What do you do when you have a balcony as big as your home? Make full use of it of course! Take a look at how this interior designer created the perfect luxe-looking home that’s chic, classy and elegant.
Trading the bustle of the city for a more serene, picturesque neighbourhood is a dream shared by many city dwellers. Two years ago, this couple decided to move from the city centre to a condominium closer to nature. With its wide windows and a spacious balcony almost as large as its interior—1,300 and 1,600 square feet respectively—this home makes full use of the surrounding greenery. What’s more, the interior design brings the outside indoors with its nature-inspired aesthetic.
The masterminds behind this home’s design are Amy Chan and Jimmy Li, chief designers at interior design firm Decor House, who were brought on to remodel the home after it was purchased. As longtime friends of the clients, Chan and Li leveraged their extensive knowledge of the clients’ preferences and lifestyle habits in order to create a true urban refuge for the couple and their teenage son.
“The homeowners are a busy couple,” explained Chan and Li. “The husband is a businessman while the wife is an art and travel lover.” Reflecting the wife’s jet-setting proclivities, furnishings and accessories were sourced from all over the world: sofas and chairs from Italy, a dining table from Indonesia, and decorative wall panels from Germany.
Their home, meanwhile, was intended to be a place where they could relieve stress and entertain friends. The design duo cultivated a sense of calm by employing a neutral colour scheme with plenty of wood and soft blue accents. “The pattern of the outdoor wood flooring was extended to the inside of the home, bringing Mother Nature from the outside to the inside,” they said. The bathrooms, bedrooms, and corridor leading to the bedrooms are done up in beautiful Manchurian ash and teak. Meanwhile, nature-inspired accents abound—organically shaped wooden tables sit in the dining room and corridors and a floral pattern embellishes a cabinet in the master bedroom.
“‘Great design improves quality of life’ is our main design approach,” said Chan and Li. But it isn’t just all about being aesthetically pleasing. Decor House excels at implementing both home technology and multi-functionality, and Chan and Li made full use of their know-how when setting up the home’s storage spaces and technological systems. “Our design was executed through meticulous storage planning, state-of-the-art patented technological systems, flexible furniture pieces and multi-purpose configuration,” they said.
A round table on the balcony, for instance, can be concealed into the floor to make room for a yoga platform. An ultra-slim elevating projector lift—the slimmest unit of its kind across the globe—conceals a projector screen in the living room ceiling, while a 65-inch TV is installed on a custom-made sliding door that separates the living room from the kitchen. (The kitchen was originally enclosed by a wall, but Chan and Li have knocked it down to create a semi-open kitchen, allowing the couple to chat with their guests while cooking.)
“Multi-purpose designs bring endless possibilities,” Chan and Li emphasise—and this family is definitely in the position to embrace all the possibilities their open, versatile home has to offer.