'Blank canvas' Sai Kung village house takes on a nature theme
Architecture graduate stamped her mark on contemporary-style 2,100 square foot space to create an integrated family home, writes Adele Brunner
House hunting can be time-consuming and often fruitless - unless you're Jude Bailey and have that rarest of treasures in your corner: an estate agent who knows exactly what you're looking for.
"There were a number of properties on the market but my agent told me he had only one house he was going to bother taking me to view. This was it," she says.
It was love at first sight. Two years ago, Bailey and her two children, Max and Tia (now aged 12 and 10, respectively), moved into the 2,100 sq ft village house in Sai Kung after she had made a few alterations.
A new-build when she bought it, the contemporary-style house had been finished to a basic level, with flooring, a fitted kitchen and plumbed-in bathrooms, but it was essentially a blank canvas. To some this would have seemed daunting, but Bailey - an interior architecture graduate who moved to Hong Kong from her native England 18 years ago to work for a design company - says it was her idea of heaven.
"Nobody had lived in the house so it was in a bit of a state but that allowed me to stamp my mark on it," she says. "There were blank walls and, strangely, no front door. Apart from doing a few things to the kitchen, such as adding a backsplash, altering the hob and extending the island, the most I had to do structurally was add built-in storage, because there was none anywhere in the house. This was great because I got to install cupboards and cabinets exactly where I wanted and needed them. I love having a place for everything."