Industrial style meant hard work for Hong Kong flat owner

Text Charmaine Chan / Photography Jonathan Barkey, Jonathan Wong / Styling David Roden

Describing an interior as "industrial" can conjure up images of a cold, unwelcoming space hastily effected and stripped of style.

The opposite is true, however, of Jonathan Barkey's Sheung Wan flat. His open-plan, one-bedroom unit mixes hard with soft, and minimalist with lavish to create a chic bachelor pad with the odd touch of geekiness and loads of character. But achieving this look required a willingness to experiment and dogged determination to get it right.

Working with Rowena Gonzales, of Liquid Interiors, Barkey, a lawyer from Michigan, in the United States, sought to create a 1,060 sq ft loft-like flat from two odd-shaped units in a commercial building. "I thought it would be cool if it looked concrete-ish," he says, adding, "It's actually really tough to get that look."

Barkey learned his contractors would have to work with several materials, not just concrete, to achieve the right feel. So cement board was used in the bedroom; plaster in the living areas and a mineral-and-marble composite called imi-beton ( beton is French for concrete and "imi" is shorthand for imitation) for the kitchen cabinet and dishwasher fronts.