Video | American’s Hong Kong duplex a riot of exuberant colour, runaway fun and girl power
From the giant, plush tiger in her bedroom to the neon toucan in the living room, Brooke Babington’s Mid-Levels home oozes joie de vivre
The less-is-more design philosophy isn’t for Brooke Babington. Instead of clean lines, uncluttered surfaces and a neutral palette, Babington’s home is all about colour, fun and sheer exuberance. It’s a home that makes you smile, whether it’s the framed quotes on the walls (“All unattended children will be given espresso and a free puppy”), the giant, plush tiger in her bedroom or the neon toucan in the living room.
Her 1,800-square-foot, two-bedroom rental duplex on Old Peak Road oozes joie de vivre. Every wall upstairs (two bedrooms and a study) and downstairs (living/dining, kitchen and playroom) is crammed with art (“I can’t move; it would take forever to take everything down,” she says), every surface bears colourful accessories, and even the floor is covered with overlapping graphic rugs. Yet the effect is not overwhelming; it’s warm, inviting and comfortable.
“I’m a homebody. I don’t like clothes or jewellery, I like objects,” says Babington, an American former trader who now “dabbles” in property. “I like my house. I like my stuff. When you have a nice environment, you just want to be at home. I hardly go out any more.”
Keeping her company are her daughter, seven-year-old Bayley, and her rescue dogs.
“I’m just the groundkeeper round here,” Babington says. “This place is for my daughter and my dogs. I want it to be fun, because she’s only little. We like animals and kids’ stuff – the ikat lamps in the living room are from a children’s collection. Some of the rugs are designed for outdoors, so they’re dog-tested.”
Despite the profusion of possessions, Babington says this is the edited version. “I really like that book [by Marie Kondo] about the art of tidying,” she adds. “Every now and then, I have a clear out. The things I have now all have happy memories.”
Almost everything in the apartment came from her previous homes in Hong Kong – a tong lau (walk-up tenement building) in Sai Ying Pun and a Cheung Chau beach house. Bayley’s rattan four-poster, for example, was once an outdoor sunbed on Cheung Chau. The tong lau’s front door, rescued from demolition, is propped against a wall in Babington’s bedroom (“It has a carved peephole, which we needed because that place was like a crack den when we first moved in”).