Design tweak gives Hong Kong home flow – and plenty of storage
By nudging a few walls back, a Beacon Hill family were rewarded with all the flow, space and storage they could wish for in their 1,000 square foot flat
A few inches made all the difference to Wendy and Philip Ng’s 1,000 sq ft Beacon Hill flat. “I didn’t change the layout, but we did move some of the walls,” says designer Dylan Tan Dar-luen, of WOM Concept. Doing so allowed him to fix the apartment’s biggest problems: awkward-sized bedrooms and a lack of storage.
The flat had undergone a basic renovation in 2004, when the Ngs, both doctors, moved in, shortly after the building’s completion. When Janet and Grace reached 10 years of age, however, the Ngs wanted to create more space for their twin daughters. Shifting the walls of the three adjacent bedrooms, to take space from the living room, allowed Tan to fit a single bed in each of the girls’ rooms, along with a floor-to-ceiling cabinet and a built-in desk.
“The girls have a lot of books,” says Tan, who also installed shelves above their desks. The work area, in both rooms, curves over a portion of a bay window ledge, to make use of otherwise wasted space. Another smart, subtle idea was to install sideboards behind the beds. “It’s so the wall doesn’t get stained and scuffed,” says Tan.
In the master bedroom, a wardrobe spans the length of one of the walls. “They really wanted the wardrobe because they needed more storage,” says Tan. “But they also wanted everything clean and simple.”
In some cases, that meant disguising the apartment’s storage space. The dining area and entrance hallway, for example, are lined with discreet cabinets that appear flush with the wall. The cabinets are punctuated by open cubicles, one in the entrance for keys and mail, another in the living room for the family’s Nespresso coffee maker.
Tan also created an alcove for the family’s piano, which had dominated the living room.
