南非的一个设计师的喜欢orite Spots in Cape Town

This is part of AD PRO’sDesigner Takeover, in which working designers contribute stories to the site. Here, interior and textile designerMally Skokshares her favorite spots in her favorite place: her native Cape Town.

As a South African designer living in Boston, if I want to see my family, it usually entails the use of some serious air miles! My sister Julia, my son, and my daughter-in-law live inCape Town,one daughter is in London, and the other in the Lower East Side of Manhattan—all very geographically challenging, but it does mean I do get to travel to some marvelous places. I make it a mission to spend a nice chunk of time each year in the wonderful mother city: Cape Town.

Julia is a tour guide in Cape Town, and her love of Africa and her city means that she always knows of every hip new thing, I love it! On our last trip, we got to have drinks on the roof at the Silo Hotel, the newest luxury hotel in the V&A Waterfront area. The hotel—andadjacent museum—was carved out of an old grain silo (hence the name). This is typical of South Africans, who love to repurpose and reuse. When resources are hard to come by, people are more inventive, and you continually see this in your wanderings among the street vendors or in the swankiest curio stores. We like to give things a second, or third life—it's an attitude that definitely something that carries over into my decorating philosophy.

Speaking of curio stores, I never miss a chance to drop in to Africa Nova in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. It is so beautifully curated and the owner is deeply involved with working with her suppliers, guiding them to produce the best quality and most interesting goods, and making sure the financial benefit goes back into their community. There is a word in South Africa that you hear a lot:upliftment. We all believe it is our mutual duty to help one another.

Africa Nova is definitely my happy place! My favorite item? These magnificent woven bowls made of colorful telephone wire. You can buy them in the airport and in other less amazing curio shops, too, but none are as incredible as these.

I love to wander through the amazing colored buildings of Bo-Kaap, past the wonderfully eye-popping colors of the houses and buildings, and head up the road to my dear friend (and yet-to-be-discovered amazing young genius) Michael Chandler.

I found Michael about seven years ago, sitting on the beach in Plettenberg Bay with my neighbors. We started chatting about our creative lives, I made him open a Twitter account, and the rest is history. Michael has the most unique way of viewing the world; he is always experimenting with something new, whether it's ceramics, paintings, or African beaded things that are not meant to be such—like a rococo mirror that hangs in my Boston house.

Be warned, Michael’s shop, Chandler House on Church Street is teeny tiny—if you sneeze you’ll miss it. And what a shame that would be…

Last time I visited Chandler House, we went up to Michael’s work space to see the l ceramic tiles he was painting for a new restaurant project. His creativity has no bounds, and it all looks like him!

If you still have a bit of consumer energy, keep heading up the hill to Pezula, the shop owned and run by my super-talented young friends Steven and Camilla Wightman. It is the last word in understated South African style, and they do it so well!

But don't use upallof your energy: It's not a trip to Cape Town until you put on those hiking boots and get out there and explore. You’ll thank me later.