Bold & beautiful
A homeowner went full throttle to give her Sai Kung house a colourful revamp, writes Charmaine Chan
Homeowners are usually at the mercy of their designers and contractors when it comes to a renovation. Not Jane Straley. She grabbed the reins at the off, set the pace to rapid and directed her workers to ensure they met her seemingly impossible deadline.
'I had 35 days to get everything done,' she says, pointing out that this was no arbitrary goal. She and her husband took possession of their Sai Kung house in mid-May and 50 guests had been invited for a party on June 28. The date could not be shifted: it was his 40th birthday.
Straley, who works in fashion, credits her experience in outsourcing for her efficient renovation. 'There was a lot of planning involved,' she says. 'But I knew what I wanted, went out and decided immediately what to buy.'
One might assume, given such a tight deadline, she would have chosen a neutral palette of colours, bought ready-made furniture and masked anything that distressed her eye. Quite the opposite. With the help of a Pantone colour chart, she chose cerulean for the basement, orange for the guest bathroom, cobalt blue for the master bedroom and shocking pink for her dressing room-cum-office, at the top of the house.
Her love of colour becomes evident upon enter- ing the house. In what she calls the 'Oriental Gallery', a garage converted into a theatre room and bar, blue has been combined with brown to stunning effect. 'I needed a very bright, strong colour to bring out everything we had,' she says, pointing to the Asian art and wooden furniture. She even spray-painted the refrigerator and air-conditioner so they matched the blue and chocolatey hues of the floor and fittings.
'All the houses I had seen in Sai Kung and Clear Water Bay were white,' she says, recalling the properties the couple had rejected. 'I couldn't stand it. I wanted character in each room.'
That said, the ground-floor living areas have white walls, largely because of a vibrant painting above the sofa that screams for attention. 'White is good in terms of temperature,' Straley says. 'Introducing colour in this room would have taken away from the painting or just bothered me.' A dominant hue in this part of the house would probably also have detracted from the glorious sea view.
By taking on the role of designer, Straley says, she saved money and time. In the same way she communicates with tailors when having garments made, she outlined ideas for her contractor to implement. Those included small things such as swivel-from-sight drawers beneath the bathroom sinks and a laundry basket that holds toilet rolls.
She also tore down a few walls, one separating the master bathroom from the bedroom and another at the back of the kitchen to allow the installation of glass doors and access to a communal back yard.
Apart from its location, Straley says she was attracted to the house because of its irregularity. Unlike the three-storey boxes typical of New Territories homes, hers is a split-level property with surprises on each floor. 'The more irregular a place is the more I can play around with it,' she says.
That includes hanging lamps on either side of her bed at different heights because of a sloped ceiling. 'People say it's odd but if I don't think it's odd, then it's not odd,' she insists.
Although she sighs about the mistakes her contractor made in the rush to finish the house, Straley beams when she reveals that they met the deadline. One week before D-Day, when completion seemed impossible, her husband suggested that they change the venue of the party. 'But I said, 'No, I'm going to do it.''
What happened? The plants arrived the day before the party. 'And two hours before people started arriving,' she recalls triumphantly, 'I got rid of a huge pile of rubbish outside the house.'
Colour is injected into the living room with a vivid painting by Johanne Corno from Opera Gallery (2 Wellington Street, Central, tel: 2810 1208). The white sofa cost HK$31,220 six years ago from Cierre (shop F, 12 Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley, tel: 2573 8083). An Arco lamp (HK$20,500) from Flos (shop A, Winway Building, 50 Wellington Street, tel: 2801 7608) arches over the seating space. The B&B Italia coffee table cost HK$16,000 from Le Cadre Gallery (11 Duddell Street, Central, tel: 2526 1068).
A garage was converted by the previous owners into a basement. Owner Jane Straley added her touch to it by painting the walls blue (Pantone Eastern Blue) to complement the wooden furniture. Her contractor, Eddie Fung (tel: 9655 9496), had the bed made in Shenzhen for HK$15,600, not including the mattress, plain cushions and covers, which were made for HK$13,000 by Ka Ying Curtain Craft & Fashion Altering (28 Man Nin Street, Sai Kung, tel: 2791 4796). The four panels on the back wall and the plantation chair were purchased years ago in Macau. Also acquired a long time ago was the antique table, which cost HK$29,000 from Chinese Arts & Crafts (59 Queen's Road Central, tel: 2901 0338). The high table that doubles as a bar cost HK$5,000 from Tequila Kola (1/F, Horizon Plaza, Ap Lei Chau, tel: 2877 3295). The wood-look floor tiles cost HK$60 a piece (30cm x 60cm) from Nice Tile (181 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2598 5909). The painting of monks came from Van Gallery (25 Trang Tien Street, Hanoi, Vietnam, tel: 84 4 825 1532).
The master bedroom and en-suite bathroom were painted in a less vibrant blue than that used in the basement. Her self-designed bed was made through Fung for HK$9,000, including the two bedside tables. The pendant lamps flanking the bed (HK$1,600 each) came from Flos and the artwork above was painted by friend Jon Pan. The cabinet under the television cost HK$7,000 from Aluminium (1 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, tel: 2546 5904).
Straley removed the wall separating the bedroom from the bathroom. The self-designed mirror cabinets cost HK$3,500 each to make and the sinks (HK$6,120 each) were display items from tile shop In Plus (183 Lockhart Road, tel: 2479 9390). The taps (HK$4,388 each) were from Classic Bathroom Accessories (shop 3B, Siu On Centre, 188 Lockhart Road, tel: 2802 9882) and the lights above the mirror cost HK$2,700 each from Flos. South American teak (HK$40 a square foot, from Polychance (Asia), 271 Lockhart Road, tel: 2802 2001) was used for the flooring.
The yin and yang outdoor seats (HK$82,485 for the pair) came from Dedon Asia Pacific (unit 1101, 21 Luard Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2529 7233). The wood-look outdoor tiles were HK$152 a piece (20cm x 90cm) from Pacific Tiles Boutique (229 Lockhart Road, tel: 2802 1788). Straley designed the box planters, which can be opened and move on castors. Fung had them made for HK$500 each.
Because time was of the essence, Straley bought the display kitchen from colour.living (333 Lockhart Road, tel: 2510 2666), for HK$388,000, including the tall wooden cabinets, tempered glass and stainless-steel islands and sink. The extractor hood (HK$11,680) came from Treasure Kitchen (383 Lockhart Road, tel: 2892 2993).
The dining area and kitchen are on a split floor above the living room. The B&B Italia dining table cost HK$45,000 from Le Cadre Gallery and the Matteograssi chairs around it were HK$8,500 each from Design Direction (43 Wong Ngai Chung Road, Happy Valley, tel: 2904 7232). Providing illumination is a hanging tray of glass jars (HK$39,600) from Flos.
TRIED + TESTED
Safety glass Rather than typical banisters along the stairs, the previous residents installed glass barriers. However, they were too low to be safe, particularly at the top of the house, so owner Jane Straley added a strip of glass above. Not only did it make the barrier safer, she says, it is a design feature in itself. Straley's wedding dress is displayed on a mannequin outside her work room.
