Simple Beach Living

Bakoven is a small seaside suburb of Cape Town and is named for  the oven-shaped rock through which the sea foam bursts like escaping steam in rough weather.

 

This fresh, whitewashed cottage couldn’t be any closer to the sand and water. The owner describes their idyllic lifestyle : ‘We all know each other – at sunset, everyone sits on their front walls or steps, sharing a bottle of wine and catching up.’ Doesn't that sound just perfect!

A lover of bargain finds, the resourceful owner did the interiors herself. ‘A well-known interior designer once came up from the beach and had a look, and his advice has always stuck with me – he said that the painting was outside the window and that whatever happened inside shouldn’t compete with it,’ she recalls.

They used boulders from the site to build the beautiful stone wall.

Few things were bought new. The owner sewed the simple slipcovers for couches and chairs, fashioned side tables out of old wine-barrel lids, used hopsack for curtaining and gave her existing furniture a lick of paint.

The owners periodically rent out their home to guests, who never fail to enthuse about their stay. ‘We’ve had people from all over the world, accustomed to five-star hotels and all the best things, and they always say what we believe: nothing compares to this lifestyle right on the beach.’

I hope you enjoyed this little taste of life on a Cape Town beach.

Till next time

Sharon x

Image and text source: here