A nod to the past: inside a 1930s home in luxury enclave in Kowloon
The 5,000-plus sq ft home of Hong Kong interior designer Laura Cheung, her siblings and their parents pays homage to the colonial era as well as its occupants’ varied tastes as antiques, heirlooms and art add splendour
We all know what can happen when people with different tastes and needs attempt to find aesthetic harmony. Yet, the family home of interior designer Laura Cheung – whose siblings include art consultant Anne Cheung and restaurateur Chris Cheung – proves that accommodating points of view doesn’t necessarily mean compromising on style and personality.
“Of course, it is challenging to always please everyone but my parents are massively supportive and very hands-off, allowing us to each do what we are good at,” Laura Cheung says.
The only rule: each sibling is expected to be mindful and respectful of their parents’ tastes.
WATCH: Inside Laura Cheung’s home
In practice, this means the three-storey, art-deco house that is part of the Kadoorie Estate, in Kowloon, reflects a blend of contradictions, with antique sitting comfortably with modern, intimate with theatrical, and refined with relaxed. The semi-detached, 5,380-sq-ft residence, one of 86 built in the luxury residential enclave during the 1930s, can be decorated but not renovated, and features the high ceilings, spacious rooms and verandahs typical of its era.
Cheung studied at New York’s Parsons School of Design before completing her master’s in fine and decorative arts at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, in London. Having worked with brands from Tom Ford and Estée Lauder to Zegna, she returned to Hong Kong in 2010 to found her own home-furnishings boutique, Lala Curio.