiors speak to Karen’s affinity for elegant simplicity and her knack for blending antique and contemporary pieces without allowing one piece of furniture to overpower another. Hers is a style that finds a fluid dialogue between tradition and modernity.

Fynbos Cottage feels at once expansive and cosy, its pitched roof extending the sense of space, while its fireplaces call for snuggling up and settling in. Jenna finds much comfort indoors.

“It really feels like home,” she says, “and you never feel like you can’t kick your feet up.”

“I don’t want to be distracted,” she adds by way of describing how every item inside the cottage serves a specific function, everything perfectly considered and never overdone. “I want to focus on the view and the indigenous plants surrounding the cottage. The minimalistic furniture allows me to do that.”

The views are of the grand Simonsberg Mountains out back, and vineyards in the front. In a typical cottage, such beauty would only be enjoyed from the stoep (a veranda found at the front of traditional South African homes), but Karen wanted nature to be on show throughout the cottage.

BEDROOM Two four-poster beds by Prowell Kitchens have been cleverly joined together to create this haven for cottage slumber, their linen canopies enclosing the restful environment within the high-apex bedroom. — **BEDROOM** Two four-poster beds by Prowell Kitchens have been cleverly joined together to create this haven for cottage slumber, their linen canopies enclosing the restful environment within the high-apex bedroom.

She accomplished this by designing the kitchen with glass walls, bringing the outdoors right into the far end of the sitting room that leads off the kitchen. Says Karen, “It allows you to enjoy the sense of place whether it storms or the sun shines.”

Movement from the living area to the bedrooms is equally enchanting, a glass passageway mimicking the verdant outdoors with trailing plant life suspended from its ceiling. Jenna finds great appeal in the cottage’s connection to everything that surrounds it. “It never gets old,” she says from the kitchen, looking out to the sun setting over the fynbos.