Brushwood 5-Bedroom Holiday Home on Leisure Isle

Brushwood stands on Watersedge Road with the lagoon in front of it and steps running from the garden down to the shore, which is about as direct a relationship with the water as anything on this island manages.

It is a white double-gabled house and shows best from the shore looking back: two gables, a garden running down, a covered veranda along the front. There is private parking, and exposed beams carry through nearly every room.

Water on either side of dinner

The dining table is long and set beneath a chandelier with water on either side of it, under a vaulted beamed ceiling with a mezzanine above. A wooden staircase rises to that landing. Living rooms take two pink sofas round a coffee table, white armchairs beneath an exposed beam, bookshelves and seating facing the lagoon. An upright piano stands in the hallway. The kitchen is cream-cabinetted with tiled countertops under the same beams.

Beams over every bed

The bedrooms sit beneath beams and high ceilings: twin beds with a blue armchair, twins beside an antique dressing table, a rattan chair at a large window facing the water, a built-in bookshelf next to a single bed, white bedding under a skylight. One has a wardrobe and a baby cot. Of the four bathrooms, one has a bathtub with a separate shower, others corner showers, pedestal basins and shells on the wall. A treadmill sits on the upstairs landing.

Braai under the tree

Sun loungers and a patio table stand on the lawn above the water. A brick-built braai sits under a large tree with the lagoon past it. The covered veranda has built-in bench seating along its length, a tiled veranda holds wicker chairs, and a curved balcony gives a wide view over the lagoon and the hills.

Watersedge Road and the shore

Leisure Isle is a residential island in the Knysna estuary and the Armstrong Road causeway is its only link to the mainland. Steenbok Nature Reserve covers the whole northern shore, free, at any hour. Our guide to what the island is like covers the shoreline and the rest.

Best used by

A large family gathering, with a piano, a baby cot and the water at the bottom of the garden.