Hong Kong village house has an ethical makeover

Text Jane Steer / Styling Anji Connell / Photography Jonathan Wong

When it comes to renovating a house, the temptation is to rip it all out and start again. Yet sometimes, this just seems wrong. With Hong Kong's landfills overflowing with perfectly good kitchens, bathrooms and flooring, it's becoming increasingly clear the responsible way to renovate is to reuse, reclaim and adapt.

"We try to be green - we compost, we recycle," says Australian Louise Garnaut, who lives in a 1,750 sq ft Clear Water Bay village house with her Italian branding designer husband, Vincenzo Perri, and their children, Agnese, 14, and Ettore, nine. "When we bought the house in 2011, it was immaculate. The previous owner was Japanese and it was truly minimal. Would I have chosen these floor tiles? No, but we can live with them."

With just weeks to finalise the plan before the contractor started work, Garnaut and Perri, who have lived in Hong Kong since the 1980s, worked with what they had.

"Fortunately, we had been living in a similar house and I'd been thinking for years about what I would do with the space," Garnaut says. "We wanted it to be minimalist, but not too minimalist. I didn't want it to look like a hotel; a home should be a bit quirky. It should have character."

They adapted the existing layout, comprising a double-height living space, a study and bathroom on the ground floor, a kitchen on the mezzanine, and bedrooms on the floor above, plus a rooftop barbecue and entertaining space. They installed double glazing to reduce electricity usage and came up with an ingenious storage solution: a five-foot-wide "bridge" lined with floor-to-ceiling cupboards extending from the mezzanine floor along one wall of the double-height living room. Inside are dishes, wine, kitchen paraphernalia and an entire cupboard dedicated to cookbooks.