Contemporary Interior Design

• Posted on 25th January 2010 by Nicola Holden

This weekend my wonderful Zimbabwean friends, Mark and Laura Albertyn and their two children, Matthew and Zoe, came to visit.  This photograph was taken on Saturday morning as we walked along the Regent’s Canal.

Mark and Laura are currently living and working in the UK, but they have a vision to move back to Zimbabwe in July this year.  Mark feels there is a huge need for A-level studies in communities where HIV and other socio-economic factors have forced gifted young adults to cease their education and attempt to find employment in order to support their family.

Their initial plan is to take over the running of an A-level Centre in Turf, a rural platinum mining town 2 hours drive outside Harare.  Premises have been obtained through partnership with a local government senior school and temporary classrooms have already been built. The Turf A-level Centre started operating in March 2009.

From there they hope to expand to Hatcliffe Extension in Harare, where they will set up the next A-level Centre.  Hatcliffe Extension is a particularly poor and deprived community, and has been identified by the Ministry of Education in Zimbabwe as being the high density area to start the second centre.  It is an under developed area, situated in the north of the capital city Harare, that would benefit greatly from this facility.

The A-Level centre will have a Science/Business A-level subject slant.  These are traditionally the subjects in greatest demand by gifted students who want to progress to University studies in medicine, engineering and business management degree courses.

Mark and Laura are working in partnership with a UK based charity, Makomborero (a Shona word meaning “blessings”), set up to aid the relief of financial hardship and the advancement of education in Africa.

For further information about their vision, or to offer your support, please do have a look at their website. My company, Nicola Holden Designs, is supporting Makomborero through the donation of photographs for their 2011 calendar which will be on sale later this year. Further support will be offered as my company grows.

• Posted in Charity | 3 Comments

• Posted on 13th January 2010 by Nicola Holden

Today, a cold and grey January day, I seem to have been bombarded by the word ‘colour’!  Renee Blackwell, a wonderful Australian jewellery maker, talks about the importance of colour in her blog.  And I received the latest news from Mix Magazine which talks about verdigris being the colour for January.  Verdigris is the name given to the rich mineral green that forms when copper is exposed to the elements.  Kevin McCloud, in his book Choosing Colours, describes verdigris as a vivid sea green – dense and appealing but with a bluish cast that suggests an almost synthetic quality.

As an interior designer, colour is vitally important – to provide an environment that raises spirits and boosts energy; to enhance spirituality and provide a restful and nurturing environment; or to encourage reflection and thought.

In my home I generally opt for a neutral colour scheme, adding splashes of colour with accessories (a cushion, picture, multi-hued vase, or just a simple bunch of flowers).  Neutral colour schemes invoke a sense of calm from the hustle and bustle of our busy lives, a sanctuary-like attraction that can easily be made to look sumptuous.  It is warm in winter and cool in summer, and maximises the space and light in rooms.  A neutral colour scheme is a blank canvas on which to stamp your mark with anything you choose.

At Nicola Holden Designs, however, it is the client that I design for, and it challenges me to think outside of my box.  I love colour and the combinations that you can create by mixing different pallets together.  As part my design process I produce sample boards, giving the client an easy-to-visualise idea of what their finished room will look like.  Here are a couple of sample boards that I have produced for my designs.

The first is for a living room that was designed using a mischievous and evocative red – conjuring danger, passion and the forbidden.

The second is a bedroom design that uses the reassurance and harmony of green to provide a de-stressing space that nurtures and nourishes.

“Colour does not add a pleasant quality to design – it reinforces it.”
Pierre Bonnard

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• Posted on 05th January 2010 by Nicola Holden

After a long telephone conversation with my mother, who still lives in Zimbabwe, I was inspired to start delving into my family history.  With the help of a very old book that she has, written half in English and half in Afrikaans, we managed to piece together some of my family tree, starting with James Murray and Sarah Armstrong, who, with their eight children, travelled from Cork to South Africa with the Parker party on the East India ship as part of the British Government 1820 Settler Scheme.  I then found this wonderful website dedicated to the genealogies of the 1820 Settlers.

James and Sarah’s daughter Martha married a French man by the name of Jean Pierre Pellissier, who had settled in South Africa as a French Huguenot missionary from the Paris Mission Society.  Jean Pierre eventually moved to an area north of the Orange River where he founded a mission station which he named Bethulie (meaning Eloah – house of God).  Besides his mission work, Jean Pierre made a contribution towards practical education and medicine among the local people that resulted in Bethulie being one of the best developed mission stations in southern Africa.  Today, Jean Pierre’s home is the oldest pioneer building north of the Orange River. It now houses Pellisier House Museum displaying items of the past and information on the life of Jean Pellissier and Chief Lephoi and his people.

Another of James and Sarah’s daughters, Mary, married John Norval who had sailed to South Africa from Scotland in 1817.

The Scottish Norvals were all comb-makers but there was no demand for their skills in the Cape area at this time.  John Norval eventually opened a hat factory in Colesberg and this village soon became famous for the wide-brimmed felt hats that were favoured by the farmers, hunters and traders.

Martha and Jean-Pierre’s daughter Emilie married her cousin George, Mary and John’s son.  Emilie and George Norval were my great great grandparents.

George’s brother, James Norval ran a pont (ferry) across the Orange River before the railway was laid: hence “Norval’s Pont” (Norvalspont in the Free State) now on the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam.

What a wonderful, exciting and rich heritage I have!  I am forever indebted to these brave people for the wonderful childhood that I had growing up in Africa.

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