Why ‘you don’t need to be a millionaire’ to make an apartment look and feel special
Stylist Flavia Markovits rearranged and repurposed a couple’s existing furniture and sourced additional pieces to stamp their mark on a Happy Valley rental flat
Living in SoHo is undeniably cool but everyone needs a break from its relentless bustle. Matt David and Daria Rokk, from Britain and Romania, respectively, reached the point when they wanted a change of pace. David was hankering after an “urban sanctuary”; Rokk felt they had outgrown their home.
“We wanted to get out of our bubble,” says David, who works for a creative experience agency and has been in Hong Kong for 16 years. “Living and working in Central became too much; we wanted the option of disconnecting.”
Armed with a list of requirements, David and Rokk trawled property websites and visited rental apartments throughout the city. The minute they walked into their current home, in Happy Valley, they knew they wanted to live there but they bargained too hard and the landlord accepted a “better” offer.
“I was so upset because apartments in this block don’t come up often,” recalls Rokk, who moved to Hong Kong eight years ago, and works for a global leadership advisory company. “We aren’t great believers in destiny but a fortnight later, the same apartment came back online so we went for it properly this time.”
Fast forward a month and the couple have stamped their mark on the 1,200 sq ft, one-bedroom flat. Blessed with natural light and leafy views, the airy apartment comprises a large, open-plan kitchen and living area and a spacious bedroom with an en suite bathroom and office nook. It had already been tastefully decorated so all the couple had to do was move in their furniture and add personal aesthetic touches. To get it just right, they asked interior stylist Flavia Markovits to help.
They first met via an advertisement on the classifieds website AsiaXpat – Markovits was selling a sideboard that Rokk and David bought and still have – and they liked her taste.