Naomi’s choice of
Dulux’s Kiwi Burst 1
(10GY 41/600) on the
wall of the entrance area
makes a lively backdrop
for a colourful collection
of finely woven baskets
from all over the world.G
reen Point is a cosmopolitan part of Cape Town. Creatives
and intellectuals alike live in this historic labyrinth whose
narrow streets crisscross the lower slopes of Signal Hill
above the V&A Waterfront. Since many of the area’s first houses
go back a bit in time, space for both gardens and garages is usually
at a premium but that doesn’t faze the homeowners. They happily
think out of the box and reinvent their rabbit warrens.
As you step through a stylish grey door on the pavement,
and down a few steps into the home of House and Leisure editor
Naomi Larkin, her husband Naashon Zalk and their daughter
Noa, you find yourself in a narrow gravel-paved private
area closely lined with thickly leaved trees that frame a long
table set for lunch. Due to tinkling water and cleverly placed
mirrors amid the screening greenery it feels like one of Rome’s
alfresco restaurants.
The sophisticated atmosphere continues as you enter through
glass doors into a high and wide split-level space that’s colourful
and engaging. This was once a typically tight-lipped semi,
cramped and clingy like the rest of them, until previous ownersbroke down four successive interior walls and transformed it into
an open-hearted designer dwelling in which nothing hijacks the
sense of space.
From the front garden it’s one long flow through the living
area, with its elegant sofas and dining table, past wide jade-
coloured stripes on the wall and down from a wooden floor
on to attractive patterned tiles in an easy living kitchen with
a covered patio to the side. At the end more wide stripes –
chocolate brown – enclose the blue doors of a pantry. Leading off
on the one side are two bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms.
Naomi’s in her element in this stylish series of spaces. She
likes the fact that the entire house is lived in, unlike some of her
previous larger homes in which she’s had unused rooms ‘like
museums’. She also loves the location near the sea. It’s quiet but
close to the buzz. She grew up in New Zealand ‘where the sea is
never far away’ and then spent time in seaside metropolises such
as Singapore and Sydney before relocating to Joburg and then
hitting Cape Town when she became House and Leisure’s design-,
fashion- and art-obsessed editor.62 HL OCTOBER 2015 HOUSEANDLEISURE.CO.ZAFAMILY HOME
1015_HL_060_069_House_Larkin_RFO.indd 62 2015/09/04 11:55 AM
The dining area leading to the kitchen has a Gregor
Jenkin (gregorjenkin.com) signature steel table and
Windsor Quaker chairs by Ercol from Decade
(083-477-2430). Naomi found the walnut manrobe
on auction and turned it into a drinks cabinet. Above
it is a screenprint by New Zealand artist Debra Bustin
and on the wall leading to the kitchen is a Hermann
Niebuhr print (niebuhr.co.za). The giant metal
standing lamp was a gift from Gregor. OPPOSITE,
RIGHT Nico Masemola’s charming ceramic rabbit
sits in a glass dome among the flowers in Naomi’s
collection of graceful bud vases.1015_HL_060_069_House_Larkin_RFO.indd 63 2015/09/04 11:59 AM