Feng shui and art guide a 1,400 sq ft Hong Kong apartment’s redesign

What do you do when your feng shui master declares that your front door sits in the wrong place – but moving it is impossible because of strict building rules? Such was the dilemma facing Suki Tai, the young director of her family’s textile business. Her new 1,400 sq ft (130 square metre) flat in Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, was her first solo home, and when she bought it she had not anticipated that good fortune would hinge on a door. For help, she turned to her friend, interior designer Quinn Wong of Studio Quinn, for a little design alchemy. “The feng shui element was very strong and perhaps the biggest challenge of this project,” recalls Wong, who grew up between Australia and Hong Kong and set up her eponymous design studio in 2024. “We had multiple conversations about how best to incorporate it into the interior since there were so many boxes to tick and balance, including building regulations, the apartment layout and design aesthetics,” she says, “and all of this incredibly detailed planning meant the project took a year to complete.” To remedy the entrance issue, Wong created a partition wall facing the front door, carving out a small transitional hallway. She then framed the threshold between this foyer and the main living and dining area in a bold indigo-blue surround – larger than the front door and with a slightly raised step. “By becoming the ‘main’ entrance, the frame sidestepped the compromised feng shui posed by the front door and also introduces the dining space in a very dramatic way,” Wong says. “The colour won the feng shui master’s approval, as he felt the apartment was lacking the water element, and it fit with Suki’s taste, too.” The indigo shade became a visual thread throughout the home. It reappears as shelving in Tai’s study, on a custom-made sofa and sideboard, and along dado-height panelling in the main bedroom. The panelling offers both style and flexibility – which Wong needed so she could follow the feng shui master’s recommendation to change the bedroom layout every year. “Due to the positioning of the doorway and windows, there are only two walls the bed can be positioned against. The blue panels act as a sort of extended headboard, providing cohesion whatever the configuration,” Wong says. “Additionally, all the furniture is loose [the bedroom also features a reading area] and the bed is deliberately light and easy to move.” The colour also came to the rescue elsewhere, drawing attention away from what Wong describes as a “perfectly nice but rather nondescript timber flooring” inherited from the developer. “The flooring is the biggest aspect of the apartment but, as it was brand new, it would have been wasteful to pull it all up, and I advised Suki to spend her budget elsewhere,” she says. Similarly, Wong united the kitchen and bathrooms, installed by the developer, with the rest of the flat by incorporating similar materials – wood and marble – to maintain a sense of flow. Originally laid out as a three-bedroom, three-bathroom flat, the apartment lacked generous living space. Wong repurposed the third bathroom as a corridor that separates private and public zones. To stop it from feeling enclosed, she introduced open shelving to let in light from the dining room and added an aquarium as a feature, again complying with feng shui recommendations. Not quite as expected, a sculptural rock rather than fish sits within it. “I didn’t want the upkeep of fish but needed more water in the apartment,” Tai says. “Quinn came up with some imaginative and inspired details – my plants are also all water-based – that helped me to incorporate items stipulated by the feng shui master without the decor looking too rooted in the ancient practice.” Having turned the second bedroom into a study, with a daybed for guests, Tai decided to transform the third into a dressing room. Wong used a combination of materials and art deco details – inspired by the flat’s balcony balustrades – to ensure the latter did not feel boxy or monotonous. Tai’s impressive contemporary art collection further influenced the interior palette. Though she initially envisaged a minimalist aesthetic, she quickly warmed to Wong’s suggestion of drawing colours from her artworks into lighting, wallpaper and soft furnishings. The result balances sophistication and playfulness, much like Tai herself. “I initially wanted a neutral and minimal interior, but by the end of the project, I was asking Quinn to add more colour and pattern because I loved it so much,” she admits with a laugh. Living area Indigo blue door frame, sideboard and wall panel designed by Studio Quinn. I Really Love Your Boyish Pity For Me (left; 2021) by Adam Baker. Sofa and coffee tables from Taobao; cushions from Soho Home. Rug from Ikea. Living area detail Finding Someone in Their Dreams (2022) by Jinhee Kim. Varmblixt orange wall light from Ikea. Sideboard designed by Studio Quinn. Organic Banana (2024) by Yang Guang. Living area detail Audiovisual unit designed by Studio Quinn. Green Circus pouffe by Normann Copenhagen. Dining area Studio Quinn’s Quinn Wong (pictured) redesigned the flat. Art by Lara Berger. VP10 pendant designed by Verner Panton for &Tradition from Finnish Design Shop. Green bowl from Ikea. Behind dining area Spotlight (2022) by Julia Trybala. Shelves and cabinetry incorporating an aquarium designed by Studio Quinn. 3D-printed vases by an unknown Chinese artist. Bar area Bar cabinet designed by Studio Quinn. Uma (2022) by Millie Kelly. Weekday bench by Hay. Akari 1AT lamp by Isamu Noguchi for Vitra. Organic Small Pumpkin (2022) by Yang Guang. Circular artwork in entrance: Whispers of the Unseen Night (2023) by Fatina Kong, from Contemporary by Angela Li. Study Shelving cabinet and daybed designed by Studio Quinn. Revolve table lamp by Bert Frank. Desk from Taobao. Left: Long World in Passing (2022) by Blair Whiteford. Right: Didn’t Quite Catch Your Weasels Asleep (2022) by Christian Ruiz Berman. Dressing room Wardrobes and dressing table with mirror designed by Studio Quinn. Rug from Miss Amara. Vintage mannequin hand, used as a hat stand. Stool from Taobao. Bedroom Customised bed from Fuurn. Bed linen from NakedLab. Akari 1N lamp by Isamu Noguchi for Vitra. Bedside table, bedside lamp, drawers and wall lamp all from Taobao.

Feng shui and art guide a 1,400 sq ft Hong Kong apartment’s redesign

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}To optimise energy flow, interior designer Quinn Wong reworked the Ho Man Tin flat using clever design and indigo blue threads

To optimise energy flow, interior designer Quinn Wong reworked the Ho Man Tin flat using clever design and indigo blue threads