With an abundance of natural light to illuminate his handiwork, one interior designer focused on the finer details when renovating his home.
As a young bachelor, interior designer Gary Lai readily admits to having spent little time in the kitchens of the apartments he has shared for most of his adult life. Which is probably why his shiny new kitchen has not ignited a sudden interest in cooking at home.
'It was rare for me to use the kitchen except maybe for breakfast, but I liked the idea of using it more and I'd always wanted an open-plan kitchen,' he says. 'So I built a breakfast bar I can use as a work surface. I now spend more time in there than I do in the living room.'
Lai spent close to a year looking for his first home, a 35-year-old, 900 sq ft beam-and-pillar apartment, and took up residence in December 2005 after six months of renovation with the help of contractor Joe Chan of Jaggle Construction (tel: 9818 4240). Determined to make the most of the space, he gutted the flat, situated in a quiet Mid-Levels enclave, moved the entrance of the main bathroom to create an en suite and demolished the walls of the second bedroom to build the work area and kitchen.
'I was very busy and I don't make decisions very quickly,' he says, referring to the relatively long renovation process. 'I wasn't in a hurry to move and I wanted to give my contractor time to get it right.'
Lai's love of clean lines is evident in his choice of simple wooden furniture, handle-less doors and hidden window blinds (see Tried & Tested), while ceiling lights have been replaced with lamps and wall lights. A shelving unit in the lounge and the built-in wardrobe in the bedroom, both olive green, represent the only strong colour in a sea of browns and beiges.