Three rabbits, a corgi and a young couple accommodated in Nordic style in a Hong Kong apartment bright with natural light and elegantly modern
- A young couple turned a gloomy, noisy and dark Hong Kong apartment into a tranquil, light-filled, contemporary home fit for them and their pets
- Decorated in whites and greys, functional and with lots of storage, it is bright by day and, thanks to smart lighting, a kaleidoscope of colour at night
High above King’s Park, in Kowloon, Hong Kong, a 1,300 sq ft (120 square metre) flat has been transported from its gloomy, noisy, 1970s origins to become a bright, tranquil and whisper-quiet, three-bedroom contemporary home for a young couple, their three pet rabbits and six-month-old corgi, Snowy.
The property has been in owner Tina Tsang’s family for decades. When she married her Google colleague Wilson Ng, it was overdue for a renovation.
“It was a family flat and it was always so dark – dark wood, parquet flooring, black wallpaper,” she says. “I have lived here for a long time, but when we got married, we wanted something completely different: light tones – white, grey, accents of black – and a Nordic style, but also functional with lots of storage. That was the most important thing for me.”
It turned out to be a dream brief for V Design founder and director Keith Chan, who was introduced to the couple through a mutual friend. Tsang and Ng had a few ideas for the flat – moving the entrance to the third bedroom, for example, and repurposing it as a study and an extension of the living space. Elsewhere, though, they were happy to let Chan take the lead.
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“In all my designs, I like to reflect the owners’ personalities. Here, that meant modest elegance, comfort and structure,” Chan says. “I also injected influences from my architecture background – natural light, proportions, ‘simplexity’ and lightness of weight.”
That translated into a bright, clean-lined, open-plan living and dining space loaded with hidden storage behind white and grey concrete-effect panels. “Connecting and separating” the living room and entrance is a chunky white cabinet that “floats” on a black metal rod that appears too slender to support its weight.