What we love most about our clients and friends and, as said before, most often they are one and the same, are that they dream big. They have larger-than-life ideas and a vision for how they want things to be done, often things no one has ever done before. And we love helping them make those dreams come true, turning the impossible into the possible.

A perfect case in point are our good friends out at Cawston Ranch near Nymandlovu, about 70 km from Bulawayo along the Vic Falls road. The Cawstons have a fabulous wildlife and game area and, much to our delight, they’ve decided to do something truly unique: they’ve chosen to incorporate a double teak door and frame into the front of a large, comfortable canvas tent.

They already have some of our iconic “Sikumbuzo” style doors in parts of the ranch, and requested something with the same feel.  The door frame for the tent was designed to be “chunky” to achieve the desired visual effect and strength, and the open pane doors with horizontal bars feature canvas instead of glass in the openings.

Careful timing of the installation was required as it’s a busy time of the year for them, so as soon as the frame had been cemented into place and had set, we made sure to be on site to install the doors.

This is a job which requires a high level of skill and experience, and who better to undertake it than master carpenter, Nkululeko  Sibanda, who, together with an assistant, completed the “hanging” of the doors in  a little over four hours. He finished at 9.00pm, after which he was rewarded with a fine “safari meal” by the chef.

The end result, we all agreed, was highly original and very pleasing.

It’s another instance where we realise how privileged we are to be in the business of making dreams come true, an intrinsic part of the process of helping customers achieve their design objectives, no matter how unusual, to their satisfaction.

We drove home slowly through the Matabeleland countryside under a bright moon, satisfied with the job and pleased that our clients were once again very happy.

There are at least three such installations to complete this phase of the project, so watch this space for updates!