Atrium

Atrium is a house on Bowden Park Road named for the way light gets into it. A skylight drops sun into the middle of one lounge, and the rest of the day arrives diagonally through the windows.

It stands back from a brick-paved driveway with parking on it. The building is plain enough from outside, and the interest is all indoors, where a run of connected sitting rooms opens one into the next through hallways and doorways.

Rooms that run into each other

There is more lounge here than most houses manage: two sofas facing one another beside French doors to the garden, a corner under the skylight with a wicker chair in it, a nook with a built-in bookshelf and a dark sofa, woven wall discs hung where most houses would put framed art. A long wooden dining table seats eight beside bright windows. The kitchen is compact, wood cabinets and a window over the sink, with a dishwasher, a washing machine and a coffee station holding a kettle and a pod machine.

Rattan headboards, red cushions

The bedrooms are individually done: a woven rattan headboard with a blue armchair, a double over a patterned rug, red cushions on a grey throw, a dark blue headboard, floral artwork above another. One has its en-suite behind a partition. Bathrooms run from a modern one with a floating vanity and glass shower stall to a pink-tiled room with a pedestal basin, and one has a shower over the bath with grab bars fitted.

Brick braai on the patio

A covered patio holds a bench, a glass table and wicker chairs, with a built-in brick braai beside a wooden table. That is where the evenings go. There is a balcony as well.

Bowden Park Road

A wall-mounted inverter and distribution board keep the lights on when the grid does not, which is worth knowing anywhere in this country. The island is low and residential, and one causeway carries everything on and off it. There is more to compare on the island.

Suits a party of

Eight, at that dining table. Or fewer people who want several rooms to disperse into.