The end justified the means for one woman, who made a herculean effort to transform a dilapidated Mid-Levels apartment into her ideal home.
Emma Cerini's chic, modern flat is proof that hard work pays. Purchased after she narrowed her search to one quiet road on the fringes of Mid-Levels, it was, she says, 'unliveable' when she acquired it in 2004, not least because it had a squat toilet. Being a 1,100 sqft corner space bathed in light, however, it met her most important criteria and had the potential to fulfil her aims. 'I wanted to turn an old Chinese apartment into a contemporary western space that had an international feeling,' she says. 'I wanted to live in an inner-city flat in which, once you shut the front door, you had the sense you could be in Sydney or London.'
Despite her grand ambition, Australian-born Cerini was ill-prepared for the difficult months ahead. 'I was unrealistic about the extent of work required, how much it would cost and the time it would take,' she says. Still, she credits designer Mabel Lee of BSD (tel: 9239 2649) and her team for creating what she possesses today:
a charming black-and-white-themed, two-bedroom apartment with an open, corridor-style kitchen at the back and a bright lounge and banquette-anchored dining room at the front.
A curved wall separating the bathroom and living areas is one of the flat's highlights. 'That was the idea of a friend of mine,' says Cerini. 'We couldn't work out what to do with the sharp angle [that was there originally] and, apart from Mabel, I hadn't shown the flat plans to anyone.' Although the penny dropped for Cerini, the builders baulked. 'They didn't want to do it because they were concerned they wouldn't be able to do it properly.'
With strong design ideas absorbed from magazines as well as family (her father is a builder), Cerini also stood firm on features elsewhere that others questioned: using marble in the kitchen, staining her parquet floor almost black and installing white cupboards with dark recesses (see Tried & Tested).