Explorers of garden centres and discoverers of the unusual shops they nurture along with their pots and plants will be delighted to find Seventh Heaven at The Pot Place on Witkoppen Road between Northgate and Fourways. Jenni Garrett, interior designer and proprietor, is always glad to welcome new and long-standing clients at this tranquil location. She does her decorating calls on Mondays, and has the shop open during the rest of the week, with an art show twice a month featuring local artists. Every nook and cranny in this little treasure house holds a gift, a decoration, a piece of furniture, something frivolous or something practical, a modern or an antique tray, printed table linen or embroidered towels, some jewellery or a wall hanging, angels and handbags, curtains and cushions, soap and bathroom fittings or scented sachets and chandeliers, mirrors and paintings, cotton bathrobes or silken kimonos, china displays and dolls or glassware and coffee mugs … Every week sees different stock as her beautiful themed displays change and products are snapped up as customers drop by to see what’s new. Jenni knew from her earliest memories what her passion and career would be, and her 37 years in the industry have simply honed her craft and polished her skills. In the following extract from the small book Jenni commissioned, she shares with us some of her philosophy on decorating and design ...

            Somebody told me   many, many years ago that life is like a wheelbarrow - if you don’t pick it up, it doesn’t move.

I have a true passion for decorating and design. A day doesn’t go by without a learning curve, but I love challenge - and I think the day that I stop having passion for what I do, that must be the day that I stop what I’m doing. I believe that as long as I have the passion every day for what I do, the money comes second and that’s all right because you’ve done what you’ve done for that day with a smile and you’re happy.

I hate the paint-by-numbers approach which so many so-called decorators use - going through a sample book, and picking the main sample and all the co-ordinates that the manufacturer has put together - or they’ll go into a furniture showroom, and pick a whole room setting from the sofa to the rug to the lamp to the picture - anybody can decorate like that. It might look very pretty, but there’s no individuality, and after all, we are all individuals with our own likes and dislikes.

I pay attention to the colours and items in my clients’ homes - if they don’t like a colour, it won’t be there, and a piece of art will only be there if they like it - if they own it for sentimental reasons, it will only come out when the aunt who gave it comes to visit! You have to work to read your client - there’s a lot of psychology that goes into successful decorating. I went to a Montessori school, and I think a lot of their teaching has stayed with me, and helped me with the psychology of decorating.

My mind is constantly like wood burning; I am always far ahead of myself. Very often, prior to certain trends being in fashion, I have this sense that a trend will hit, and I start building towards it, and suddenly all the merchandise that I want is there. I like to work with a theme to pull items together, and colours don't necessarily have to match.

I’m very, very particular about quality control, and as well as a fabulous client base, I also have wonderful suppliers, and over the years we’ve built up a special relationship. They’ve learned how I work, and I’ll ask them, “OK, if we’re going to do this, can we trim in such a way, and finish it in a certain way and have the presentation in such-and-such a way.” I push the envelope with them a little, so my customers get something a little bit different from the general run of things.

I can consult with a client right from a house plan. Very often there are errors on a house plan that aren’t picked up until the house is built - the way a door opens, where a light switch is, furniture layouts and so on. Architects can draw up two-dimensional plans - and I can also have CAD designs drawn up - and position furniture, but when you actually get the furniture into the finished room, what might have looked aesthetically pleasing on the plan looks completely different in three dimensions. Otherwise I’ll work with clients in existing houses if they are planning extensions or redecorating, and give advice about where to position furniture or hang pictures, and how to hang them - invariably people hang artwork too high or in the wrong place to get its full beauty. I take people’s circumstances and lifestyles into account - if they have a young family, or pets, you have to take that into account with the soft furnishings - forget cream and neutrals even if they are fashionable! I’ll say, “I don’t believe that this is right for you, can I show you an alternative, another idea”.

I work with themes, of ideas rather than just paint-by-numbers colour matching. This probably goes back to my window-dressing days - when you put themed items in a window, they create an impact and people want to buy them. Also, many, many years ago, David Hicks used to do what he called “tablescapes” on side tables, putting like items together to make a statement. Likewise, it goes in home furnishing and decorating. If you collect blue and white china, I like to get my client to display it all in one place - then it’s, Wow! It makes a statement. If you see dribs and drabs of a collection throughout a house, it lacks commitment to that thing. It’s also like going to a restaurant - if the food is beautifully plated, you “eat with your eyes”, and before you’ve even tasted the food you know you’re going to enjoy your meal. Themes show that a little bit of effort has gone into decorating your home - everybody has a house, but not everyone has a home. Rather achieve a home slowly, instead of going out and buying stuff just to fill space.

I do have some clients who give me carte blanche for a whole house once they’ve seen the sampling and given me a budget, but I also have many clients who will give me one room at a time. This is a good way to work on a monthly budget, because if you try to be like a mosquito and take little bites at every room, you cannot see where your money has gone - if you do one scatter cushion here and reframe a picture in another room and put a new carpet somewhere else, you would walk in and the house still looks just the same as the day before, the week before, the year before … Very often I move things from one area to another, so people don’t necessarily need to spend an awful lot of money, yet I’ve helped them make their house look immediately different and fresh to them. Even if I don’t make an awful lot of money, I prefer to have my client happy with what I’ve done, and then they call me back for the next phase, and the next phase after that.

As an example of working with themes, and also noticing the beginnings of new trends, the shop display I have now, the coffee theme - I had a gut feeling, and I planned some merchandise to be hand-painted for me, which takes a while to be completed. Maybe because I have an idea planted in my head, every time I see catalogues from various suppliers, I see things with a certain theme, and I see how I can build on it. So I collected the trays, and the cups and chalkboards and the tea towels with a coffee theme, and I put it out just yesterday. Then, minutes later, a supplier brought in that coffee-printed fabric! Now I’m having table runners made to match that “Paris Espresso” plaque.

Long may Seventh Heaven be my passion!

011 462 1963 083 444 8779 Cnr Church & Witkoppen Road Fourways - at The Pot Place