For interior designer, Sophie Ashby, opening a Cape Town studio feels both instinctive and deeply personal. Growing up between South Africa and the UK, she has long held an affinity for the city. A connection that first took professional shape with the renovation of The Robertson Small Hotel in 2014, the same year she launched her eponymous studio. Since then, Studio Ashby has built a reputation for soulful, layered interiors, defined by authenticity, timeless elegance and an eclectic sensibility.
Her new studio, located on Loop Street in a 19th-century building, reflects this ethos with quiet confidence. Original features like the Georgian spiral staircase and yellowwood floors lend warmth and patina, while considered interventions introduce a more contemporary rhythm. “We were drawn to the space for its old world character, beautiful finishes, and brilliant central location,” she says, noting its proximity to a network of galleries, restaurants and studios that shape the area’s design-led energy.
Rather than imposing a signature aesthetic, Ashby’s approach is one of careful calibration. Spaces are pared back yet deeply considered, where proportion, materiality and atmosphere take precedence over ornament. It is a philosophy that finds a natural counterpart in Cape Town — a place, she notes, where light, landscape and an honesty of materials encourage a more restrained, integrated way of designing.
The Cape Town studio marks the practice’s first international outpost, working in tandem with its London base while supporting a growing portfolio of local projects, including the Tamodi Estate & Polo Reserve in Plettenberg Bay. It also signals a deeper commitment to collaboration, opening further dialogue with South Africa’s rich community of artists, makers and artisans; relationships that have long informed the studio’s work.
Globally, the studio’s portfolio spans private residences, hospitality and commercial projects, from a Georgian townhouse in London to a coastal retreat in Brighton and a forthcoming hotel in Majorca. Yet here, in Cape Town, the focus feels more immediate and immersive. “The Cape Town office will allow us to be in the same city as so many of our favourite collaborators,” Ashby reflects. “It brings me such joy.”
Credits
Text by Catherine Mo
Photographs by Jeremy Woodward
