How designer turned Indian artist’s Hong Kong flat into a home away from home
A designer has transformed Mumbai artist Veena Mohan’s Tai Tam flat from blank canvas to welcoming haven
Relocations from one country to another are usually accompanied by containers of possessions. Not so for Veena Mohan. Drawn to Hong Kong to be with family, the artist and grandmother of eight arrived in October with a single suitcase.
“I have a house in Mumbai but I didn’t want to disturb or empty it by bringing furniture here with me,” she says. “It was also a good opportunity to start afresh and buy everything new so it would all fit in the apartment and go together.
“I wanted to stamp my own personality on my new home but it would have been quite a challenge to do it by myself as I wouldn’t have known where to go for furniture.”
She enlisted the help of interior designer Amrita Khanna, of Zip Code 888, who has lived in Hong Kong for 12 years. Not only was Khanna responsible for buying the furniture; she found her client a flat as well.
Being a rental apartment, the 1,200-sq-ft, two-bedroom, two-bathroom property in Tai Tam came with limits on what could be done in a revamp. But even though the walls, most of the lighting and the kitchen and bathrooms couldn’t be changed, Khanna had an empty shell to work with and could start from scratch with the furnishings.