Boshimela



Boshimela is the original home of Bob and Coral Stephens.  It was first built in 1947 having been designed by Elizabeth Craib of Johannesburg.  The home was a generous thatch building, with bricks hewn from the local red soil.  The brick quarry eventually became the hole for the swimming pool.   The home was positioned with a view of the Hhohho Valley stretching towards the Lowveld and it was built in a time before electricity, tarred roads, and when Johannesburg was a two day drive (including a pont crossing the Komati River).

Coral’s first woven curtains were hung along the long passageway – she used chalk (undyed, natural) mohair – they were unlined and hung lightly and transparently, demonstrating the suitability of mohair for drapery.

The home eventually became a showcase for her fabrics, carpets, throws, bedspreads which adorned every room.  It was the perfect backdrop – a working farm house: which dealt with muddy boots, a brood of children, assorted dogs, an array of visitors and a busy kitchen.  The diningroom and sitting room were graciously decorated, comfort and praticality was key and the resulting atmosphere is something many visitors remember and still speak of – a warm atmosphere is always conducive to people feeling relaxed and inspired.  The enormous tufted mohair carpet in the sitting room set the tone – almost an invitation to take your shoes off and feel the softness.  The home had no sharp edges, it had white plastered walls, low thatch and wooden beams that met at a steep and high pitch.  The decor came together with a rhythmn all of its own, so that it never looked decorated, somehow assembled like a puzzle, all the pieces fitting together so that the final impression was a home – welcoming, genuine, honest and warm.

As the home matured the wooden floors became shiny and smooth and wore down in the pathways people walked, the tiles developed a well worn patina and walls accepted yet another layer of white wash.  The fabrics fared best, their construction and design had lasted and been used on a daily basis throughout the lifetime of the home.

In July 2007 a forest fire began North of Piggs Peak, it was brought under control but a night of gale force winds ensured it flared up and swept several kilometers in minutes towards Boshimela.  The thatch made the home a perfect target for the fire, once it caught alight it was impossible to save – it burnt with a fiece intensity which lasted all night.

Fortunately some precious items were saved, including the tufted carpet from the sitting room and the billiard sofa upholstered in wool.  But the remaining carpets, curtaining and fabrics went with the fire.