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Into the light

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With a stunning spiral staircase as its centrepiece, a Pok Fu Lam apartment has left its dark and dingy past behind.

First impressions can be deceiving, as Nia Enticknap discovered after viewing the Pok Fu Lam apartment that would become her home.

'It was disgusting,' she says. 'I told the agent he was wasting my time.'

The apartment was dark and seemed smaller than its 1,950 square feet. She had wanted to work with a square layout, she explains, but was persuaded to consider the L-shaped apartment when she saw what another tenant had done with a similar space. She was further encouraged when her father, a quantity surveyor, helped her devise a floor plan.

Enticknap's idea was to create a home that had clever use of space and good storage. 'We wanted to create a bright, open-plan feel and something relatively modern,' she says.

She worked with architect Ed Billson of MAP Architecture & Planning (tel: 2877 9282) and contractor Project Asia (tel: 2866 3007). Soon the walls came tumbling down in a whirl of remodelling. The windows were replaced and double-glazed for soundproofing. Enticknap also changed the doors. 'I wanted floor-to-ceiling doors to increase the feeling of height,' she says. She installed small skirting boards - about one-inch high - for the same reason.

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