Family friendly: small Hong Kong flat cleverly makes room for everyone
In an 860 sq ft Tin Hau flat, one family has created four bedrooms, two bathrooms and the illusion of space, writes Kate Whitehead
After 20 years as tenants in Hong Kong, Agnes Piras and her husband, Eric, wanted to buy a home. The challenge was to find something within their budget that could accommodate a family of four.
Piras’ search extended from Mid-Levels to Tin Hau, where she finally found what they were looking for: a top-floor, high-ceilinged flat in a classic 1950s Chinesestyle building.
“I fell in love with the building and I like being in a local area, close to the action. As soon as I walked into the flat I knew it was the place – there’s so much light,” says Piras, who runs a graphic design company called Calamansi Designs with her sister, Caroline.
Downsizing from a 1,800 sq ft Mid-Levels apartment, however, wasn’t going to be easy.
“I had to please two kids with different needs and desires, a husband and a helper – and wanted them all to be happy,” she says.
After years of dreaming about owning a family home, Piras had plenty of clippings from design magazines, and a good sense of the look she wanted, but the overriding issue was space: how to create four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a toilet and a generous living area within 860 square feet?
“I spent two months just on the floor plan. I needed to make every centimetre of space work,” she says.