A Home with Influence
Overlooking Hong Kong’s Kowloon Park, this bright, minimalist home was designed by local studio Bean Buro for a lifestyle influencer and her family
People often say that a home is a reflection of its residents. This bears even more significance when you consider that the resident of this home has made it her job to chronicle her daily life for the public eye. For their new home, this influencer, her husband and their two young children sought a space that would not only comfortably accommodate their family, but also act as an Instagrammable backdrop against which to document their lives. This meant having plenty of natural light and keeping the decor simple with white walls, natural tones and subtle textures.
Inspired by a Japanese genkan — a traditional entryway to a house — a stone-floored foyer acts as a prelude to the home, before soft timber flooring marks the entrance to the living space. ‘It’s a space where one can take a moment to pause and decompress after a busy day out in the city before entering their tranquil home,’ says Lorène Faure, co-founder of Bean Buro, the Hong Kong-based studio responsible for the project.
Located in a high-rise building overlooking Hong Kong’s Kowloon Park, the 120-square-metre apartment is bathed in light, enhancing a natural materials palette that is characterised by fair timber with leather and metal accents. In the dining room, a large table, simple pendant lights and banquette seating create a more casual setting for family meals.
‘To express traditional Japanese references in a modern way, we fused them with French-inspired details and accents, such as bespoke terrazzo display shelves and bathroom details, metal frames and bespoke handles in the master bedroom, and sculptural ceramic basins in earthy tones for bathrooms’, explains Faure’s co-founder Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui.
The corridor leading to the bedrooms is framed with full-height storage that anchors the space, while a dropped plasterboard ceiling with a curved corner brings some softness. ‘The curved ceiling junctions and curved doors to the bedroom bring a subtle gentleness to the space, and catch the shadows cast by natural light in a beautiful and poetic way,’ says Kinugasa-Tsui.
The children's bedroom was conceived as a flexible space with an openable folding partition that allows the play area to extend into the corridor during the day and close up at night. ‘We designed the children’s room with flexibility in mind,’ Kinugasa-Tsui says. ‘There’s minimal built-in furniture so the family can update the loose furniture as the children grow up.’
Combining practicality, comfort and a simple, contemporary aesthetic, this home is a multifunctional backdrop for city views, Instagram shots and family life.
Text / Nina Milhaud
Images / Courtesy of Bean Buro
