Pride of place: showroom in Ap Lei Chau
Every item has its own spot in this Ap Lei Chau showroom, in which industrial design is paired with playful pop art
Interior designer Anji Connell has a mantra: "a place for everything and everything in its place." It's a phrase she chants several times as we tour her open-plan showroom in the Southern district.
Airy and spacious, it feels larger than its 1,200 square feet, thanks to Connell's knack for cleverly designed storage. The kitchen disappears almost entirely behind glossy cupboard doors. A narrow gap becomes a permanent home for an ironing board; a towel rail is tucked out of sight behind the bathroom sink; even the tap folds neatly away, leaving only clean lines and sleek surfaces.
Connell's philosophy stems from her early years, designing interiors for boats, squeezing creative storage solutions into small, awkwardly shaped spaces. There's something intensely pleasing about discovering a secret pocket of purpose-built utility in an unexpected place, but that's not the only way in which this show home delights. Like Connell herself, the place exudes humour and energy.
Splashes of turquoise and electric orange add zing to industrial materials, such as weathered, acid-etched iron and polished concrete. Giant printed-glass cupboard doors bring a pop-art aesthetic to the bedroom and quirky artwork - Barack Obama and a bottle of Coca-Cola in the living area; retired Brazilian footballer Pelé overlooking the toilet - raises a smile. Press a button and a biofuel fire, set into a glass window between the bathroom and living area, flares to life (see ). Painted on the floor is a tiny blue pawprint.
"Oh, that's Fifi's," Connell says of her Yorkshire terrier. "She's 15, my only daughter. We spent a year quarantined in Paris with her before we could enter the UK."
If Connell's name sounds familiar that's because this is her second time in Hong Kong. She lived here from 1989 to 2000 before leaving for Britain, where she studied landscape design, and returned last year.
"We missed Hong Kong, and so many of our old friends who had left had already come back," she says.
Since returning, she has embarked on a master's degree, renovated the showroom, founded her company, ACID+ ("it stands for Anji Connell Interior Design, and the + is for landscaping"), and hired a great contractor.
"That was key. Before taking on any clients, you need a fantastic contractor. Now I'm ready," Connell says.
"I wanted the studio to showcase my work. The concept was a luxurious hotel suite with lots of ideas for clients. I wanted it to be sophisticated but with a nod to industrial style. It's highly finished with lots of detail and a pared-down palette of mainly glass, metal, concrete and mirror. The kitchen appliances, lighting and sound systems are hi-tech. Clients can imagine how their space might look and feel. It's a great starting place."
As well as being a showroom for clients, Connell's unit is also used for regular designer get-togethers and for lunches, being based in a part of Hong Kong notorious for its lack of restaurants.
With clients, collaborators and staff frequently using the space, it's a relief to see the toilet is safely hidden in the only room in the unit, encased in orange glass. The bath sits next to a mirrored wall that reflects light and views, its only privacy afforded by the bedroom's huge spiderweb of open ironwork doors.
"They're really heavy; it took six men to lift them," Connell says of the doors, which slide effortlessly on runners attached to the ironwork to keep the floor unsullied by tracks. "The contractor kept saying it couldn't be done, but I love solving problems."
Which is lucky, because she had a few to tackle. The space had previously belonged to a sofa maker.
"I knew him! When I walked in, there was Mr Kwan, so I immediately had a good feeling. It was full of stuff - piled floor to ceiling with fabrics and frames. And because it's a corner unit, there were two walls of windows, which slide completely open, so it's bright."
But hiding unnoticed behind all that sofa-making apparatus was a large structural column and, just as immovable, a soil pipe.
"I was devastated!" Connell cries. "But it turned out to be a good thing."
The column acts as separation between the living and dining areas. It accommodates the audio-visuals, as well as the plumbing and cabling, which are all neatly hidden behind sheets of acid-etched iron.
Another issue was that the unit had only one water inlet. No problem. Connell simply ran the water pipes under raised flooring in the dining area to the kitchen and through the living space to the bathroom.
"It took a fair bit of engineering," she says. "But the raised floors help define the space and it means you can see out of the windows from the dining table, which is where I work. You can also see the sea from the bath."
Ah, the bath. "I fell in love with it!" Connell says of the double tub by Antonio Lupi. "I saw it on a recce and it was so expensive. But when they dismantled the set I got it for a 70 per cent discount. It was fate! The basin is impractical but I love that, too. The angle echoes the angle of the bath."
It's that eye for detail that wins prizes. So far, Connell has been shortlisted for three design awards for the showroom, at the International Design & Architecture Awards, the Society of British and International Design (SBID) excellence awards and, in Hong Kong, the Perspective Awards.
"I'm proud of the SBID nomination. It's the Oscars of the design world," Connell says. As she speaks, she adjusts a vase to sit exactly in the centre of the kitchen island, keeping it in place with a lump of Blu-tack.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Bedroom (below right) Conceived as a hotel design, the bedroom is almost entirely bespoke and constructed from commercial materials. The heavy ironwork doors define the space while retaining the open-plan ethos of the showroom. The doors (HK$65,700), bed (HK$11,500), breakfast table on wheels (HK$6,500) and glass cupboard doors (HK$62,500, including the bespoke handle) were all by Yick Tai Design & Engineering. The image of the woman was from an advertising campaign for a jewellery designer. Connell had the image enlarged and made into an image transfer, which was then stuck onto a cupboard door with glass placed over it.
