Hong Kong interior designer recreates cosy vibe in move to flat three times as big
When interior designer Suzy Annetta upsized from a cockloft to a 1,500 sq ft rental, she used her favourite furniture to break up the space and recreate the snugness of her previous home
Suzy Annetta’s Southside bolt hole on Hong Kong Island couldn’t be more different from her previous home – a cockloft in Sai Ying Pun that had few windows, low ceilings and barely a third the space of her present, 1,500 sq ft place. But the Australian interior designer and publisher has fond memories of the home she made in the pocket-sized setting.
“I liked that little flat,” she says. “It was really cosy.”
Not surprising, then, that, despite having moved into a flat whose size is generous to a fault, Annetta – editor-in-chief and co-founder of Design Anthology magazine – still wanted that feeling of snugness. Putting up walls to section off some space was an obvious move. Also effective was the thoughtful use of colour and placement of furniture.
“What I tried to do, without making the space feel smaller, was to break down areas related to specific parts of living,” she says, recalling that when she inspected the flat five years ago she could immediately envisage how everything would look.
To afford herself privacy, she partitioned a far corner, by a bathroom, and turned it into her bedroom. Blessed with windows on two sides, so gloominess was not an issue, the room was then painted midnight blue not only to add warmth but also to distinguish it from the rest of the open-plan vastness.
I’m a habitual furniture buyer. There’s a limit to the number of vintage shops I can go to without buying something.
She then used various means practically – if not physically – to divide the rest of the flat into quarters. In front of the kitchen, demarcated by a four-metre-long counter, is the formal dining area, featuring a long, vintage Milo Baughman table Annetta had acquired through 1st Dibs before she moved to Hong Kong 12 years ago.