https://www.scmp.com/rss/8739/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A modern luxury development on a forest-clad hilltop between Sha Tin and Tai Po, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, might seem an unlikely place for a Japanese washitsu, or tatami room. Yet once inside this 1,700 sq ft (158 square metres) flat, this versatile space makes perfect sense. Open to the living area, but able to be screened off by sliding shoji doors, it is a key element of tech investor Robert Lau’s elegant home. Primarily a study, with a desk installed in front of the window and its... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3198090/minimalist-japanese-inspired-home-hong-kong-all-about-hidden-storage-spaces-nature-wood-and-zen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3198090/minimalist-japanese-inspired-home-hong-kong-all-about-hidden-storage-spaces-nature-wood-and-zen?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Nov 2022 04:45:11 +0000 For publisher and entrepreneur Carmen Li, the decision to get involved with the “fun part” of renovating her 1,500 sq ft (139 square metre) flat in Jardine’s Lookout on Hong Kong Island – devising the floor plan, choosing the colour schemes and furniture – took a more serious twist when the long-term design fan realised how much she did not know. “We’d had the flat for a few years while we were living in Clear Water Bay. But I’d decided to move back into the city with my son, Vincent, just the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3196443/silk-wallpaper-taobao-stools-hong-kong-apartments-mix-luxury-pieces-and-everyday-items-shows-design?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3196443/silk-wallpaper-taobao-stools-hong-kong-apartments-mix-luxury-pieces-and-everyday-items-shows-design?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Oct 2022 04:45:20 +0000 You are not alone if the pop-up Lifetastic cake shop in Hong Kong’s Festival Walk shopping centre in Kowloon Tong has caught your eye recently. The intriguing transparent blue box has scooped the top prize in the Pop-up category of the UK-based Restaurant & Bar Design Awards 2022, beating out competition in New York, London and Dubai. It is the work of Hong Kong-based Max Lam Designs, which has been working with Lifetastic since 2018, when founder Max Lam designed its first store in Tsim Sha... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3194230/transparent-blue-and-very-instagrammable-hong-kong-pop-cake?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3194230/transparent-blue-and-very-instagrammable-hong-kong-pop-cake?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Oct 2022 06:15:08 +0000 The brief for this 1,800 sq ft (167 square metre) house in Hong Lok Yuen, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, was to make coming home feel like going on holiday. An Asian holiday, to be precise. “It’s a long drive from the city, and after a day at work, it can be exhausting,” says homeowner Kevin Li Hung-mau, who shares the two-storey, three-bedroom house with his wife, Regina Chan Sun-tei, and their two dogs. “So during the design process we asked for somewhere that feels like a vacation space –... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3184260/hong-kong-house-gets-asian-holiday-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3184260/hong-kong-house-gets-asian-holiday-home?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Jul 2022 04:45:22 +0000 In a small square at the heart of an ancient clan village in the northern New Territories, amid fields and fish ponds close to the Chinese border, is a venerable longan tree. More than 100 years old, its trunk is twisted and gnarly and covered with parasitic plants, but its branches are thick with leaves and alive with tiny songbirds. Surrounding it are a rock “turtle”, a pine tree, a stone table and stools, and an old cannon – thought to date from World War II – propped up on bricks. Every... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3179954/hong-kong-apartments-design-inspired-tree?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3179954/hong-kong-apartments-design-inspired-tree?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Jun 2022 04:48:21 +0000 As the owner of Hong Kong-based furniture store Emoh and its own-brand Moodby, Karen Lau Ka-wang is no slouch when it comes to interior design. Yet she credits a tip picked up on a gap-year course at the Hong Kong School of Design for the success of her recent renovation of this 700 sq ft (65 sq m) garden flat in Clear Water Bay in the New Territories. “I’m not a design professional, but design is my passion,” says Lau, whose degree is in finance. “I wanted to highlight the kitchen and the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3177264/hong-kong-homes-scandinavian-furniture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3177264/hong-kong-homes-scandinavian-furniture?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 May 2022 04:45:09 +0000 A blank slate can be forbidding. So Hong Kong-based interior designer Rosheen Rodwell is always glad when clients come with a few much-loved possessions that need to be incorporated into a scheme. “I love that,” she says. “It’s important to find a home for all of it.” At a 1,410 sq ft (131 square metre) flat in Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong – belonging to 747 pilot Caroline Williams, her financier husband, Richard, and their children, Chloe, 10 and Hugo, 8 – those possessions included a collection of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3169727/painting-provides-colour-palette-liveable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3169727/painting-provides-colour-palette-liveable?