Cover The balcony offers beautiful views of South Bay and features a variety of outdoor furnishings, as well as lighting from designer Ana Foster-Adams's brand Fabr

Studio Amal created bespoke pieces, and sourced colourful furnishings, for this seafront home in the prestigious neighbourhood of Repulse Bay

When Ana Foster-Adams, co-founder and principal designer of Hong Kong-based Studio Amal, first entered this apartment in the prestigious Repulse Bay neighbourhood, she was taken by the “huge, open-plan spaces, with lots of natural light and beautiful sea views”.

The home, which takes up 3,000 sq ft, has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Foster-Adams, who is also a co-founder of lighting company Fabr, was connected to home’s residents through a client she had previously worked with.

In case you missed it: Home Tour: An Island Hideaway In Lamma, Hong Kong, Designed by Studio Amal

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Above By the bespoke marble table are chairs from 1stDibs, in a nubuck suede from Altfield. The ceramics are from Spartan Shop
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Above The living room features a painting by Kikuo Saito; colourful cushion fabrics by Pierre Frey and Kelly Wearstler, respectively sourced from Altfield and Master Resource; and an Apparatus light on the wall

The clients’ brief to the interior designer was to “create fresh, modern interiors to complement their evolving art collection whilst being sympathetic to the practical needs of a young family”, says Foster-Adams.

Despite the creative freedom the designer was given, she was not able to make structural changes to the home—it is a rented property. This meant she enhanced the spaces with bespoke furniture, and also sourced a variety of furnishings for the home, including lighting and artwork.

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Above The coffee table is from Mid Century Swag, and a brass decoration atop the table is by The Future Perfect. The ceramic stool on the left is from Spartan Shop, while the rug is by Kvadrat
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Above A BZippy bar stool is positioned by a Kate Tucker piece

Incorporating the natural landscapes that surround the home was also an important consideration for the designer. The apartment offers views of South Bay Beach—“a beautifully curved cove with undulating mountains that frame it”, says Foster-Adams. “We took inspiration from this in the selected furniture to soften the rectangular space of the apartment and bring the outside in, and also by including lots of greenery and plants,” she adds.

This is something the designer already enjoys doing. “We always mix contemporary, vintage and antique pieces, and love creating bespoke furniture for each project.”

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Photo 1 of 2 A Gubi “Pacha” lounge chair, seen on the right, is decorated with a custom cover made in Kelly Wearstler’s District fabric
Photo 2 of 2 A bespoke marble table, by Formar Designs, is decorated with a brass piece by The Future Perfect. The table is positioned by artwork by Larry Poons, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio lighting, a Roly Poly chair and stools from BZippy and Spartan Shop

What the designer describes as a calming colour palette is used throughout the home, juxtaposed against brighter accent colours and tones from the clients’ art collection—resulting in what Foster-Adams calls a “fresh, vibrant colour scheme”.

Turquoise and orange furnishings, such as the cushion fabrics by Pierre Frey and Kelly Wearstler, respectively sourced from Altfield and Master Resource, were inspired by a painting by Kikuo Saito, which hangs in the living room.

Other artworks featuring colours that the designer incorporated in the furnishings she sourced include a Kate Tucker painting, which is positioned above a navy Bzippy ceramic stool; and Edith Beurskens’s 3D wall art in the master bedroom, which became the basis of the space’s soothing shades of beige.

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Photo 1 of 3 The master bedroom features 1stDibs bedside tables, Danny Kaplan lamps sourced from Spartan, bedspreads from The Linen Valley and cushions by La Maison, in fabrics by Wallpaper+
Photo 2 of 3 A calming beige palette takes centre stage in the room
Photo 3 of 3 In this space, the curtains and rug are by La Maison, the wall art is by Edith Berskens. A brass piece by The Future Perfect and a bespoke stone plinth by Formar, which was from the clients' existing collection, stand atop a Simone Bodmer cabinet, also from the clients' collection

The designer styled the bedrooms and the living spaces, adding feature lighting and electric curtains.

A home bar, which was an existing feature, is now decked out with new stools and ceramics, as well as a mix of glassware that had been sourced by the designer and the clients already owned.

Over on the balcony, Studio Amal created a bespoke teak bar leaner and populated the space with furnishings like Artura Ficus outdoor chairs, Hay barstools sourced from Homeless and lighting from Fabr. The space was made for entertaining, or breakfast looking over South Bay.

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Above An inviting home bar features EStudio Persona stools, ceramics from Spartan Shop, glassware from CB2 and also owned by the clients, and La Maison curtains

The apartment features unusual flooring designs and materials—in the dining room, for example, a feature wall made of stone could not be removed—and so the designer used rugs to distract from these, and also soften the spaces.

The dining room also has a new, bespoke marble table, which weighs 300 kilogrammes. The installation of this piece proved to be the most challenging part of the project. It took a team of five—and “six hours of nail-biting moments”—to install it, says Foster-Adams. Two hours was spent moving the piece from the delivery truck to the lift of the building, because it had to be transported in a certain way. And once it was inside the home, the positioning process was also time-consuming.

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Above The dining table is juxtaposed against a feature wall. Art by Wayne Pate, and cushions and a bolster by La Maison, are by the entrance

The suppliers the studio worked with locally and worldwide suffered from delays thanks to the pandemic, and the project took around ten months to complete.

But in the end, it turned out to be a demonstration of Studio Amal’s signature aesthetic, says Foster-Adams—“energetic and soulful, yet grounded in nature”—through the use of natural materials, colours and textures.

“Working with clients whom you share the same aesthetic and passion for beautifully crafted pieces made this job a total dream.”

Credits

Photography  

Denice Hough

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