Ask at reception to view the album of photographs of Zomerlust Boutique Hotel in its previous iterations, and what you’re handed is an entirely analogue experience: an oversized photo album, its plastic sleeves no longer adhesive, its pages filled with faded images of the property dating back to the early 1990s.
At the back, a handful of loose, larger images records the “country chic” aesthetic of the hotel’s former rooms and suites. Discarded in the heritage building as one of many items included in its sale, the album — like several other elements in the newly reopened hotel — reveals just how rich in history Zomerlust is.
This history was as intriguing to Wayne Williams and Wikus Lategan, founders of property development company Ion Holdings, as it should be to any guest who pauses to consider Zomerlust’s 234-year backstory. Initially interested in the property for the development opportunities afforded by its grounds, the duo found themselves inheriting the dilapidated hotel as part of the sale.
Seduced by the building’s character and its sprawling gardens, both badly neglected, Williams and Lategan agreed on its potential, thus becoming accidental hoteliers. Their relandscaping of the gardens, months-long restoration of the former homestead (and what was originally an adjacent stable) into a luxury establishment, and the opening of on-site Smeul restaurant reveal they are born naturals; they’ve not put a foot wrong. Opened mid-May, Zomerlust promises a celebration of the generous approach to living that shaped the lives of the building’s earliest inhabitants.
The backstory
Originally constructed in 1792 as a single-storey dwelling with Cape Dutch characteristics, the homestead evolved over the following decades to embrace a more Georgian aesthetic, influenced by the architecture of Sir Herbert Baker. In 1848, the estate was acquired by Dr Johannes Smuts, a physician whose family would forge a lasting connection with one of the Boland’s most influential wine dynasties. That connection was cemented in 1878 when his son-in-law, Jacob Isaac de Villiers, acquired the property, bringing Zomerlust into a family whose legacy had already been established through Abraham Pieter de Villiers, founder of the Paarlse Wijn en Brandewijn Maatschappij across the road in 1856.
For more than a century, three generations of the De Villiers family made Zomerlust their home. Their passion for entertaining became part of local folklore, with the most celebrated tale being that of an underground pipe running beneath Main Road, delivering Paarl Rock brandy directly from the maturation cellars to a tap inside the house. Fact or fiction, the story speaks to the effortless hospitality for which the family became renowned (and which proprietors Williams and Lategan aspire to).
In 1991, Zomerlust’s story took a dramatic turn when the family sold the estate. Working closely with the De Villiers descendants, the property was thoughtfully restored with respect for its architectural heritage and natural setting. The historic house and the original stables were transformed into guest accommodation. In the years since, Zomerlust has been managed under various owners, at times operating as a guest house and at others as a hotel. This latest iteration places the De Villiers family’s ideals of generous living front and centre while respectfully nodding to the past.
Plenty of room
From the moment one enters the hotel by passing beneath the antique pendant in the hotel’s William Morris-wallpapered portico, warmth and history await. Project interior designer Misi Overturf, founder of her eponymous Paarl-based studio, has shaped sophisticated interiors that marry respect for the past with contemporary luxury and convenience.
It was Overturf who proposed the bee as Zomerlust’s new logo. Her rationale — that bees not only exist in tight-knit communities but always return to their hives — carried symbolic weight for the hoteliers and spoke to their ambitions for the hotel: in part, to support Paarl’s community while creating a contemporary Zomerlust family of its own.
With her eye for colour and restrained yet impactful use of pattern, Overturf has transformed the 15 rooms into inviting sanctuaries rich in both masculine and feminine detailing. Jewel, heritage and pastel tones combine with traditional English florals, striped and equestrian prints and contemporary lighting to create interiors that feel like a sophisticated evolution of previous iterations, while remaining welcoming and cocooning.
With almost two-thirds of the rooms fitted with baths, Overturf’s bathroom game is particularly strong, featuring luxe freestanding tubs, Moroccan-style duotone tiles in fluted-glass showers and a novel take on honeycomb-patterned linoleum flooring.
In-room creature comforts are offset by restored antique wardrobes that pay homage to Zomerlust’s past. So too does an ornately embroidered, pomegranate-hued “tapestry” in the lobby: formerly a decades-old curtain, it gives way to a Burmese teak staircase leading to several generously proportioned signature suites — one with a private terrace overlooking the valley, another with a charming butter-coloured reading room shaded by an oak tree.
Eat up
It’s in Smeul restaurant, with terrace seating surely destined to become one of Paarl’s summer hotspots, that the building most reveals its past. Archways puncture unusually deep walls in a series of interleading rooms (one houses a centuries-old brick oven, another one of the province’s oldest bars) believed to have served as servants’ quarters in the 1800s.
Against a backdrop of terracotta floors, starched tablecloths and walls limewashed and hand-painted by muralist and illustrator Mernette Swartz, chef Kevin Grobler serves a sophisticated, seasonal take on fire-prepared cuisine. Formerly head chef at JAN restaurant in Nice and executive chef at Delaire Graff estate, Grobler cooks over open flames and in wood-fired stoves, a nod to the way food would have been prepared in these same rooms centuries earlier.
His menu highlights include a fire-roasted beetroot starter paired with smoked coconut yoghurt, and a flavour-rich main of braised lamb leg. Save room for dessert: Grobler’s marinated citrus meringue is torched tableside in an unexpectedly theatrical way.
The hotel reopens at a moment when stays in the Cape Winelands towns of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch can feel oversubscribed, offering a compelling reason to linger in Paarl instead. A drive along Main Road traces the town’s architectural history in a procession of landmark buildings, each a gem dating back centuries. Newly restored, polished and buffed, Zomerlust Boutique Hotel today shines most among them. After two centuries of welcoming guests, the old house has found its stride again.