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Mar 2022 23:45:11 +0000 Built halfway up The Peak, on Hong Kong Island, in 1927 by former government architect John Caer Clark, Chatham House has survived nearly a century of turbulent history. Pre-war, it was the residence of Alfred and Elizabeth Humphreys, a British businessman and his wife, whose tenancy was cut short by the Japanese occupation. The couple were sent to Stanley Internment Camp, where Elizabeth died – her hand-carved headstone can be found in Stanley Military Cemetery – and Chatham House is believed... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3166335/how-hong-kong-mansion-restored-art-space?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3166335/how-hong-kong-mansion-restored-art-space?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Feb 2022 04:21:50 +0000 Moving from Mid-Levels on Hong Kong Island to Tuen Mun in the New Territories was more than a geographical relocation for Paul Gardner and his partner in work and life, Nick Cheng Ho-sing. It was a whole new lifestyle for the co-founders of Fresh Accounting, which has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. “It is so different to city living,” says Gardner. “We overlook a park, where there are always older people doing tai chi, walking tortoises, and families playing. It has changed the dynamics of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3165486/how-green-sustainable-home-renovation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3165486/how-green-sustainable-home-renovation?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Feb 2022 04:45:12 +0000 “We missed out on a Christmas tree last year: by the time my husband got to Mong Kok Flower Market, they were going for about HK$8,000 (US$1,025) each,” says a still-shocked Lily Smithson, recalling the price gouging that went on as families grounded by the coronavirus pandemic rushed to secure a noble fir or Douglas pine for the holiday. “There was no way we were missing out this year.” Adding to the desire for a beautiful Christmas 2021 is baby Ella, who had her first birthday a few weeks ago... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3158768/hong-kong-beachfront-apartment-whose-style?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3158768/hong-kong-beachfront-apartment-whose-style?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Dec 2021 01:15:23 +0000 It took three months and 14 drafts to get the design exactly right for this 1,600 sq ft (149 square metre) apartment renovation in the heart of Western district on Hong Kong Island. “We started with a choice of three options and then went into a lot of redesigns,” explains its lead designer, Emma Maclean of EM Bespoke. Situated in an older building, the flat was originally two units – one larger than the other – which were to be combined into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, plus helper’s... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3157894/flexible-and-smart-design-makes-most-light?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3157894/flexible-and-smart-design-makes-most-light?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Dec 2021 01:15:21 +0000 From the view of the now-closed Jumbo floating restaurant to the raw brick tiles and textured paint that remind property owner Lucas Sam Si-long of his grandmother’s home, the word that best describes his one-bedroom, 1,070 sq ft (99 square metre) flat in Ap Lei Chau is nostalgic. “It’s not retro – I don’t like that word,” says its designer, JJ Acuna of JJ Acuna / Bespoke Studio. “It takes those little bits and pieces we have in our memories, but it’s not pastiche or clichéd. It’s nostalgic, but... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3156269/apartments-feng-shui-screens-and-gen-z?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3156269/apartments-feng-shui-screens-and-gen-z?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Nov 2021 01:30:25 +0000 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... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3154584/three-rabbits-corgi-and-young-couple?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3154584/three-rabbits-corgi-and-young-couple?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Nov 2021 01:30:25 +0000 As an interiors stylist, Flavia Markovits knows a good layout when she sees one. And with her family’s 780 sq ft (72 square metre) flat in Discovery Bay, she struck gold. The previous owner, architect Georges Hung, had gutted the three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit on the first floor of a tower block to open up the space. He merged the third bedroom and a corridor into the kitchen and living room to create a large open-plan space. And instead of keeping two bathrooms, he turned one into a study and... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3137363/brazilian-interiors-stylist-brings-bali?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3137363/brazilian-interiors-stylist-brings-bali?