Living in the hills offers gentle luxury underscored by tranquil landscape and scenic open spaces. Providing such a quiet refuge from the chaotic chimes of the city is a newly developed high-end residential complex in Tai Lam, Tuen Mun. Here, in a 2,600sq.ft villa with a garden that faces the sea across Castle Peak Road, a couple and their two children have found an idyllic home.
Home Tour
The tri-storey property comprises five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a powder room, kitchen and a huge living room where spaces for lounging and dining seamlessly connect alongside an elegant bar area. It’s a tastefully luxe home replete with contemporary design details and rich visual elements which offers the family a new-found quality of life.
Visitors entering the foyer are greeted by a gentle warmth of light from a window, framed in black, that immediately expands the sense of space. This narrow, straight entryway still offers a comfortable nook thanks to a wooden console, classic marble flooring and two eye-catching pieces from Ferm Living, a pouf stool and the Pond mirror. The arrangement hints at the subtle touches of luxury that are pronounced throughout the house.
Open Layout
The extensive main living area, fitted with wooden flooring and contrasting warm and cool tones, boasts an open, wall-less layout that flows from dining space to bar to sitting area. Each functional space is cleverly separated by visual elements on the floor, walls and ceiling, with different materials – from marble to dark wood veneer and textured wallpaper – serving to distinguish one from the other while imparting its own stylistic personality.
Take, for example, the feature wall which stretches from the foyer to the dining area concealing what was once a set of windows. Accentuated by Roche Bobois’ sculptural Aqua dining table and Gubi’s artistic Multi-Lite pendant light, it reflects the warm ambiance of the dining and bar area and clearly delineates the extent of this ‘room’ and the next.
Highlighted by just a strip of marble-patterned wallpaper and a distinctively curved ceiling, the sitting area has a brighter, airier vibe, courtesy of textured light grey walls and a generous flow of natural light that pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows and a glass door leading out to the garden.
Space and Greenery
Set with a modestly sized pool for the kids to enjoy, gorgeous planted flowers and foliage, sun-scorched tiles, and a sea-view backdrop, the garden is the perfect place to stage an Instagram-worthy barbecue or alfresco lunch. Clearly visible from the stylish Ligne Roset Prado sofa within, this outdoor extension of the living space bestows a sense of permanence and beauty uncommon in most Hong Kong homes.
‘This outdoor extension of the living space bestows a sense of permanence and beauty uncommon in most Hong Kong homes’
It is also no coincidence that each piece of fabric, material and furniture in this long main room has been thoughtfully placed to serve a purpose. A case in point is the spacious bar area: the L-shaped bar has a marble countertop with curved edges and metallic details, while the dark wood veneer of its body extends along the walls and onto the surface of the hidden cabinet. These details, paired with meadow-green velvet Afteroom barstools by Menu and Manks’ Blossi 1 pendant light, remind of a luxurious five-star lounge, where guests and host can interact in an atmosphere of cosy conviviality.
Top Floor Living
If guests wish to access the higher floors, they will first encounter a wooden screen placed between the living area and the edge of the staircase, which offers a sense of transition while allowing natural light to slip through its gaps. The panel also acts as a safety measure for the children as they clamber up the steps to their bedrooms. Meanwhile, LED lights and downlights installed underneath the handrail and within the ceiling gracefully lead all-comers to the first floor.
Here lie the children’s bedrooms along with a bathroom at one end, and at the other an en-suite guest bedroom and a multi-function room, whose dividing wall has been removed in place of a black-framed glass sliding door. Elegance and modern appeal dress the walls and storage units here – with a splash of colour in the latter. The guest bedroom, meanwhile, is more pared back, with matching wallpaper above the fabric headboard and elegant curved edges clearly demarcating the ceiling and cabinets.
A more evident sense of luxurious comfort is found on the top floor, where the master suite with walk-in closet and bathroom occupies a grander square-footage. Dark grey marble-patterned wallpaper, Hay’s Silhouette sofa, a Tabouret Solvay stool by Vitra standing as a miniature coffee table, and Gubi’s tall lounge chair in the vanity corner provide unfussy, homely appeal. A richly visual and textured focal point is a wooden screen attached to the elongated, grooved vertical headboard, while the curved ceiling draws the eye towards the view of the hills outside. The suite offers the perfect refuge after a night of socialising or an unhurried start to the day.
For Zen-like Focus
Across the hall sits the study – a private yet spacious room to work, study, read or just hideaway. Further comfort here comes in an L-shaped table facing the large window and view, &Tradition’s minimalist Catch chair and Louis Poulsen’s AJ table lamp. From top floor to extensive ground, the house exudes calm, contemporary styling and soothing colour tones that allow this family of four to relax in harmony in the hills that surround this welcoming abode.