How Hong Kong yoga instructor created uncluttered, Zen-like home for her family
Moving to a quieter neighbourhood gave Sarah and John Woodall a chance to make a fresh start by combining pieces they already owned with new elements
Creating a stylish home doesn’t have to be a matter of throwing everything out and starting over. Many of us already have a household full of pieces too good to discard. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh eye to make a fresh beginning.
This was the case for American yoga instructor Sarah Woodall, her chief executive husband, John, and their two children – Josh, aged seven, and Erica, three – when they moved from Happy Valley to a 2,075 sq ft, four-bedroom rental in Shouson Hill. Theirs is a classic expat tale of a two-year adventure in Asia that turned into four years, then six, and is now indefinite.
“My Mom has stopped asking when we’re coming home,” Woodall says, laughing. “We arrived in Hong Kong from San Diego about six years ago with literally just a suitcase each and a few family pictures. We wanted to keep it simple, and to live somewhere local and urban. We learned that we didn’t need a lot of stuff.”
But with a larger family and plans to stay, the couple decided to move to a quieter, more relaxed neighbourhood.
“We had a great spot in Happy Valley, but it always felt transient, we never felt settled. So when we moved here, we wanted it to feel like home,” Woodall says.
Sarah wanted a calm, uncluttered, Zen-like feel to the space [...] So I used their existing pieces and tied them together with a new carpet. We added a pair of armchairs, and a lot of plants, for tranquillity