Inside a Hong Kong apartment where art plays starring role in design scheme

When David Wenger and Luke Phillips moved into their Mid-Levels flat a year ago, it was a shell. Air-conditioning units had been ripped out and wires draped across the ceiling to a single light bulb hanging from the centre of the livingarea. The task ahead was considerable but compelling.

“If you’ve lived in Hong Kong long enough, you worry less about aesthetics, which can be fixed, and worry more about space,” says Wenger, a Canadian lawyer who moved to the city eight years ago. “We knew the space was good – the rooms were big, the ceilings were high and it had a balcony.”

Renting the 1,250 sq ft unit, with its green view and convenient location, was a no-brainer, despite downsizing from two bed­rooms to one. It meant compromises, but these have been creatively handled. The bedroom and office, for example, were combined by including a desk at the end of the bed.

“You can’t sleep and work at the same time,” says Wenger.

The flat’s most appealing aspects are its ample room for entertaining – Wenger regu­larly cooks up five-course meals for dinner parties – and abundant wall space to show­case the couple’s impressive art collection. Wenger has been collecting for about 25 years.

“When I open the door and see the art surrounding me it gives me a real sense of home, a real sense of us,” he says.