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Jun 2021 01:30:00 +0000 On June 2, 1995, readers opened the South China Morning Post to a chilling headline: “Diver killed in shark attack”. Found floating in three metres (nine feet, eight inches) of water off Silverstrand Beach (in Sai Kung in Hong Kong’s New Territories), competitive swimmer turned physical education teacher Tso Kam-sun, 44, had had his leg bitten off up to the waist. It was two years to the day since another fatal attack by a shark in the area. The story noted: “Shark experts said the same shark... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3136304/when-shark-attacks-hong-kong-claimed-three?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3136304/when-shark-attacks-hong-kong-claimed-three?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Jun 2021 02:15:06 +0000 Bali is not the first place that springs to mind on entering an old-fashioned former office in a 50-year-old mixed-use building in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui. But that is exactly where fashion designer Shili Menon and her financier husband, Sasi, landed as inspiration for the two-bedroom, two-bathroom home they would build. “Bali, with a bit of Japanese Zen,” Shili clarifies. “And a New York loft vibe,” Sasi adds. And that is what they got, thanks to Liquid Interiors’ founder Rowena Gonzales and... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3130229/how-hong-kong-couple-come-home-holiday?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3130229/how-hong-kong-couple-come-home-holiday?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:30:15 +0000 Sky high in Pok Fu Lam, with stunning views over the East Lamma Channel and Sunset Peak, on Lantau Island, this 2,300 sq ft flat simply glows on sunny afternoons. As the light shifts from silver to gold, it floods into the living room and main suite through floor-to-ceiling windows. “The light here is just crazy!” says interior designer Yu-chang Chen, whose company, hoo, was charged with redesigning the four-bedroom flat for a family of four (parents Norman and Christine, plus 14-year-old Isabel... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3125666/how-hong-kong-apartment-makes-most-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3125666/how-hong-kong-apartment-makes-most-its?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Mar 2021 01:30:07 +0000 The home of artist Didi Abe, her architect husband, Richard Cunliffe, and their eight-year-old daughter, Calder, is a treasure trove. In Abe’s family since it was built, in 1974, this 1,200 sq ft flat in Tin Hau is filled with beautiful pieces: exquisite antiques, yard sale bargains and natural found objects all happily coexist, often in the same display. A cardboard crocodile made by Calder perches on a drawing by American artist Robert Rauschenberg. A pair of “golden bricks”, made for the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3109212/inside-artists-colourful-hong-kong-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3109212/inside-artists-colourful-hong-kong-home?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Nov 2020 01:30:15 +0000 If the room above is not the hardest working 200 sq ft in Hong Kong, it is certainly a contender. Once two rooms – a study and a child’s bedroom in a 1,750 sq ft Pok Fu Lam flat – this multifunctional space now packs in two double beds, two full-sized desks, a child’s table and chairs, a two-seater sofa, play space, a whiteboard, gym equipment, art supplies, filing cabinets, a printer, HEPA air filter, and all the toys, clothes and treasures a little girl could want. And with a sleek, clean... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3102553/hong-kong-family-home-takes-one-room-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3102553/hong-kong-family-home-takes-one-room-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Sep 2020 01:30:09 +0000 Victoria “Tor” Williams, founder and managing director of Victoria Wines, has just one regret about the 1,400 sq ft duplex she purchased in a Clear Water Bay village house 10 years ago: that she didn’t get to it in time to buy the top floor as well. “I would have bought the entire house, but my agent didn’t think I’d be interested,” Williams recalls. “I looked at 50 to 60 places, and I was already living in the village, but she nearly didn’t show me this one either.” The agent thought Williams... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3100626/kitchen-was-my-big-blowout-duplex-indoors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3100626/kitchen-was-my-big-blowout-duplex-indoors?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Sep 2020 01:30:14 +0000 It started as a long-distance romance. Dutch couple Sven van der Veen and Krista van Steekelenburg first laid eyes on their beloved 2,500 sq ft, ground-floor apartment in Repulse Bay from the window of a flat they were viewing high up in a nearby tower block. “That flat was OK, but then we looked out of the window and saw this place, and said ‘that’s what we would like’,” van Steekelenburg recalls. A week later, when van der Veen spotted it in a property agent’s listings, it felt like fate. That... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3095915/introducing-natural-light-elements-bali?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3095915/introducing-natural-light-elements-bali?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Aug 2020 01:30:18 +0000 On March 27, 1998, the South China Morning Post announced the possibility of a visit to Hong Kong by Bill Clinton – the first by an incumbent American president. “United States officials are studying sites in China and Hong Kong for possible presidential visits ahead of Bill Clinton’s trip in June,” ran the story. However, the Hong Kong government’s hopes that he would visit on the first anniversary of the handover were dashed by “strong opposition inside the State Department to giving such... