As Gutted As An Artist's Blank Canvas

To work with a gutted space – whether a house or an apartment kitchen – can be as fulfilling as a blank canvas is to an accomplished oil painter.

I had that rare fulfilment with a project in the Kew area of Bramley, Johannesburg.

It started on an unusually cold morning. Phakama, Sis' Melody, and I turned up at Tenerife Court, responding to an online request for a proposed kitchen makeover on the north side of Joburg. The gentleman who had called himself Aviel happened upon one of my adverts and put through a call. He wanted a site visit.

I arrived, and soon learned to my delight that there were not one but two separate renovation jobs. First, two water‑damaged units at Tenerife had to be removed and replaced. But the real deal – the one that would haunt my dreams for weeks – was at Vaude, an apartment down the road, just off the famous Louis Botha Avenue.

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The Blank Canvas That Stopped Me Cold

Arriving at Vaude, the sight was surreal.

Here was an apartment completely hollowed out. Except for two bedrooms with archaic wardrobes – the kind fitted with hollow‑core doors better suited to interior passageways – every other room had nothing but four dull walls surrounding us. No furniture. No finishes. No trace of life.

I couldn't believe my fortune. A blank canvas. Carte blanche. I could practically do as my artist heart wished and desired.

We started with the kitchen area. And then – oh, my – reality hit.

This was going to be one tiny kitchen.

(Read: ingenuity.)

We moved to the two bathrooms – one en suite, of course. Here too, the canvas analogy perfectly applied. Finally, we ended up in one of the three bedrooms, where a new closet system had to be designed and installed. And what spacious bedrooms these were – truly hacking back to some bygone era when space wasn't coming at such a premium.

After the initial walkthrough, we went back to the kitchen and spent the rest of the morning strategizing. When I finally emerged to leave, it was almost two in the afternoon.

My brief? Design and install a new kitchen, complete with all associated electrical and plumbing alterations. A new closet for one of the three bedrooms. And the two bathrooms: shift the antique cast‑iron bathtub from the common bathroom to the en‑suite bedroom and reinstall it there, install a new close‑coupled toilet, and affix wall and floor tiles. To replace the cast‑iron tub in the common bathroom, a new shower would be built, enclosed with a quadrant glass cubicle. Two new vanities – one for each bathroom.

Before any of this could commence, all unseemly, visible, surface‑running galvanised steel pipes had to be replaced with modern, in‑the‑wall copper piping.

Then the real work began.

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The Kitchen: Where Ingenuity Met Impossibility

We started with the kitchen.

The challenge, to put it simply, was to optimally utilise space already at a premium – and do it in a way that the final result was cosy, inviting, functional, and above all, spacious.

You'll agree that sounds like a tough call. More like "everything for everyone." And if truth be told, it truly was quite a call.

We began with an upside‑down U‑shape. At the top of the U sat the sink unit. And then we measured: the space between the two long arms of that upturned U was a mere 2,250mm.

Consider that a standard base unit is 600mm deep. That meant we would have barely a metre to spare in the middle as kitchen floor working space.

Tight? Absolutely. Impossible? Not on my watch.

The layout emerged like a puzzle solving itself. The sink unit went under the window. The built‑in cooker unit – hob and oven – would be on the right as you faced the window. The microwave unit would be on the left, next to the pantry unit.

On the right, beyond the cooker unit and past a single‑door floor unit and a traditional four‑door cutlery drawer unit, would be a fridge slot. The single‑door floor unit on the left would be enclosed on the other side by a 600mm section of wall – the remnant left behind when the previous owner had knocked down two interior walls to create an open‑plan design.

On the other side of the kitchen, beyond the pantry unit, a 1,200mm floor unit would be installed, facing the fridge and the single‑door unit. Behind this 1,200mm unit would be the apartment's entrance passage.

Then came the sink unit. It would depart from usual dimensions, sitting between two 900mm corner units – one on each corner, of course – in that overall space of 2,250mm. Between these two corner units would slot, not a usual 1,200mm sink unit, but a 450mm filler unit.

In fact, we eventually wound up with a 430mm filler unit – because the walls behind the two long arms of the upside‑down U slanted acutely inward, imposing even further constraints on an already impossibly tight space.

And so it was that on top of these three units – two corner units and the filler unit – a kosher‑compliant 1,800mm double‑bowl kitchen sink with dish strainers on either side sat. Partially on the corner units, and squarely on the filler unit right in the middle.

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The Board, The Stone, The Sublime

We chose Laricina for the project – a board with moderately pronounced lighter and duller grey strips, like a shot of Indian ebony taken in black and white on a cloudy day. Off‑cuts from the kitchen units later came in handy when we made the two bathroom vanities.

Then we topped everything with a jaw‑droppingly beautiful slab of Starly Black Quartz kitchen worktop. The effect was as close to sublime as one can imagine. Indeed: Black is beautiful.

We proceeded to complete wall and floor tiling. In keeping with the pastel colour of the Laricina board, the client settled on a floor tile – just off‑white, veering into light grey – that immaculately complemented the board. On the wall, however, a rustic brown tile was selected, creating a fantastic contrast with the Laricina.

The final effect is, to say the least, tantalisingly beautiful. The Laricina and the floor tile do the utmost to naturally light up that rather tiny space, while the rustic wall tiles provide a much‑needed contrast that beautifully borders the pastel Laricina board on the wall units. The Starly Black worktop adds just the right spackle to the overall picture.

To be certain, the finish couldn't have been better.

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A Legacy That Lived On

This kitchen was more than a renovation. It became a friendship – not only with Aviel, but especially with Philip, his property manager. Philip was there on site, guiding, coordinating, sharing stories. He appreciated the work, and I appreciated his quiet competence. Philip was an affable, true gentleman—a vivacious soul with a Bud Spencer-like swagger straight out of the old Western movies, yet with a heart as magnanimous as an elephant.

Philip, larger than life, insisted on appearing in this photograph and made it clear he wanted it used in the blog once published.

Then Covid came. And Philip was taken, untimeously.

His loss still echoes. But his contribution to that Bramley project – and to the friendships formed around it – lives on. And so does the ripple effect.

Because here's what happened next. When the Mtambisis – whose kitchen makeover I would later write about – asked for references of past projects, I pointed them to Aviel and Philip. Without hesitation, they welcomed the Mtambisis to view the kitchen in person. Immediately after that site visit, the Mtambisis were sold on the idea of proceeding with their own kitchen makeover.

That visit, that willingness to open their doors, became the catalyst. One kitchen begat another.

Paths cross for a reason. Even when they end too soon.

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A link to a short movie on this project will be attached here once the editing process is complete. In the meantime, you can view a photo album of this project on this Link.

Blogs on the work done for the bathrooms and bedroom closet are being written and will be published soon.

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For further details on my built‑in cabinet and home renovation services, please feel free to contact me by WhatsApp, SMS, or call on 063 888 5573.