Art, storage and ‘obvious’ tweaks make family apartment in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels a ‘joyous and organised home’

“When the pandemic hit, home became the place we lived, worked, played and even learned. We simply wanted to create a joyous and organised home for our family in a world that was becoming increasingly uncertain,” says British lawyer Nisha Singh, describing her 1,470 sq ft (137 square metre) Mid-Levels apartment on Hong Kong Island.

Along with her husband, Jason, who works as a trader, and two sons, now six and four, Singh had come to Hong Kong from Singapore two years earlier and found they had to downsize.

Because of the demands of full-time work and children as well as getting to grips with a new city, the couple had been too busy to give their three-bedroom, two-bathroom flat the TLC it needed. Then Covid-19 changed their way of life.

Since much of the furniture they had brought with them from Singapore was too large for their rented space, they replaced it with new pieces found in Hong Kong, keeping only items with sentimental value from their pre-pandemic travels around Asia. With the added responsibility of home-schooling their sons, however, they found they had even less time to source the finishing touches and complete the vision for their home.

Around that time, Singh saw an interiors feature in which the home was put together by interior designer and Post Magazine stylist Flavia Markovits, as well as some of her furniture for sale on Facebook. She contacted Markovits, telling her she liked her taste and asking if she could help with their home. Markovits agreed.

The first thing she did was to help the family reorganise, repurpose and declutter. Working predominantly with what the family had, she whipped each room into visual shape. She tweaked the furniture placement, such as positioning armchairs at different angles, and added soft furnishings, decorative items and artwork to pull the look together.