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3091482/when-bill-clinton-became-first-serving-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3091482/when-bill-clinton-became-first-serving-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Jul 2020 04:45:07 +0000 Three became one, bedrooms that is, when Simon and Tracy de Courcy Hughes moved into their 1,450 sq ft flat in Pok Fu Lam. After 48 years in Hong Kong, three children and five grandchildren, the couple called time on their four-bedroom family house in the same area and decided to downsize. “We went to see a lot of flats, and even made an offer on one in Conduit Road but they raised the price so we said no,” Simon says. They finally decided on a place 10 minutes down the road. “It was a rabbit... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3090245/hong-kong-couple-downsized-live-it-sleek?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3090245/hong-kong-couple-downsized-live-it-sleek?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jun 2020 01:30:14 +0000 Shopping for an interior designer can be as simple as, well, shopping. Art director and graphic designer Ivan Au and his illustrator wife, Choily Choi, found exactly what they wanted while moseying around Galleon lifestyle store, in Causeway Bay. “I really liked the style of the store, so I asked a friend to find out who designed it,” Au says. The friend obliged and so Au met Wilson Lee Hing-yin and Emily Ho, of Studio Adjective, who would design the couple’s new 408 sq ft rooftop flat, in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3030118/creative-couples-tiny-hong-kong-flat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3030118/creative-couples-tiny-hong-kong-flat?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Sep 2019 10:15:14 +0000 At 8.03am on September 22, 1948, one of the worst fires in the history of Hong Kong broke out after an explosion in a Wing On godown, on Des Voeux Road West. Ultimately, it would kill 176 people and injure 69 others. The South China Morning Post broke the story on September 23 with the headline: “Over Hundred Casualties; Godown Fire Still Raging After Sixteen Hours; Damage Esti­mated at Forty Million Dollars; Two Jumped to Death”. “Scene of the outbreak was a five-storey godown […] which... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3026913/how-one-worst-fires-hong-kongs-history-started?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3026913/how-one-worst-fires-hong-kongs-history-started?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Sep 2019 12:00:04 +0000 Among the hostels, tailors and cha chaan teng of a quintessentially Hong Kong 1950s mansion block on Nathan Road is an unexpectedly contemporary flat. Sleek, masculine and darkly atmospheric, it blends luxurious materials, such as walnut and marble, with raw concrete walls and an edgy, urban setting. It is the home of hotel-accessories designer Daniel Cho Fong-keong and senior human resources director Timothy Bean, who found the 634 sq ft former jewellery workshop in Tsim Sha Tsui after a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3014004/hong-kong-couples-moody-masculine-flat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3014004/hong-kong-couples-moody-masculine-flat?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Jun 2019 10:15:10 +0000 American financer John Dickson had a contradictory set of requirements for the design of his 376 sq ft flat in Central. He wanted it to be modern but traditional, clean but colourful, and when he was in, he wanted to see out. “The apartment has an open view of Central and, because it overlooks PMQ, that won’t change. I wanted to make the most of the view,” he says. “I wanted to be able to see out all the way through the flat. I didn’t want to feel claustrophobic. I wanted it to be modern but not... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3010172/hong-kong-microflat-uses-creativity-make?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3010172/hong-kong-microflat-uses-creativity-make?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 May 2019 10:15:10 +0000 When it comes to building a dream home, it pays to be flexible. Hong Kong-based couple Marcus Foley and Irene Capriz had drawn up plans for a house on their dream plot – a rice paddy on the quiet fringes of Seminyak, in Bali, Indonesia, five minutes from shops and restaurants and two minutes from the beach – when an opportunity presented itself. “We were looking for reclaimed timber when we stumbled upon a 140-year-old Dutch colonial house on a plantation in Kalimantan [Borneo],” says Capriz, a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3004280/borneo-bali-140-year-old-dutch-colonial?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3004280/borneo-bali-140-year-old-dutch-colonial?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Apr 2019 09:45:06 +0000 Fanny Moizant has a thing for vintage. Pre-owned pieces fill her home, her wardrobe and her working life as the co-founder of luxury fashion resale website Vestiaire Collective. “I love pieces with a story,” she says. There are stories galore among her eclectic possessions, currently housed in a 2,600 sq ft, three-bedroom rental flat in The Lily, overlooking Repulse Bay. Flea-market finds sit happily along­side mid-century modern design classics and con­temporary pieces; artworks are casually... