House Parkes

House Parkes is a villa on Parkes Lane built around vaulted, exposed-beam ceilings inside and two pools outside, with a bar counter along the veranda for the hours in between.

The house shows glass doors and a garage door at its corner, with parking and a private entrance. A covered veranda wraps part of it, holding a wooden daybed and a large potted plant, and potted orchids sit in the corner of the patio.

Black subway tile, marble island

The kitchen is the striking room: dark cabinetry, a marble island under pendant lighting, black subway tiles behind a gas range and patterned tiles across the floor, with a narrow pantry and a separate kitchenette holding a coffee machine. It opens to a long dining table beneath the vaulted ceiling. The living rooms carry L-shaped and cream corner sofas, a built-in fireplace that gets lit, and doors standing open to the garden.

Chevron tiles and purple throws

The bedrooms open outward almost without exception: folding doors onto the garden and pool, glass doors over the lawn, a navy headboard, blue-and-white bedding with a wicker bench, a patterned headboard under a purple throw. A hallway lined with built-in wardrobes runs to a garden door, and there is a dressing room. The bathrooms are where the fun is, green chevron tiling with a repurposed yellow vanity, another in red, blue chevron with a walk-in shower and a freestanding tub.

Two pools and a bar counter

A large swimming pool lies beside the covered patio with sun loungers along it, and a round plunge pool sits on a wooden deck under an umbrella. That deck takes a long dining table strung with lights and a picnic-style table beside a built-in braai station. The bar counter runs along the veranda with stools at it.

Parkes Lane and the island

The island is flat and residential, and everything that gets onto it comes over the Armstrong Road causeway. Steenbok Nature Reserve fills the island’s northern edge, free to enter at any hour. There is more to compare here if this is not the one.

Fills up with

A big group who will cook outside, swim, and drink at that counter rather than going anywhere.