Picture the scene. Leading South African interior designer Chris Nel of Christiaan Nel Design, and his right-hand designer, Karen Stanek are sitting on the sofa of a penthouse on the 49th floor of a building in Miami, waiting for their client to arrive.
The client (whose name they won’t divulge because of client confidentiality) is coming to assess the outcome of a two-year project to furbish his penthouse. It occupies the 48th and 49th floors of the Jade Ocean building in Sunny Isles – a strip of coastline populated by the ultra-rich.
The client is two hours late – his plane was delayed – and Nel and Stanek are watching the condensation on the bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne, wondering what he will say.
“This was an absolute dream job,” Stanek explains.
“Chris had done a home for a friend of the penthouse owner and he liked what he saw. So he approached Chris and gave him two years to complete his penthouse, down to the last piece of cutlery.”
On receiving the commission, Nel asked Stanek to join him on the project – they had met while Stanek was in the fabric business.
They complement each other; his style is formal and he is bold with colour; hers is more casual and she is more restrained with colour.
The client told them he wanted “something with soul, interest and a touch of Africa”.
So began the Miami project, with two years of e-mailing and skyping the client to show him designs and ranges, shipping containers full of interiors from South Africa to Miami and flying back and forth to oversee the project.
“For this project, as with all our projects, we sourced as much as possible from South Africa. We are very proud of our South African art, craft, design stores and fabric houses, which are up there with the best in the world,” says Stanek.
“We purchased magnificent chandeliers from Weylandts… and locally produced fabrics, such as the Evolution range from Home Fabrics.
“We got beautiful wooden bowls and exquisite traditional African bracelets from an African art dealership in Joburg called Tog’una. These were mounted on perspex stands so that they ‘float’ and become art.
“What adds to this is that Lara Tatley of Tog’una knows the story behind each and every bowl and bracelet. I’d rather have one beautiful item with a story than a whole lot of stuff,” comments Stanek.
In the penthouse lounges, Nel and Stanek softened linear-shaped sofas with handmade scatter cushions from another local store called Bead. The cushions have ostrich shell beads, stones, crystals and copper coins embroidered on them. Each piece is hand-stitched and each is unique.
In all the rooms, Nel and Stanek have hung ethereal silk curtains, adding to the feeling that the penthouse’s floating in the sky. “You look down on small planes from there, and when it rains you feel like you are standing in the clouds,” says Stanek.
When the client’s plane finally touched down, he made his way to the penthouse. When he opened the door, and looked around, he said: “Guys, we’ve done it!” The client, well pleased, has now commissioned them to do another home for him, “somewhere in the world”.
With the calibre of clients they look after, Nel and Stanek are often not at liberty to reveal the who-and-where of interiors they are designing “somewhere in the world” or “somewhere in Africa”.
One such project was in Angola. “It was a boutique hotel in Luanda, designed by a fantastic Brazilian architect who used wonderful wooden floors and ceilings, which I normally don’t like, but which worked perfectly here,” says Nel who once again shipped all the interiors from South Africa.
“When you’re working in Africa – and we’ve worked in some really remote places – you have to make sure that you send absolutely everything in the containers, down to the last lightbulb.
“There isn’t some handy store round the corner where you can quickly pop out.”
The question is, how do they know where to begin on a project?
“I find the building normally tells you what to do with it,” replies Nel. “You get a feel of it, the scale and the views, and then you give each room what it needs.
“I like people to live in their homes and we don’t clutter unnecessarily.”
For clients who cannot cover the cost of the full “master plan” in one go, Nel and Stanek sometimes stagger the project. “We worked on a five-year master plan for a wonderful client of ours who had just got divorced,” says Nel. The twist in the tale is that on completion of the project the client was made an offer on her apartment with all the interiors included. She sold it for a fortune.
“It’s wonderful when you get those nice stories,” he says.
Her new home has also just received the Nel touch.
Many of their clients are repeat business.
“We look after our clients’ money,” says Nel. “I’m a great believer that once you have quoted a client, you must stick to the quote.
“Quoting accurately is extremely important. If you have quoted incorrectly, I believe you should pay for your own mistake.”
Because they work in this way, they have satisfied clients and no unhappiness at the end of their contracts.
Giving a client what they want requires far more than accurate quotes, of course.
“You need to listen carefully to your client and read them, and understand their lifestyle – are they casual, social, do they have formal dinner parties, how do they dress,” explains Nel.
“It’s very intimate designing someone’s home because you need to know who sleeps on which side of the bed and where they like to keep their undergarments, so that you can try to give them everything they want.”
While it might be many people’s dream to commission an interior designer, it is not within everyone’s reach. “Our advice is that if you are designing your space yourself, don’t try to cut corners. I’ve seen people spend a lot of money on beautiful fabric for curtains and then they go to someone who isn’t a professional to sew them up for them and they ruin the fabric,” says Nel.
“It’s the same with wood. A carpenter can use the best wood in the world, but if he doesn’t know what he’s doing, you’ll land up with a soapbox,” adds Nel who bemoans the loss of the Portuguese carpenters he used to commission.
“They were master carpenters but most have packed up and gone back to Portugal. So now we have to work around their absence. Instead of commissioning a beautiful server in the dining room, you buy an imported one.”
While most of Nel and Stanek’s work is focused on interiors, on occasion they need to get involved with builders to redefine the space they are working on – such as removing a wall or adding a bathroom.
“Building is not for the fainthearted and you need a highly recommended professional. Never skimp on the builder!” says Stanek.
“And never skimp on the packers if you are moving home or moving goods,” adds Nel. “Moving containers full of interiors all over the world as we do – we can say this with authority – we only use the best packers, ones that we curse when we unpack because they have packed everything so well.”
Knowing what perfectionists they are, it is endearing to visit their 6mx6m office at Nel’s home in Morningside, which they share with their admin and accounts team member, Ciska du Preez.
“My home is like a warehouse. People can’t believe where we work,” Nel smiles.
“I don’t believe in renting a fancy shop in Rosebank where the landlord’s rent kills you. We create glamorous interiors for our clients but putting them together is not glamorous; it’s jeans and tackies work and we work like slaves.”
At night when they finally tuck into Egyptian cotton sheets (a must according to Nel), they still don’t sleep.
At 2am they awaken in their respective homes and get some of their best design ideas. The following morning they arrive at work with their 2am ideas, often to discover that what they have been thinking is remarkably similar.
“Design is an addiction and we’re addicted in a similar way,” Nel explains.
With his résumé he could live anywhere in the world but he loves Joburg. “It’s my home and I love the feel of this city,” he says.
“I once decided I needed to get away and went yachting for six months in the Mediterranean. At first I enjoyed it and indulged in the privilege because it was a fancy yacht.
“Then I started feeling guilty about just lying around. Then I got ‘sleg’ (bad) and stopped shaving or washing my clothes. I started buying cheap T-shirts and shorts and I’d throw them away when they got too dirty.
“After six months I realised it was time to come home.”
And home he is, at least for a bit, until he or Stanek jets off somewhere else in the world to start their next project. - The Star