Majeka House and Spa recently clinched best design hotel in Africa and the Middle East at the Condé Nast Johansens Awards for Excellence 2017. Owners Lloyd van der Merwe and Karine Dequeker-van der Merwe have been working on various upgrades and tweaks since last year, calling in the expertise of designer Etienne Hanekom to work on the hotel’s rooms, Makaron Restaurant as well as the lounge. The five-star establishment is on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, and offers gourmet spoils at Makaron Restaurant by Pete Goffe-Wood.
A finale to the recent refurbishment is the launch of the hotel’s newly redecorated pool rooms, with two suites in front of a shared heated pool and elegant terrace. With an oversized flamingo print in the hotel’s dining room, Etienne extended the exotic bird reference in the rooms – making bold colour, pattern and design statements in each and making sure to include framed vintage prints of birds as a point of reference. “It all started with a collection of vintage Audubon bird prints which we found and we took it from there,” explains Etienne. “In nature, a riot of colour is often the norm, especially with birds, and I wanted to reflect that with the palette and furnishings so there are lots of different textures, there’s old, there’s new and there’s an out there colour palette too.”