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3001245/inside-hong-kong-home-vestiaire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3001245/inside-hong-kong-home-vestiaire?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:45:05 +0000 Renovating a rented home is all about making the biggest impact with the least work. Take this 4,500 sq ft, split-level house overlooking Deep Water Bay. It ticked a lot of boxes for financier David Solloway and his wife, Sabrina. The house had a fabulous view, five good-sized bedrooms, a large terrace and plenty of space for entertaining. Plus they liked the area, having lived nearby for five years. But the 32-year-old property was start­ing to show its age, with ugly yellow wood floors, dreary... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2186790/tenants-give-dated-hong-kong-house-no?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2186790/tenants-give-dated-hong-kong-house-no?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Feb 2019 09:45:00 +0000 If ever there were a designer who knew his way around a curve it was 20th-century Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. The softer face of modernism, he is perhaps best known for his sensuous glass vases, wavy wooden screens, and undulating walls and ceilings. Never one to use a straight line when a curved one would do, Aalto was the inspiration for Bean Buro’s design of this 2,080 sq ft, four-bedroom, two-bathroom flat in Pok Fu Lam. The main organising feature in its living spaces is a sinuous... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2179780/inside-alvar-aalto-inspired-family-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2179780/inside-alvar-aalto-inspired-family-home?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Jan 2019 09:47:25 +0000 Jason Caroline Design’s colour choice for the monolithic suspended chim­ney that forms the focal point of this 4,500 sq ft, three-bedroom Bowen Road flat proved controversial. “Gold?” spluttered the client, William Wong. “I don’t want to be like Donald Trump!” How two ‘concrete boxes’ were transformed into a family retreat And yet gold it is. Not gaudy Trumpian bling, but a muted, subtly metallic shade that gleams over a massive stone hearth and minimalist gas fire. Even so, Wong took some... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2171925/how-huge-hong-kong-flat-became-family-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2171925/how-huge-hong-kong-flat-became-family-home?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Nov 2018 09:47:10 +0000 Like the yachts berthed outside, this 2,000 sq ft, four-bedroom Sai Kung town house is bright, fresh and streamlined. Part of the Marina Cove development, the accommodation in the split-level house is arranged over six half-floors, which had barely been touched since it was built in the 1980s. “It was very run-down,” says designer Clifton Leung Hin-che, who was charged with transforming the dated interior into a contemporary family home for Benny Liu, a medical doctor, his wife, Winnie, their... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2170802/hong-kong-marina-house-gets-nautical?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2170802/hong-kong-marina-house-gets-nautical?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Oct 2018 09:45:39 +0000 An hour’s drive northwest of Canggu, Bali’s latest trendy holiday hot spot, and a rice paddy away from the Indian Ocean is a stylish slice of heaven named Balian Prana. This is the holiday home of French journalist Marie le Masne de Chermont, her husband, Raphael (former executive chairman of Shanghai Tang), their grown-up children, Jade and Corentin, and their many guests. The 1,200-square-metre site comprises five buildings and a 25-metre, infinity-edge swimming pool set on a grassy slope... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2167640/inside-bali-holiday-home-dreamed-french?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2167640/inside-bali-holiday-home-dreamed-french?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:45:00 +0000 There’s more to this 1,100 sq ft flat in Ap Lei Chau than meets the eye. While it has the clean lines and muted colours typical of mini­malist design, there is something interesting to see wherever you look: hidden shelving, a bespoke light fitting, a tiny window seat. Its arresting simpli­city appears effortless, but it is the result of careful planning and considered design. And for that, newlywed owners Hillary and Andrew Cee can thank interior designer Leung Chi Ling, of Millwork... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2166646/inside-hong-kong-newlyweds-flat-designed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2166646/inside-hong-kong-newlyweds-flat-designed?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Oct 2018 10:15:00 +0000 This is a tale of two houses. Sitting side by side in a vivid green tropical garden, a stone’s throw from Lantau’s south coast, the two 2,100-square-foot properties form a rural bolt-hole for the family of Mary McBain, fund manager and co-owner of homeware store Inside. Between them, McBain and her husband – who married recently after more than a decade together – have four children in their teens and early 20s, who split their time between Hong Kong and Britain. When they’re in Hong Kong, the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2158634/how-two-hong-kong-village-houses-were?