As beach houses go, this is one of the hidden secrets of Hermanus. The Blue Nook sits on one of the oldest and best-loved locations alongside the cliff path, between Skulpiesbaai and Kwaaiwater. Flanked by milkwood forest and uninterrupted mountain views on one side and Walker Bay on the other, it’s private, protected and – dare we say it – perfect.
Tucked into a nook it is, where kids can play on their scooters, dog walkers cheerily wave as they pass and the path to the beach feels like your very own. ‘I simply fell in love with the views,’ says the owner who is used to the wide-open spaces of Zambia. ‘I had absolutely no idea it was a Gawie Fagan original – a genius architectural design by the late Gabriël Fagan built in 1992 for the Swanepoel family, who also asked the famed architect to design a seaside home for them in St Francis. I loved the light streaming through the central glass roof and could imagine many happy seaside holidays,’ recalls the owner.
‘I wanted a place for us to feel held as a family. On the day I drove into Hermanus, a bold rainbow appeared… a clear sign. And I love to walk – it’s my release – so the cliff paths were a big pull. Fortunately, The Blue Nook is in the enviable front row of houses but separated from the cliff path by a green belt, so is considerably more private than other homes. The house needed love, of course, but it had good karma. It’s very different to me as a person as I’m a bit “olde-worldy” and I didn’t know the first thing about Kwaaiwater either! I dithered a bit, as I actually had my eye on a pondok down the road – the original house on Voelklip farm at Kammabaai – but it wasn’t for sale at the time. I even looked at a lovely Sir Herbert Baker, but the kids wanted this house.’
Family, warmth and home…
Today, everything about The Blue Nook – with its distinctive Grecian-blue shutters, original stack-back Oregon windows facing the sea and its distinctively tall chimney – is personal and welcoming. As the owner is a passionate collector of ceramics and a lover of Nordic design, the house is imbued with layers.
‘I found the earthenware ones in Puglia while on a cookery course, and the blue bowls on the original Gawie Fagan shelving are from a potter in Zambia. The copper bowls on the kitchen counter were bought on a trip to Stone Town in Zanzibar, and the wooden bowl was made by artisan Adrian Carr from found wood in the Luangwa Valley – they don’t harvest new wood but upcycle.’
If you can take your eyes off the bespoke gate-leg dining table and the hanging silk Bukhara found in Kazakhstan, you’ll notice a clever natural cooling system for the house, which is 90% off-grid. The eco-pool begins as a soothing water feature, cascading outside the living and dining area, which takes the softest water to the new egg-shaped pool, tucked into the corner of the patio next to the sunroom.
Quirkily, the house has genius swivelling wooden windows in the most unlikely spots, but they allow cool sea air through their narrow slit-like openings, while doing double duty as a convenient hatch – you can pass ice-cold drinks through to the patio near the pool. And why not?
Outside, the flourishing indigenous garden is home to mongoose, sunbirds, sugarbirds and visiting francolins who call for their seed each morning. ‘The house number tiles were a gift from my older son, who found them on a surfing trip in Portugal, and the patterned blue-and-white ones from Porto were found by my daughter after she’d walked the Camino.’
And the kitchen? A dream for cooks… Even the stylish salt and pepper grinders are of Danish design. ‘A Danish guest bought a vase and candlestick as a gift, and when I realised that the designer was the same, I bought them. The pestle and mortar were my grandmother’s. She used the bowl for dripping (you can tell I was a farmer’s daughter, can’t you?) and my younger son made the wooden chopping board with the overlapping lip when he discovered woodwork during Covid.’
If the library corner draws you in, it will be because you feel at home at the wooden desk that invites you to journal or ‘puzzle’, or because you sense there’s a story or two in this corner. And your sixth sense is spot on: around the corner is a server table where the owner’s great grandmother, living in Hopetown at the time, wrote letters to her three children at boarding school in Cape Town. In between the baskets of books you’ll spot a stone-carved scallop shell picked up on a Camino; a black-and-white Jerusalem tile by an Armenian potter and a framed postcard – with words on the back from a son who was travelling in South America where the warmth reminded him of home in Zambia – all part of a curated mood board of family travels.
Perhaps you’ll take out your watercolours and paint here, or simply exhale deeply, sleep soundly and enjoy family laughter, good food and cathartic walks. ‘For me, The Blue Nook is about family, warmth and home. It’s a place of communion, if you like. A place of healing and – most importantly – a home-from-home. I want everyone to feel completely relaxed here,’ says the owner.
It goes without saying that The Blue Nook has a very special energy that is both soothing and rejuvenating. A seaside haven filled with sunshine and plenty of soul.
Written by Michelle Snaddon