A boxy Hong Kong apartment gets a warm, colonial-style makeover

Renovations have a habit of snowballing. What begin as modest plans can quickly turn into a full-blown demolition.

“When we started out, we were only going to move one wall,” muses the owner of a 2,800 sq ft apartment in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels. “But once we moved one wall, we realised we would have to replace the floor and the skirting, and then we would want to replace the rest to match. Then we decided to replace a window and that meant replacing all the windows. In the end we kept only the bathroom in the guest bedroom.”

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With plans escalating rapidly, the American owner and her Australian husband – who work together in private equity – called in Hong Kong-born interior designer Nicole Cromwell.

The couple wanted their new home “to look more like a colonial-style apartment, in keeping with the age of the [1970s] building, and less like a box”. With no children to accommodate and a generously proportioned five-bedroom apartment to work with, Cromwell set about reconfiguring the space.

Two former en-suite bedrooms and a hallway were combined to create a large master suite with a white-marble bathroom and his-and-hers walk-in wardrobes. A third bedroom became a study with a library wall. A fourth was converted into a snug television room off the main living space, with feature double doors upholstered in blue leather for sound­proofing and studded with bronze tacks.

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Bronze hardware features throughout the home, from the light switches to the kitchen sink – taps, door handles and all.