Long-distance call
Growing up, Peggy Wong spent many an after-school hour in the furniture stores along Happy Valley's Blue Pool Road, below where she and her family lived. Glossy showcases of contemporary European furniture loom large in some of her fondest memories of Hong Kong, she says. Years later, based in Los Angeles, in the United States, and mulling over names for her design studio, 'Bluepoolroad' sprang to mind, surprising her with how emotive the name had become.
'I missed my roots,' she says, at her new home in Silver Lake, designed by architect Richard Neutra. 'It's a complete 360 for me. I've been remembering what I liked when I was young. Naming my business Bluepoolroad was like reaching back to where I was born and grew up, and what influenced me when I was young. It was a pretty great time.'
Wong's father was an architect - now retired - as is her husband of three years. She left Hong Kong when she was 12 with her mother and stepfather, an executive at General Electric. They landed first in the US state of Virginia then relocated to Puerto Rico. Two years later, the family moved to Connecticut and then, finally, upstate New York.
Wong, who went to Marymount Primary School in Happy Valley, majored in graphic design before going on to work for design firm Desgrippes Gobe. Then, after a three-year stint as a deputy art director for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she moved to LA, doing freelance corporate design jobs.
'I remember reading home magazines from a young age,' she says. Her Hong Kong home was filled with Chinese antiques and modern, contemporary furniture. 'My mother had a really good eye. She had that taste level, and that influenced me in so many ways.'
Last year's inception of Bluepoolroad, a line of custom stationery and, soon, eco-friendly rugs, has given Wong a new career based on an old love. 'I love fonts,' she says. 'Typography is my one true love. I used to cut up words from magazines and cover my school notebooks with them.'
Wong uses tree-free paper, soy-based ink and envelopes made from recycled paper bags.
'After I graduated and moved to New York, I used my computer and printer to make wedding invitations for my brother,' she says. 'And when I worked at Martha Stewart, I said, 'I'm good at this. I can do this on my own.''
Wong describes her tastes as 'clean, modern, simple, detail-oriented', all of which will come through in her rug collection. The six-piece line will be made of undyed cotton and jute in natural colours such as bamboo, cactus, greys and browns.
The original Blue Pool Road may no longer be the furniture-store mecca it once was but, says Wong, 'I always wanted to keep my connection to Hong Kong'.
'There are certain things I miss about it, like the city vibe. I've become my own person but I appreciate what I grew up with - the aesthetic of mixing East and West. It's had a lot to do with how I design now. I'm always searching for anything that is a little different. I'm searching for my niche.'
