For Karen Chang, inheriting the family home in Mid-Levels posed a challenge: how do you make it your own without losing its sense of history? Chang found the answer in colour, art and heirlooms. The desire to create an instant home is natural for young property buyers in Hong Kong. Inheriting an apartment that has been the family home for 30 years is a different story. Strategic corporate communications consultant Karen Chang faced that challenge when her parents retired and moved to Australia seven years ago, leaving her in charge of a 2,800-square-foot, classically proportioned, 1960s apartment in Mid-Levels. It wasn't until last year that she decided to renovate it. 'It took a while to feel ready to do something that reflects me,' she says. However, she couldn't bring herself to gut the place and wipe out all traces of her childhood and family history. Instead, she decided to work around the few major pieces of furniture her parents had left behind, integrating them with her own impressive collection of modern art. 'The apartment has always been very comfortable and friends come over and kick off their shoes and lie around. But I didn't really feel it was my place,' Chang says. 'With the renovation, I didn't want to lose that relaxed, intimate experience; a home is about having family and friends drop by - that's what creates the good vibes, not the colour scheme.' Yet, aside from the overriding sense that this home is an anchor because of the family ties and the surrounding heirlooms, the first impression is one of colour. 'Being brave with colour was important,' Chang says, which is why she brought in renowned colour expert Paola Dindo (Paola Dindo & Associates, tel: 2804 6181). 'It started with the archway in the entrance hall; I really wanted a feature of some kind,' Chang says. It seems to have taken off from there: the flat features a mural of climbing foliage, Venetian plaster walls, a Georgian red dining room, and a master bedroom painted British racing green. 'She asked me what colours I like and mixed some shades and daubed streaks on the walls to let me live with it for a few days before making a decision.' The apartment feels like a series of formal salons - entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, kitchen and study. Each opens into the next through twists and turns; it is very different from the typical Hong Kong apartment layout where the rooms radiate from the lounge in a stunted arrangement. If any room could be said to be the heart of Chang's home it is the passionate red dining area, which forms a pivotal point between the public entertainment spaces and the private sleeping quarters. Because she wasn't making major structural changes, relocating utilities or re-organising spaces, Chang didn't feel it was worth hiring an architect. 'My job is essentially creative and involves a lot of lateral thinking,' she says. 'I have to come up with creative solutions and generate ideas that are bottom line driven and practical.' She was confident of making similar decisions about her home, but didn't want to cope with a contractor alone, so enlisted the help of close friend and project management consultant Mark Le Feuvre ( lefeuvre@netvigator.com ). 'It's always difficult to do something like this on your own, so it's lovely to have someone to bounce ideas off, especially someone who knows me ... he kept me sane,' Chang says. Most of her budget went towards rewiring the apartment and modernising the kitchen: 'The biggest headaches,' she laments. And that's where Le Feuvre excelled. 'Mark was really great when it came to things that were hideously boring and I had no interest in, like the wiring and the drainage, stuff that's tedious but obviously very important.' Le Feuvre also ensured the project met deadlines and stayed within budget. 'A lot of it is simply about getting the order right and ensuring the builders aren't making shortcuts,' he says. 'The fundamentals were really maintaining the sense of Karen's place but updating it.' This was achieved by re-dressing the space in economical ways. Upholstered furniture was custom-made and lamps were given a new lease of life by re-covering their shades in vibrant, contemporary textiles. Windows were dressed with Roman blinds and drops of heavily gathered 'fake' curtains, too small to actually close, thereby minimising fabric costs. Chang and Le Feuvre selected decent quality fabrics, but added weight with linings and richness with faux suede borders. With 2,800 square feet to play with, Chang could choose a different scheme for every room, a strategy that often fails in Hong Kong apartments because spaces are too small. 'I think that was driven by the fact that we weren't going into a brand new space and gutting it; this already had life to it and we didn't want to kill that,' Le Feuvre says. 'This is a place built of rooms, we didn't want open plan; it's nice to expect something different as you walk around but without feeling you're crossing a barrier from one room to another.' 1 The late afternoon sun creeps into the living room from the expansive balcony. The matching sofas ($15,000 for two, including fabric) and teak and glass coffee table ($3,800) were custom-made by Cotton Tree Interiors (165 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, tel: 2866 6921), which also made the orange and green cushions. The cream rug was custom-made in hand-tufted New Zealand wool by Tai Ping Carpets (Prince's Building, Central, tel: 2848 7668; about $14,000). 2 The layers of spaces can be seen from the entrance hall, but it's the foliage mural created by Paola Dindo that really catches the eye. Chang wanted 'something exotic and Asian without being kitsch'. 3 Karen Chang sits at a writing desk left by her parents in the study/library. The room's Chinoise atmosphere is enhanced by the matching roman blinds and chair cover (made by Cotton Tree Interiors; $1,850 for the blinds and $700 for the chair cover). 4 A reproduction Buddha statue sits on a pedestal at the end of the hallway (about $5,000 from Altfield Gallery, 248 Prince's Building, Central, tel: 2537 6370). Rather than end the passageway with a dead wall, the mirror extends the perspective. Chang searched for a pair of antique carved timber-screen doors that would fit exactly, eventually locating them at Chine Gallery ($8,000, 42A Hollywood Road, Central, tel: 2543 0023). 5 Chang converted an under-used part of the kitchen into a warm breakfast room painted in a sunny yellow. The 1950s feel is enhanced by the Ikea Formica table and folding chairs and suspended steel cylindrical lights from Art-Mix Lighting (392 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2838 2092). 6 Artworks are positioned so they can be seen from other rooms, such as the limited-edition Le Dejeuner Sur l'Herbe by Alain Jacquet and the Tai Chi sculpture by Ju Ming (both from Galerie Loft, www.galerieloft.com , tel: 9804 9547; e-mail: jmd@hkstar.com ). The two ottomans were re-covered for $1,400 each by Cotton Tree Interiors. 7 Dindo was also responsible for the British racing green paintwork in the bedroom, which is offset by a palette of pinks and reds. The antique brass bed frame was inherited from Chang's parents. The richly textured rug was designed by Dmytriy Pereklita on behalf of M Moser Associates for Tai Ping Carpets and purchased at a charity auction Chang organised for Mothers' Choice. The lamps left by her parents were updated with new lampshades from Soong Art Lampshades (around $2,500; 6 Square St, Central, tel: 2549 0615). The chaise longue was custom-made by Yingfu Curtain Design ($3,900; 133A Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, tel: 2866 3651). TRIED & TESTED Colouring in Layering texture on texture in a monotone palette adds to the intensity of colour and richness while distracting the eye from ungainly features. In the dining room, this is exaggerated by the combination of red walls (by Paola Dindo) and the Made in China red polyresin dinosaur by Sui Jianguo (from Galerie Loft). Between the two paintings, Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square by Yu Youhan and Fighting by Yang Shaobin (also from Galerie Loft). is a decorative screen that hides the air-conditioning unit, an idea proposed by Le Feuvre and made by Sunwood Building Materials ($330; Shop B8, Kam Koon Building, 308 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2827 0990). Dindo then painted it to blend with the walls. The same technique was used for the living room, library and guest bedroom. STYLING Esther van Wijick