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2158634/how-two-hong-kong-village-houses-were?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Aug 2018 10:15:00 +0000 The key to achieving the clean, un­cluttered aesthetics of Scandinavian design in a 750 sq ft flat is storage. Lots of it. So when it came to giving their Happy Valley home a Nordic makeover, Oscar Kwoh and his wife appointed an expert in the art of hiding the messy ephemera of daily life, Pamela Lee, of PJL Interior Design. “We knew Pam through my sister, whose apartment she renovated in Wan Chai [in 2015],” Kwoh says. “We really liked the clean design and all the storage, and my wife was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2156614/why-nordic-design-perfect-hong-kong-homes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2156614/why-nordic-design-perfect-hong-kong-homes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Jul 2018 09:45:00 +0000 “Zero waste” are words to live by for Liina Klauss. In 2016, the German self-styled art activist and her two children moved from Lantau, Hong Kong, to Bali, Indonesia, where she places recycling at the heart of her work and home. It was Klauss’ background in fashion that set her on the road to eco-consciousness. “In Europe, I used antique kimonos to create high-end garments. Then in Hong Kong, I worked in the shoe industry [doing quality control]. It was insane – the over-consumption, the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2155613/inside-german-art-activists-bali-home-where?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2155613/inside-german-art-activists-bali-home-where?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Jul 2018 09:45:30 +0000 Creating a stylish home doesn’t have to be a matter of throwing every­thing out and starting over. Many of us already have a household full of pieces too good to discard. Some­times all it takes is a fresh eye to make a fresh beginning. This was the case for American yoga instructor Sarah Woodall, her chief executive husband, John, and their two children – Josh, aged seven, and Erica, three – when they moved from Happy Valley to a 2,075 sq ft, four-bedroom rental in Shouson Hill. Theirs is a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2148252/how-hong-kong-yoga-instructor-created?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2148252/how-hong-kong-yoga-instructor-created?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 May 2018 09:45:15 +0000 When it comes to impulse buys, Hong Kong-based British interior designer Anji Connell is in a different class. Her gotta-have-it moment came in 2016 after a week-long holiday in South Africa, and took the form of this 10-year-old thatched house in Franschhoek, in the Winelands, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town.  “We’d had a fabulous week, tried every­thing and loved it, and had heard about Franschhoek so we stopped off on our way to the airport,” Connell says. “I was in an art gallery and my... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2146186/one-hong-kong-couple-impulse-purchase?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2146186/one-hong-kong-couple-impulse-purchase?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 May 2018 09:45:15 +0000 First there was wallpaper. Not just any wallpaper, but an attention grabbing mural of an artfully distressed wall, peeled back layer by layer to reveal graffiti-sprayed and ornate tiles, crumbling plaster and raw brick. Pasted onto one wall of this Causeway Bay apartment, it is the statement piece on which the design hangs. The flat’s Dutch owners, Wijnand van Hoeven and Pierre de Rooij, wanted a loft-style treatment for the neglected, 580 sq ft, three-bedroom apartment in a 47-year-old building... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2139088/small-hong-kong-apartment-big-style?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2139088/small-hong-kong-apartment-big-style?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Mar 2018 09:45:45 +0000 Artist Daphné Mandel’s apartment on The Peak is a legacy of a different era. Built in 1965 for civil servants, the colonial govern­ment block appears unassuming and utilitarian. The aesthetic is strictly no-frills: there is no glossy marble lobby, clubhouse or swanky water feature here. Its luxuries are space and location. Built before air conditioning became ubiquitous, the 2,550 sq ft, three-bedroom apartment is large, airy and functional, with killer views and the period’s high ceilings and... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2133926/parisian-artists-1960s-gallery-home-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2133926/parisian-artists-1960s-gallery-home-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Feb 2018 09:45:00 +0000 “Over my dead body” was Inez Albert’s initial reaction to husband Nick Morgan’s suggestion that they move to the farthest reaches of Sai Kung Country Park. She came round, however, persuaded by this 2,100 sq ft village house, the garden and the price in a market that “had gone crazy”. Three years on, she finds it hard to leave. “I work in Taikoo Shing [as digital director, Asia Pacific, for The Economist] and, at first, I found the drive a nightmare,” she says. “But once I get home, I don’t want... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2132237/hong-kong-country-park-retreat-thats-hard?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2132237/hong-kong-country-park-retreat-thats-hard?