An all-white Hong Kong apartment turns to the dark side
After spending seven years in an all-white apartment, a Mid-Levels homeowner gave in to the dark side, writes Adele Brunner
Lunar New Year has inspired many a home spring clean but journalist Kate Whitehead decided to take it a step further. Having spent Christmas in Britain, she returned to Hong Kong at the beginning of January with an overwhelming urge to redecorate her Mid-Levels apartment.
“I’ve lived in this flat for seven years so I don’t know whether it was the seven-year itch or a New Year thing but I really wanted to give it a different look and feel,” she says.
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Whitehead, who has lived in Hong Kong since she was eight, had gutted and renovated her 550 sq ft, onebedroom apartment when she bought it so there wasn’t much to do on that front. The all-white walls were her first target.
“I’d gone for the logic that says a small flat needs light colours to increase its sense of space,” she says. “But when I got back from the UK, I knew I wanted something that looked a bit more European.”
Her sister, who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, had got her hooked on grey but although Whitehead trawled through paint shops in Wan Chai, she couldn’t find the shade she had in mind. Fortunately, a friend introduced her to Eico Paints and Whitehead discovered that the eco-friendly paint company would make the shade she envisaged if it didn’t already exist. She spent a couple of hours at its studio in Wong Chuk Hang, mixing colours on a computer, until she created two tones that hit the spot.
“Creating the colours was such fun and I even got to name them,” she says. “I called one ‘Gecko Grey’ and the other ‘Morning Trail’, after the hike up to The Peak, which I love doing. Morning Trail, with which I’ve decorated my bedroom, seems to change colour with the light – more greeny by day and greyish at night – a bit like the scenery when you hike.”