How a Hong Kong interior designer helped a couple create a more flowing home

For fitness fanatics Chloe and Andrew Chow, living within walking distance of the Tolo Harbour cycling path and the hiking trails of Ma On Shan Country Park seemed perfect.

The Ma On Shan flat they bought in 2005, which had been completed the year before, was ideally located and even had views over the water. But with two bedrooms and an enclosed kitchen squeezed into less than 500 square feet of usable floor space, and little storage, it felt pokey.

“We’d always planned to renovate, but we were waiting until the flat was ‘old’ so we had a reason to,” says Chloe, who works in counselling; her husband is in engineering.

When that time finally came, the couple engaged designer Dylan Tan Dar-luen, of WOM Concept, whose style they had admired in a flat featured in Post Magazine.

Having spent enough time in the home to know what worked – and more importantly, what didn’t – they craved a more cohesive flow. An open kitchen was high on Chloe’s wish list. “I like to invite friends to our home, and don’t want to isolate myself in the kitchen,” she explains.

Storage was also essential. Describing themselves as minimalist, the couple found grating the encroaching stacks of books, paperwork and necessary household detritus piling up around them.