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Feb 2018 09:46:39 +0000 The less-is-more design philosophy isn’t for Brooke Babington. Instead of clean lines, uncluttered surfaces and a neutral palette, Babington’s home is all about colour, fun and sheer exuberance. It’s a home that makes you smile, whether it’s the framed quotes on the walls (“All unattended children will be given espresso and a free puppy”), the giant, plush tiger in her bedroom or the neon toucan in the living room. Her 1,800-square-foot, two-bedroom rental duplex on Old Peak Road oozes joie de... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2126480/old-peak-road-duplex-riot-exuberant-colour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2126480/old-peak-road-duplex-riot-exuberant-colour?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jan 2018 09:15:37 +0000 Roosting on a high floor in Wan Chai’s Convention Plaza, with a bird’s-eye view of the harbour, this 1,500 sq ft apartment was a couldn’t-ask-for-better commission for its designer, Sean Dix. Five years ago, he took the generic three-bedder and crafted it into a bespoke gem, where every last centimetre meets Arts and Crafts pioneer William Morris’ famous criteria of being both useful and beautiful. “She was a dream client,” Dix says of its entrepreneur owner. “She said, ‘Design it as if it’s... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2122938/hong-kong-entrepreneurs-chic-and-clutter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2122938/hong-kong-entrepreneurs-chic-and-clutter?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Dec 2017 10:03:29 +0000 Stencilled on a wall in this gloriously spacious home are words to live by: “F*** it, let’s go to New York”. Those seven words and three stars perfectly encapsulate the cheerfully irreverent attitude of the creative couple who live here, and of the Manhattan-style loft they have created in a 2,600 sq ft former warehouse in one of the grittier parts of Hong Kong. With its high ceilings, light-filled open spaces and manually operated lift gate, it could be a loft in downtown New York, if it... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2118730/new-york-loft-hong-kong-how-creative-couple?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2118730/new-york-loft-hong-kong-how-creative-couple?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Nov 2017 09:15:24 +0000 If ever there were a good advertisement for minimalism, this Caine Road flat is it. Pared back to sleek, sophisticated simplicity, the 610 sq ft space has been trans­formed from a dreary 1970s two-bedder into a masculine pied-à-terre for financial consultant Robert Chan and his golden retriever, Sydney. Jewel in the apartment’s crown is the 450 sq ft terrace. Decked out in wood-composite boards, with a dining table and sofa, an outdoor kitchen and a utility area complete with urinal (“for... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2117772/how-hong-kong-flat-went-humdrum-ultimate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2117772/how-hong-kong-flat-went-humdrum-ultimate?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Oct 2017 09:16:11 +0000 In the right hands, a property’s limita­tions can turn out to be its strengths. When architect Norman Ung Wai-lun, co-founder of Deft, was commissioned by an old school friend to turn a large 1980s Mid-Levels apartment into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom contemporary family home, its constraints soon became clear: the five structural walls carving up the flat. In puzzling out how to open up the space around those immovable objects, Ung came up with an ingeniously flexible plan to suit the lifestyle... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2114550/1980s-hong-kong-apartment-gets-modern?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2114550/1980s-hong-kong-apartment-gets-modern?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Oct 2017 09:17:19 +0000 When it comes to purchasing property, the smart money makes location the priority. It is advice interior designer Glory Tam Chi-kiu, founder of Mister Glory, seems to have taken to heart. Over the past few years, he has purchased not one but three apartments in the same tower block in Star Street, the fashionable heart of Wan Chai. “I love living here,” he says. “It’s a great area, and close to work.” So when he and his bride-to-be, head­hunter Eli Wong Wing-man, decided to live together, he... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2102123/hong-kong-interior-designer-creates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2102123/hong-kong-interior-designer-creates?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Jul 2017 09:17:07 +0000 Tastes have moved on since 2005. Back then, when new owners moved into this 2,300-sq-ft, split-level house, in Stanley, it had just been renovated. It had pure white walls, polished white limestone floors, a state-of-the-art kitchen and an open-plan layout centred round a three-floor atrium. It was bright, white, glossy and very “now”. But that was then. By 2016, it was time for a change. The minimalist kitchen on the second floor had been tweaked in 2010, with shiny white cabinetry and a second... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2100100/hong-kong-house-enviable-games-room?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/2100100/hong-kong-house-enviable-games-room?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jun 2017 09:18:50 +0000