How a Cape Town apartment became a sun-soaked sanctuary
From sun-filled rooms to a plant-filled balcony, a Gardens apartment has been transformed from a dated space into a warm home filled with light, texture and thoughtful details.
For Sian Ruth Owen, home is all about sunshine, natural textures and creating a space that feels as good as it looks.
The 31-year-old has created a warm and inviting sanctuary in Gardens, an inner-city suburb of Cape Town, which she describes simply as ‘cute, considered and sun-soaked’.
Her 70m², two-bedroom apartment has evolved slowly over the years, with Owen taking her time to understand how she uses the space before tackling each renovation. She converted the second bedroom into an office and has gradually transformed almost every corner of the apartment.
When she first moved in, however, it was far from the home she had in mind.
“Shame, she was not so cute,” Owen jokes, describing bumpy white walls, dark grey skirting and vinyl flooring with a deep red undertone. “Nothing looked like it had been replaced since the 1950s.”
With limited money after paying her deposit and transfer fees, she started small. Skimming the walls, painting them beige and changing the skirting to white made an immediate difference.
From there, the transformation happened one project at a time: A bedroom window was replaced with a glass sliding door leading onto the balcony, followed by a bathroom renovation, new floors, a balcony makeover and, most recently, a new kitchen.
“It’s been a slow process, but Rome wasn’t built in a day,” she says.
Away from the apartment, Owen manages the Cape Town franchise of The Perfect Proposal and photographs proposals and weddings. At home, however, her approach has been less about chasing trends and more about embracing what she calls her ‘nesting era’.
5 things Owen loves about her apartment
1. The light
If Owen had to choose one thing she loves most about her apartment, it would be the natural light.
The north-facing home has large windows that allow sunlight to flood in throughout the day. Her favourite spot is the corner of the living room where her dining table sits beside a large tree just outside the window. In summer, the leafy branches make the space feel almost like a treehouse, while in winter, when the leaves fall, the sun pours into the room.
For Owen, the experience has changed the way she looks at property.
“You can renovate almost anything in a home, but you can’t manufacture natural light after the fact,” she says.
Her advice to prospective homeowners is simple: Check the light before falling in love with anything else.
2. The kitchen
Her newly renovated kitchen has become another favourite and one of the biggest transformations in the apartment.
Because the kitchen and living area flow into one another, the renovation changed more than just one room. It also reignited Owen’s love of cooking.
Importantly, she waited five years before renovating it, giving herself plenty of time to work out what did and didn’t work for her.
Her approach is a useful one for anyone tackling a home renovation: Live in the space first.
“Spend where you spend your time,” she advises. “It’s the room I use most, so it’s the one that was worth doing properly, even in a small apartment.”
3. The dining table
At the heart of Owen’s home is her Houtlander table and benches, which have become much more than furniture.
The table has hosted countless dinner parties and many of her favourite meals and memories.
“It’s truly the little heartbeat of my home,” she says.
Owen has even been told that hosting is her love language, and she admits there is little she enjoys more than sitting around the table with her favourite people, having a good chat over dinner.
Her advice when investing in furniture is to think about what you will actually use and love.
“Spend on the piece people will get use from, and that pays you back in memories, not just compliments.”
4. The balcony
Owen’s balcony is a reminder that not every decorating plan works out and sometimes that is exactly what makes a space special.
After unsuccessfully attempting to grow bougainvillea, jasmine and granadillas, she eventually abandoned her original trellis idea and created a feature wall using small wall-mounted pots instead.
What was intended to become a herb garden instead became a colourful wall of blooms.
Now, it is one of her favourite places to sit with a cup of tea, enjoy the fresh air and take in the mountain views.
Her lesson?
“If a plan for a space keeps failing, let it become something else.”
5. The bedroom jungle
While the balcony evolved through trial and error, Owen’s bedroom was carefully planned from the beginning.
She wanted to feel as though she was waking up inside a garden, so plants became a major feature of the room.
It is the first thing she sees when she wakes and the last thing she sees before falling asleep.
“There’s something genuinely calming about opening your eyes to leaves instead of a blank ceiling,” she says.
Making a house feel like home
Owen’s approach to decorating is considered without being overly polished.
Her style combines soft neutrals with warm wood, rattan, cane, herringbone floors, organic shapes and handmade, imperfect pieces. Fresh flowers are non-negotiable.
Her work as a photographer has also influenced the way she approaches her home.
“I’m trained to notice light and texture before anything else,” she says. “My home ended up looking like the kind of thing I’d want to photograph.”
For Owen, however, the goal isn’t simply to create a beautiful-looking apartment. She wants it to feel calm and unhurried.
“Sun-soaked and unhurried. The kettle’s always about to boil, there’s a candle within reach, the flowers are fresh; nothing dramatic, just warm and a little slow. That’s the whole point of the place. Calm first, then cute.”
And Cape Town itself has played a role in shaping the apartment.
Owen says the city’s distinctive light is something worth embracing, while her balcony has become an extension of the home. From the apartment, she can look out towards Signal Hill, Lion’s Head or Table Mountain.
After moving to Cape Town from KZN more than 10 years ago, she says she still feels lucky to call the city home.
Ultimately, the apartment has become more than just a place to live. It has inspired Owen’s growing social media community, @sian__creates and https://www.tiktok.com/@sian_owen, where she shares plants, renovations and the everyday moments that have made the space her own.
“Every plant, every renovation decision, every dinner party started as something I wanted to remember,” she says.
And there could be bigger projects ahead. Owen’s long-term dream is to take what she has learnt in her own apartment and apply it to other people’s homes, buying old fixer-uppers, transforming them and eventually flipping them.
For now, though, her own sun-soaked sanctuary continues to evolve, one considered detail at a time.
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