6. designed by chaos

When we were renovating Milimani, we proudly showed friends and family how the lodge was progressing and monitored our success by their reactions. My favourite was when a friend exclaimed “Wow, who was your interior designer?” I humbly replied “Oh, it was designed by Chaos.” Being a typical Sandton girl, she replied, “Don’t think I’ve heard of him.”

Well, let me introduce you to Chaos. He was totally obsessed by his new project, has amazing vision and endless energy – and I’m married to him.

Before we moved from Kenya to develop Milimani, we dreamt of what we would do and how we would do it. 

I fantasised about the former and Ken worried about the latter.

We inherited an amazing set-up on the farm and aimed to revamp the accommodation to suit international tourism. I wasn’t particularly keen on the typical Zulu rondavels and wanted to build something easier to furnish, but finances put an end to that day-dream.

Friends from Kenya came to visit not long after we moved down and we told them about our concerns about being able to do something different with a round building. Over copious amounts of vodka, Lucy, our colourful Kenyan friend, grabbed a piece of paper and a felt tip pen and set out to design what is now fondly called “Vodka Cottage.”

During the haze of the evening it all made sense and seemed quite logical. And in the grim light of the morning, nursing sore heads, we found Ken, hammer and chisel in hand, working to the plans that Lucy had scribbled out. Vodka Cottage is our favourite room and became a template for the other three rondavels.

The next challenge was: what to do with the restaurant area?

I managed to throw ‘Feng Shui’ jargon at ken many times and it often got me my way – until he realised I actually didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. We’d devised a brochure before we started building and I’d written ‘….with a swimming pool built into a man-made cave…’  The brochure was printed and Ken looked at me in horror. Where was this man-made cave? I explained that we should build it over the small pool at the restaurant and put a game-viewing lounge above it. He challenged me with some engineering talk and I responded with ‘girlspeak’. But it was the brochure that decided the issue – I just love the power of the written word. So poor Ken and his able helpers carted in rocks and stones, and 12 tonnes of cement later, we had a cave over the swimming pool.

We’d also decided to make our own furniture. This time it was Ken’s turn to completely blow my mind. He scouted the bush for dead wood and brought back, what in anyone else’s mind, looked like firewood. This was carefully sorted and categorised outside the workshop. Inside, Nkoni, our capable carpenter, produced the most amazing pieces – beds, tables, dressing tables, chairs, lampstands – everything that was needed for the rooms. We have guests that drive through the bush now looking at dead trees, saying: “That would make an amazing table/ lamp/ etc.”

Despite our lack of plans and seeming chaos, we had a lot of fun putting the lodge together and the result has been rewarding. 

Mother Nature gave us plenty of inspiration and it is she who deserves most of the credit.

Published in Country Life, June 2002

Other blogs by Lois Kuhle:

SMOKE RINGS IN CUBA. A TWO WEEK JOURNEY FILLED WITH SALSA, SUNSHINE AND SILLY PEOPLE: http://smokeringsincuba.blogspot.com/2013/10/smoke-rings-in-cuba-journey-filled-with.html

COOL THOUGHTS. MUSINGS AND OTHER MAD MOMENTS:  http://loiskuhlethoughts.blogspot.com/2013/12/we-have-pending-nuptials.html