American interior designer Deborah von Eldik has been living in her Mid-Levels apartment for just three years, but she has spent nearly a lifetime preparing to decorate it.
Scattered throughout the 1,200 sq ft flat is von Eldik's collection of antique furniture, books and porcelain, which reflects three decades in Hong Kong as well as her family history. Many pieces are heirlooms - and each has a story to tell.
Like the tall oak chest in the living room, which was made from wood taken from fishing boats and inherited from her former husband's family, who were Dutch tea and coffee planters in Indonesia. Or the silver cutlery, intricately decorated with flowers, that once graced her grandmother's dining table in Virginia, in the United States.
Von Eldik moved to Hong Kong from New York in the 1970s, with her then husband. The couple first lived on a 67-foot junk moored in Causeway Bay. At the time, 'no one had flats to rent out and most of the expats came here on packages, so the companies owned the flats they lived in', she says.
Von Eldik worked in banking and finance for many years but switched to dealing in upmar- ket real estate 10 years ago. Her clients would ask her 'to prepare their flats before they moved here so that they could arrive with nothing more than a suitcase'.
Recognising the demand, she began offering a design service, which stood her in good stead when it came to renovating her own bathroom and kitchen.