Settling in

Text Catherine Shaw / Photography Ulso Tsang

For most interior designers, recommendations by satisfied homeowners are the key to finding new clients. But for Jennifer Hui Kit-man, it was the interiors she designed for an exclusive 10,000 sq ft Hong Kong nightclub that attracted the attention of Jimmy and Marian Chen.

The couple, who divide their time between their hometown, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, own a 2,200 sq ft flat on Mount Davis and wanted to transform it from a rental property into an elegant pied-à-terre for their increasingly frequent visits to the city.

“The apartment hadn’t been renovated for many years,” says Hui, of the flat her clients had bought in the 1970s. “So we gutted the space, removed all fixtures and installed new bathrooms and a new kitchen.”

The couple, in their 60s, had been impressed by the understated glamour and lighting seen in Hui’s nightclub project, and had a clear idea of what they wanted: an elegant, Western-style home they could use both for entertaining friends and to accommodate their young grandson when he visited.

“The guest bedrooms needed to be child-friendly but still chic enough for older guests,” says Hui.