00:06The main idea was to create a tranquil and cozy space that has adequate storage to hide things.
00:15I want the space to look bright and neutral, and implement arches and curves to soften the irregular shape of
00:22the space.
00:33This apartment is located in Kuentong, an area in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
00:40Kuentong is an iconic industrial area turned business district with lots of small businesses and creative studios.
00:50My name is Daphne Ho, I'm a self-taught interior designer based in Hong Kong.
00:55I live here with my husband, and we moved in about a year ago after we got married.
01:02When we took over the apartment, it hadn't been renovated since the last owner first moved in in 1990.
01:09It looked very aged and worn.
01:14This apartment has a diamond-shaped layout, which is common in large-scale private housing estates in Hong Kong.
01:22I demolished the bedroom walls, which increased the size of the bathroom.
01:29All of the doors in the apartment were changed to sliding doors in order to save space.
01:40The entrance is a small foyer area to take shoes off.
01:44There is a platform and shoe cabinet to separate it from the living room.
01:49This idea is influenced by the Japanese not to bring dirt inside the home.
01:56Behind the door, I made a full height pegboard to hang and place everyday necessities like masks and grocery trolley.
02:05The living area is on the wooden platform.
02:09Next to the door, there is a full body mirror so we can have a final look before leaving home.
02:16The whole sofa is custom made with an angled shape.
02:20The shoe cabinet continues from wall and together it forms the sofa back to save space.
02:28I want the deep sofa because it can act as an afternoon bed too.
02:32It also makes the space look more spacious and comfy.
02:37There are drawers below the sofa for additional storage.
02:43Originally, there was a beam above the sofa.
02:47I covered it by building a niche to place some decorations on.
02:55The window allows a lot of natural sunlight into our apartment.
02:59It is a great spot for our plants and adds some greenery to the room.
03:05The TV cabinet connects to the bay window and aligns the height of the sofa.
03:12We chose to lift the cabinet off the floor so it looks lighter and visually cleaner without the licks.
03:19Our walls and ceilings are applied with Shikui, an ecological non-toxic Japanese lime plaster.
03:29On the other side of the living space is the dining area.
03:33It is a step down from the living space and the wooden platform acts to divide the two areas.
03:40A circular dining table is a must for me because in Feng Shui, it is a symbol of uniting the
03:46family.
03:47I wanted to maximise the dining seating space so I went with the idea of booth seating which wraps around
03:54the corner.
03:55The booth is based on a similar design as the sofa so using the same materials for the wood and
04:01cushions.
04:03In addition to the booth seats, there are two foldable rattan chairs to serve more guests if needed.
04:10On the side of the booth seats, I made a rattan sideboard as a snack station.
04:16Mixing closed and open storage making the space look less heavy.
04:23Beside the seat, there is a white full height cabinet.
04:26It is low profile and comes out up to the same depth as the wall on the other side.
04:34The kitchen size is a bit small and the shape is a bit like a pentagon so it was hard
04:39to change the layout.
04:41So I kept the original placement of the sink and stove but rebuilt it with the full height cabinets to
04:47maximise storage space.
04:50I especially added a narrow vertical drawer to hide our lengthy tools like our brooms and mobs.
04:59Since there is not a lot of counter space on the kitchen top, I used full length bars to keep
05:05the drying racks off the working surface.
05:11There is an arch in between to transit into bedroom and bathroom.
05:15Our aircon can be placed above the arch and make it less visible with ventilation cover.
05:22After going through the centre arch, there are some fluted panel walls.
05:27They are actually sliding doors for two bedrooms.
05:31This is our main bedroom.
05:33It was designed solely to fit a king size bed.
05:37The custom bed is built higher to make storage underneath to store things that we don't use often.
05:44The three panel sliding door, it is a full height storage closet.
05:48The reason I made it fluted is because the door gaps can look less obvious.
05:54This closet is also our dress up and daily care station.
05:59The bathroom is an open space.
06:02This separation of dry and wet areas also inspired by the Japanese bathrooms.
06:08The size and the shape of the sink was considered to allow us to fit the washing machine below.
06:15Next to the sink, it is our toilet room.
06:18The space is limited so I use a frosted glass sliding door as partition.
06:25Opposite the toilet is the wet room.
06:28The wet room is behind the glass door.
06:31When privacy is needed, the storage closet door can also be used to cover the glass.
06:37The floor and latch around the bathtub is made of Japanese Aomori Hiba wood, which has a strong anti-molding
06:44and anti-material properties.
06:48The second bedroom is currently our dressing room and multifunctional room.
06:55All of the furniture settings in this room are not fixed, so as to make it more flexible to transform
07:01it for other purposes in the future.
07:04Currently, we use adjustable hanging system and storage boxes to create a walk-in closet.
07:10We hid it behind a curtain to hide the clutter.
07:14To better utilize the space around the bay window, I ordered a custom desk that has two shorter feet on
07:21the bay window and the others on the floor.
07:24The desk is so light so I can easily move it in and out.
07:30I have installed a foldable iron board on the wall.
07:36Behind the big sliding door, there is another hidden full height cabinet to store our shoes.
07:43I found these stackable shoe boxes online and I think they are perfect to keep and organize our shoes.
07:56When designing a small space, it is important to be open-minded to the possibility of each area and corner.
08:04But at the same time, to spare blank space as balance.
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