Fortress Garden

She lived alone, so the three-room layout made little sense for her. We reworked it into a one-bedroom with a leisure room, and because she so valued a sense of space, we even took down the kitchen walls to let the living area breathe. The one partition we kept simply marks off her private room, opened by a feature sliding door. This kind of open-plan interior design is exactly what a smaller flat needs.

Hosting friends was a real part of her home life, so keeping that openness mattered. In the living, dining, and cooking zone, the only piece not pushed against a wall is a multifunctional coffee table that expands into a dining table for eight, which leaves plenty of room to mingle even when more than ten people turn up.

Like many of us in Hong Kong, she had a lot to store. We fitted a walk-in closet and, rarer still, a proper laundry room with a washer-dryer and space to hang clothes, a genuine luxury here. The lines and colours stay simple on purpose, a quiet canvas for the souvenirs she has gathered from travels around the world. The joinery was made to measure by our trusted partner factory.