WE’RE sitting in the MountNelsonHotel’s gorgeous lounge. The table is heaving under the weight of Afternoon Tea and the piano and grandfather clocks compete for attention. It’s 4pm and interior designer Graham Viney is discussing his refurbishment of the foyer, lounge, Planet Bar and Presidential suite.

I’ve had the good fortune to visit many Presidential suites here and abroad but there was something so special about the MountNelsonHotel’s Balmoral suite that I wanted to meet the man who created it. I particularly loved the mix of old and new in a manner that was extremely elegant and comfortable without being ostentatious.

It was disconcerting for me when I checked in to the hotel for the night to find that I was expected only the following week. I smiled sweetly while the little boy in me stamped his foot in rage. “No,” I said to Carmen at reception, “I was definitely expected tonight as I knew I had an engagement the following week.” Maintaining her composure perfectly she came up with a solution: while according to her records I was due only the following week, the suite was available and if I would wait in the lounge they would prepare it for me.

More than a little irritated, I sat outside as the sun went down and the twinkling fairy-lights in the trees flickered the night in. I felt sure that my instructions upon confirming my reservations that I should have no feather pillows would be ignored and grumbled into my liquid cocaine cocktail (champers, Red Bull and voddie). Moments later, with the cocktail taking effect, I was happiness personified.

The first thing I did when I entered the suite after a delicious dinner and performance by the acappella Yale Whiffenpoofs in the CapeColony restaurant was to check the state of my pillows. Perfectly, with less than an hour’s notice, the MountNelsonHotel had got it right. Next was to check the accuracy of my conviction that I had indeed got the date right. The feeling of having made a royal (or Presidential) hash of something came flooding over me when I checked my diary and saw that my diary was indeed engaged the following weekend – with me at the Mount Nelson.

I quickly penned a letter of apology to MD Nick Seewer and flopped down on the magnificent wood-carved four poster bed and took in the beauty of the suite more fully.

“The wallpaper in the sitting room is a hand-painted replica of English 1820’s paper while the eight-seater dining table is a Georgian replica with Edwardian chairs that I rescued from the original dining room,” Viney explains. “The desk is Hotel Louis (good quality reproduction in the Louis style) which also came from the MountNelson’s original writing room, where the Planet Bar is now situated.”

Viney describes the room’s décor as eclectic: “I like mixing modern and traditional – such as the sunburst mirror, which is from the 1950s, above the fireplace while the Chinese Chippendale mirror is, in fact, 1920's " Chinoiserie ". The pair of chandeliers with their Baccarrat crystals are French, circa 1930.”

As the author of the acclaimed Colonial Houses of South Africa, Viney’s passion for updating historic buildings is well known: “It’s too boring and boorish to go into an old building, gut it and make it slavishly modern,” he says, tipping his hat to designers such as Herbert Baker and Edwin Lutyens who formed so much of South Africa’s Colonial and Imperial design ethic.

The MountNelsonHotel, originally built as the terminus for the Cayzer family's Union Castle Line, which provided the famous Royal Mail and passenger service to South and East Africa, has expanded over the years to include the Helmsley Hotel and the creation of GreenPark, the building which houses the Balmoral Suite. For those with the money, like the Ford motoring family who vacated the suite before I arrived, the master bedroom and sitting room provide accommodation for the couple while adjoining rooms offer accommodation for children and private staff.

The master bathroom with a wood-clad iron bath has two Edwardian marble vanities modeled from a Scottish castle's and lit by wall sconces inspired by deco originals from Claridges. The Greco-boarded marble floor tiles make an interesting hopping game from square to square which I enjoyed from the shower cubicle to the Porte Baggage (posh word for extra wide cupboards without doors for those who prefer to live out of their cases rather than unpacking).

One should have a butler when staying in the suite. It is so large, that the stretch to walk to the kitchen-in-a-cupboard to get oneself coffee or to open the door should rather be done by someone else.

Viney’s handiwork has also extended to The Westcliff, the Nellie’s sister hotel in Johannesburg. Equally elegant he has succeeded in creating an authentic Colonial design in the newly built Jacaranda Hill which even has barley-twist chimney stacks in Baker’s honour and provides the perfect location from which to look down over Johannesburg to the zoo and Lutyen's splendid Rand Regiments War Memorial at its centre.

Brian Berkman was the guest of the MountNelsonHotel. For those who aren’t but wish to experience such luxury R11, 000 per night per suite aught to do it. Reserve by calling 021-483-1000.