This black-and-white Hong Kong home design was a dream project inspired by Bauhaus style and a famous Dior designer
- Interior designer YC Chen finally made his dream of a black-and-white home come true after he came across a client whose favourite colour is black
- The flat in Pok Fu Lam on Hong Kong Island has a monochrome scheme that plays with textures and graphics to keep things from feeling too boring or uniform
He may be best known for his interior schemes with a distinct Scandinavian pastel vibe, but YC Chen has always wanted to do a project purely in black and white.
It is a classic palette, the designer explains, but challenging to pull off so that the home does not feel “like a gallery or museum”.
For years this was too hard a sell for Chen – until along came the perfect candidate: a bachelor, whose favourite colour is black. Jay Cheung, who works in real estate in Hong Kong, jumped at Chen’s monochrome scheme for the renovation of his newly acquired Bel-Air flat, in Pok Fu Lam on Hong Kong Island.
It helped that client and designer had known each other for years. “I trusted him,” says Cheung.
The key to making it work, says Chen, founder of design studio hoo, was to play with textures and graphics. The designer set himself the task of avoiding repetition of the materials used – so that when you walk into any room of the 939 sq ft (87 square metre) flat, you know there will be surprises in store, even though the colour scheme is preordained.