Wan Chai flat offers a magic carpet ride to Morocco and India
The exotic journey begins at the front door, painted in peacock blue, of the 2,500 sq ft Wan Chai home of Robyn Ballardie and her husband.
Text Charmaine Chan / Styling David Roden / Photography Paul Yeung
Persistence pays off. Proof of that lies in the 2,500 sq ft Wan Chai home of Robyn Ballardie and her husband, who waited five years to purchase a flat adjoining the one they had bought in 2008. Their plan was to pounce when a neighbouring apartment went on the market, then turn the two properties into one spacious, long-term base for their family of four.
"I'd been on and off writing to the person next door, and making inquiries about the flat above us as well," says Ballardie, a lawyer married to fellow Australian Maurice, an engineer. "In the end, I think the lady next door was just sick of me and said, 'OK, we'll sell to you.'"
Finally able to knock two flats together, as friends had done on the top floor of their building, Ballardie started trawling shelter magazines for inspiration, eventually handing a fat sheath of clippings to a design duo who would help realise her vision.
"Blue is her favourite colour," says interior designer Rosie Blay, who - with Liquid Interiors founder Rowena Gonzales - created a nest that whisks you on a magic carpet ride to Morocco and India, with layovers in Australia and China.
The exotic journey begins at the front door, painted in peacock blue.
