WHEN IT COMES TO ORDER and organisation, Germans have a reputation unparalleled, and no better is this reputation upheld than in the 1,250-square-foot Happy Valley home of Oliver Breit. Originally from Heidelberg, Breit has been an avid collector of punk and new wave vinyl for 22 years. He claims to have amassed one of the world's largest collections of the genre - 6,500 discs at last count - and buys 100 records every month. Housed in a room dedicated to its storage, the vinyl collection is mind-blowingly well-organised ('I know where everything is') - grouped by style, release date and alphabet. It's all rather impressive and maybe a little scary. 'I am over-organised, over-tidy, but I'm not that precious with my collection,' the 35-year-old product designer says. 'When I have parties, I let my friends choose what they want to play. Saying that, I find Hong Kong people respectful when it comes to other people's property. If I had a party in Europe, things would get broken, things would disappear. It never happens here.' Ah yes, the parties. Breit loves to entertain and loves to play his records 'very loud', a combination that does not bode well for his neighbours. The police were called to the property three times last year, once by a family on the 14th floor - four floors below. Breit's home is definitely masculine, decorated solely in Bauhaus black, white and neutrals and packed with boys' toys: a Bang & Olufsen TV, a professional espresso machine, framed concert posters and platinum discs and a $200,000 music system. 'I don't know if a wife would allow all this - maybe that's why I'm not married yet,' he jokes. Accommodating his prized music system and record collection was the priority when he was looking for a new home. In the second apartment he viewed, the space was ideal but the decor was not. 'It looked terrible - wallpaper on the ceiling, messy beams everywhere, ugly furniture and fittings - but I saw it had potential,' he says.' Breit negotiated a deal in which the landlord wouldn't need to pay for renovations if he received the first month rent-free. He decided to gut the space, rip out the features and paint the walls a uniform white. 'When the landlord came to see it after it was finished he thought he was on the wrong floor,' Breit says laughing. Next came the simple step of moving in his existing furniture, much of which was donated by his design-savvy parents, including a Le Corbusier ponyskin sling chair, an Interlubke wardrobe and a Vitsoe shelving system, all originally bought in the 1970s. Mixed in are carefully selected items from Ikea plus many problem-solving pieces he designed and had made (see Tried and Tested). Other clever DIY touches are the perforated aluminium blinds from Mongkok that hide hard-to-store items such as shoes and DIY equipment. After all his hard work, Breit says he (or more accurately his record collection) has outgrown this flat and he'll be looking to buy somewhere of his own. 'I'm really looking forward to doing exactly what I want to a place. I want to make my own decks from scratch and have them hanging from the ceiling. It may have to be a house in case the neighbours complain again, otherwise I'll have to think about soundproofing.' 1. The compact dining area features Zoe chrome and oak veneer dining chairs from Ligne Roset ($2,340 each; 16 Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley, tel: 2891 0913; www.ligne-roset.com ) and a wood veneer and brushed aluminium table from Italdesign (39-41 Wong Nei Chung Road, Happy Valley, tel: 2892 1339). At the back, Breit screened off a drinks area, housing an impressive ES-100 Nespresso Professional coffee machine ( www.nespressopro.com ) and an equally slick 'Platinum' Watsons Water dispenser (from $5,800, tel: 2660 6688; www.watsons-water.com ). The speaker on the right is part of Breit's prized music system (see picture 3). 2. Breit's vinyl singles are organised in MDF (medium-density fibrewood) boxes, which he had made in Germany ('better quality MDF') for $300 each, topped with acrylic sliding lids made for $100 each in China. They are housed in a lacquered Expedit bookcase ($1,390) from Ikea (tel: 3125 0888; www.ikea.com.hk ). 3. Breit's pride and joy, his music system, comprising a Perspex-encased GyroDec turntable by Michell Engineering ( www.michell-engineering.co.uk ); CD player and pre-amplifier by Densen Audio Technologies ( www.densen.dk ); power amplifier by Boothroyd Stuart Meridian ( www.meridian-audio.com ); and speakers by Dynaudio ( www.dynaudio.com ). Cost: about $200,000 at Excel Hi-Fi (Ocean Centre, Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2735 2726; www.excel-hifi.com ). Breit designed the sprayed-acrylic boxes to hide the wires at the back of the amplifiers, as well as the laminate and sandblasted glass audio bench, and had them made on the mainland for $1,500 and $3,500 respectively. Above hang paintings by Singapore-based Malaysian-Chinese artist Eric Chan, available through Bark Modern Art (13-14 Lan Kwai Fong, tel: 2537 7231; www.barkmodernart.com ). 4. The Japanese-style bedroom is furnished with a king-size futon bed, screens and pictures, all from Ito Futon (64-66 Wellington Street, Central, tel: 2845 1880; www.itofuton.com ). 5. Breit found shelving units at Ikea that fit his vinyl LPs perfectly. Almost all the 6,500 punk and new wave records were bought on eBay. The four galvanised-steel CD shelves (two seen bottom right) were made on the mainland for a total of $300. 6. Furnishing Breit's orderly study is an aluminium and polypropylene Silver armchair by Vico Magistretti for DePadova ( www.depadova.it ); an aluminium Tolomeo table lamp from Artemide ($2,100, Ruttonjee Centre, 11 Duddell Street, Central, tel: 2523 0333; www. artemide.com); and a 30-year-old powder-coated steel 606 Universal Shelving System by Vitsoe ( www.vitsoe.com ), inherited from his parents, that looks as contemporary today as when designed in 1960. 7. A 30-year-old LC1 ponyskin, chrome and leather sling chair by Le Corbusier, again inherited from Breit's parents, sits well with his LC3 leather and chrome sofa and armchair by Le Corbusier, bought more recently in Germany ( www.cassina.it ; reduced to $12,400, $43,700 and $26,000 respectively until the end of May at NuConcepts, Ruttonjee Centre, tel: 2525 2121). The wood veneer coffee table was picked up for $1,000 along Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, and the Blondie gold and platinum discs were bought on Ebay for about US$400 each (HK$3,120) ( www.ebay.com ). Tried and tested: MADE TO MEASURE Breit runs his own firm, Formart Industrial Design ( www.formart.com.hk ), creating mass-market appliances for such big names as Philips, Conair and Waterpik. Consequently, he has excellent contacts with contractors and craftsmen. Whenever he needs something for his home or office, he designs it himself and has it custom-made. 'Being a product designer definitely helps because I'm continually exposed to manufacturers, I have all the tools to hand and I know the materials,' he says. 'You just have to find the craftsmen and with a bit of patience and effort you can have something unique. Having things made is great because you always get exactly what you want and it's so much cheaper.' In this apartment, Breit designed the stainless-steel doorbell and number-plate (right), the laminate and sand-blasted glass audio bench in the living area (picture 3), the MDF and Perspex boxes for his vinyl singles (picture 2), and the galvanised-steel CD holders in the 'music room' (picture 5), and had most of them made on the mainland. Locally, he recommends the myriad stores along Chatham Road North and Ma Tau Wai Road in To Kwa Kwan, Kowloon, (especially Design Plus, 422 Ma Tau Wai Road, tel: 2761 1333, which made all his screens); electrician Johnny Ho (tel: 9410 0400); and model-maker Thomson Chiu, who works in metal and plastic, at Accurate Design Centre (tel: 9436 5495). .