Hong Kong entrepreneur’s chic and clutter-free home

Roosting on a high floor in Wan Chai’s Convention Plaza, with a bird’s-eye view of the harbour, this 1,500 sq ft apartment was a couldn’t-ask-for-better commission for its designer, Sean Dix. Five years ago, he took the generic three-bedder and crafted it into a bespoke gem, where every last centimetre meets Arts and Crafts pioneer William Morris’ famous criteria of being both useful and beautiful.

“She was a dream client,” Dix says of its entrepreneur owner. “She said, ‘Design it as if it’s yours.’ She wanted us to think of every little thing, to really study it. So that’s what we did. It was like putting together a puzzle with all these little pieces.”

The design’s genius lies in its apparent simplicity. Dix used a restricted palette of materials – wood, mirrors, sandblasted glass and matt white marble (“I don’t like shiny”) with pops of orange – and kept the lines strong and clean. Most of the furniture is custom made and built in, and even the free-standing pieces are from Dix’s own range. Every corner is rounded, every light recessed, every utility placed neatly out of sight.