Objets déco
Spring Garden Lane Apartment by LALA CURIO
Spring Garden Lane Apartment by LALA CURIO
A poetic street name “Spring Garden Lane” nested in the heart of Wanchai, adjacent to the heritage block of “hey teep” street, the traditionally go-to place for wedding cards, now a glorious development of The Avenue by Hopewell and Sino, our little project is located right in the midst of it. At LALA CURIO, we have been previously blessed with luxurious large spaces to work with, smothering walls with endless hand-painted silk wallpaper and our imperial Cloisonné Tiles with large furniture pieces for the very privileged few. Don’t be misled, this is not all that we do! Who said that small spaces have to be “minimal”? We cringe at that word! For us, we create and curate spaces regardless of the size, big or small, we make it fabulous. The key is clever spatial planning, and choice of materials to maximize what we have to work with. With 400sf, we want to create a 1 bedroom apartment experience where we have a proper Salon, open kitchen and a dining area with an enclosed bedroom and bathroom. Lucky to have a 1200sf terrace overlooking the main walkway of The Avenue, always beautifully decorated with fairy lights and lanterns at night and the smell of fresh bakery in the morning, the easier part of the project has yet to be completed due to the building façade renovations. The The Entrance Experience: Typical 1980’s architecture of no charm and run-down, the guest elevator feels rather industrial with the gushing wind from a very dusty fan. You just cannot wait to get in the apartment and not having to step out for a while. The contrast always make the experience that much more special. The Salon: Opening the doors to what is small but feels like a perfectly comfortably salon. The trick is the magic mirror to your right of antiqued mirror tiles with gold studding, very much recurring in a LALA CURIO project, amplifies the space to double. A three-seater sofa with no arms opens up to a guest bed, upholstered in a camel velvet with a contrast orange piping to complement the Japanese Antique Obi skirting, the top adorned with matching Obi pillows. A coffee table with Chinese carving as an access panel to a charging dock. A full height Curio cabinet with a large television mounted on arms swings right open to the optimal viewing angle from the sofa. Curio shelves are tastefully decorated with objets, books and whiskey bottles. Walls are covered in seagrass wallpaper with a gold sheen, juxtaposed with dark wood floors, an old-world colonial charm appropriate for a Hong Kong flat. Fat Sumos handpainted on Silk framed in a contemporary acrylic frame adds a bit of humour to the otherwise rather serious palette. The Open Kitchen: The Open Kitchen has tiled floors that reminds you of 1950s Hong Kong, or more specifically reminds me of this Kowloon City egg tart place I used to go to as a child, coincidentally now there’s one right downstairs here in Wanchai with queues from breakfast through lunch. The cabinetry in a Queen Anne green with brass inlay. Table top in an inky white marble like a Chinese ink painting with a back splash tiled with artwork of a Jindezhen artist of Chinoiserie landscape sceneries. A peaking long window of linear patterns of the 70’s old Hong Kong stained glass windows with hints of blacks and greens, playing off the green mosaics on the floor, opens up to a bar top with 3 stools. In case you decide to host and the interior space may not be sufficient, we found a way to link the indoor with the outdoor space. Chat and have a chat while the chef cooks, dinner will be sent through the window! Fridge concealed in cabinet door, wine fridge, plentiful storage cabinets, it’s as efficient as a 3-bedroom apartment kitchen. The Dining Room: For a casual bar seating, you have the choice of sitting in the terrace looking into the kitchen. Or comfortably on the hexagonal antique English wooden table that seats 4. Hand-painted gold-leaf wallpaper of a signature of Hong Kong and her flag, the Bauhinia tree. The distinctive Heart-shaped leaves each of them hand-painted with details of gold veins of the reflective gold-leaf wallpaper takes you to a fairy-tale land. You have a choice of 3 views at the hexagonal table placed neatly against the Bauhinia Tree wall: Sliding stained glass doors of the same linear pattern, the glowing Bauhinia Tree wallpaper & another pair of sliding doors that brings you to the bedroom, hand-painted on Thai silk wallpaper of Hong Kong landscapes with clusters of mini Bauhinia Trees. The Bedroom: Mimicking Japanese Tatami floors, we have chosen seagrass for the flooring. The bedroom is raised on a platform for extra storage drawers to be accessed from the dining room and a bed on hydraulics to store suitcase and what not. Sliding doors to large wardrobe spaces are also covered in silk wallpaper. The curtain, in Japanese Obis plush Jim Thompson silks. A good mattress is important, Queen bed for two, against an embellished pearl mauve silk wall of mountains like the mountainous landscape of Hong Kong. Counting pearls to put you to sleep into dreams of poetic Asian landscapes. The Bathroom: Quintessentially Mid-century, shower partition is of the same stained glass as all the windows of the apartment. Floors in the inky white marble with Queen Anne millwork doors with brass inlay, floors in monochrome beehive mosaics. Mirror panel is flanked by linear mirrored cabinet doors of the same stained glass design, with 2 globe lights on brushed brass arms. A classical toilet with black wood seats. Always important to have a beautiful bathroom.
