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Kora Kwok

After designing more than 300 projects for clients, Keith Chan Shing-hin faced an unfamiliar challenge: designing for himself.
The founder of interior design house Hintegro had competing priorities for his 580 sq ft, one-bedroom apartment in Sha Tin. It needed to reflect his aesthetics and approach to design but, unlike many of his high-profile clients, Chan was working with a far more modest budget.
“Designers don’t necessarily make a ton of money in Hong Kong,” he laughs. “But I remind myself that even cheaper materials can serve a very beautiful place, if we use them wisely.”
The result is a restrained yet personal space, shaped by Japanese influences and the pragmatism of Hong Kong living. Originally open-plan, the apartment was reconfigured with two new walls near the entrance to carve out a small bedroom. This created a short hallway flanked by a workstation and a concealed wardrobe, opening onto an expansive living-cum-kitchen area.
The light-filled living room is dressed like an audiophile’s retreat. A vinyl record player and small army of sound systems sit atop a Hintegro-designed television cabinet, with speakers on custom stands of walnut wood on either side also designed by Hintegro and crafted by Hong Kong-based carpenters MADE.
Two smaller podspeakers are discreetly embedded above the leather sofa, completing the set-up with a note of visual restraint. The arrangement recalls the intimacy of a Japanese listening bar – compact, intentional and designed for immersion rather than spectacle.

“Listening to music reminds me that I’m home,” says Chan, who often switches on the system after work. “It reminds my brain to breathe, to relax, to slow down.”
In the adjacent kitchen area, a PH5 pendant lamp by Poul Henningsen anchors the space, hanging above a custom-built table that serves both dining and work duties. Around it sits a collection of designer chairs – by Charles and Ray Eames, Hans Wegner and Jean Prouvé – alongside an unlikely addition, a student chair from Chan’s high-school days. The custom-built kitchen runs along the east-facing windows, its white finishes gently reflecting morning light across the flat.
Chan’s Japanese sensibilities are never far from the surface. Known for bridging Japanese thinking with Hong Kong lifestyles, he has spent years immersed in Japanese materials and design. Lauan plywood panels cover much of the walls with their rich, wavy grain. A concrete-brick feature wall behind the sofa – inspired by Japanese outdoor parapet walls – offers texture without overwhelming. Small figurines and objects add quiet bursts of colour. Chan traces this influence to his days at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, when friendships with exchange students from Japan’s Tama Art University introduced him to Japanese design thinking and materials, and the work of architects such as Tadao Ando and Toyo Ito.
“I don’t want to copy Japanese design, or simply rely on Japanese materials,” he says. Rather, he aims to absorb the philosophy behind it and let that guide his own approach.
That attention to detail – kodawari, the Japanese pursuit of thoughtful perfection – is evident everywhere. Chan designed the layout of the exposed ceiling pipes on AutoCAD software (“I couldn’t let the contractors do it freely,” he laughs), turning a cost-saving decision into a feature.
Book cabinets sit 10cm off the ground, allowing a robot vacuum to pass beneath. The bedroom walls are finished with shikkui, a traditional Japanese lime and seaweed plaster that creates what Chan calls a “living, breathing wall”, well-suited to Hong Kong’s humid climate.
Yet the home also carries a distinctly Hong Kong accent. Born in the 1980s, Chan drew on elements from his youth: an old-school ceiling fan, wood mosaic parquet flooring and kitchen mosaic tiles reminiscent of old cha chaan teng and 70s-era buildings.
These subtle details lend the space a sense of nostalgia while grounding it firmly in Chan’s local roots.
The walls are largely bare, save for a single framed work that draws the eye: a vintage Star Wars poster, rendered in traditional Chinese characters and illustrated in the colourful, hand-drawn style of its time. Against the grey brick wall, it captures the heart of the home – the blend of Japanese and Hong Kong influences, the best of yesteryear, the personal flair. In a space defined by restraint, that burst of colour says it all.
Kitchen

Kitchen cabinetry, designed by Keith Chan, produced by Hintegro
Dining area

PH5 pendant lamp by Poul Henningsen, from Louis Poulsen. Custom dining table, designed by Keith Chan, produced by Hintegro. Chairs, clockwise from left: Jean Prouvé Standard Chair from Vitra; CH88T chair by Hans J. Wegner, from Carl Hansen & Søn; Eames Moulded Plastic Side Chair, also from Vitra; School chair from Chan’s high school; Eames Moulded Fibreglass Side Chair, with stacking base, from Herman Miller
Audio-visual area

Custom American walnut television cabinet, designed by Keith Chan and Yukinori Tani, produced by Vega House (Kagoshima, Japan). Custom walnut wood speaker stands, designed by Hintegro, produced by MADE HK. Studio monitors, by JBL (4312G Ghost Edition)
Living room and hallway

Custom leather sofa, by Keith Chan, produced by Hintegro. Custom low cabinet by Keith Chan, produced by Hintegro
Bathroom

Wall tiles, from HOW Department. Carrara floor tiles, from Hoi Cheong Hong (1001, 10/F, Tower B, New Mandarin Plaza, 14 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui). Brass towel bar and wall lamp from HINT
Entrance hallway and workstation

Aeron office chair by Herman Miller. Working desk, designed by Keith Chan, with motorised table legs from Hoi Cheong Hong. Type 75 Desk Lamp from Anglepoise
Bedroom

Lauan plywood bedhead and bedside table, designed by Keith Chan, produced by Hintegro


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PostMag

Design & Interiors

After hundreds of client projects, an interior designer creates his own retreat, in Sha Tin, infusing local flavour and personal nostalgia with Japanese sensibilities. Kora Kwok pays a visit


After hundreds of client projects, an interior designer creates his own retreat, in Sha Tin, infusing local flavour and personal nostalgia with Japanese sensibilities. Kora Kwok pays a visit.


Japan

Sha Tin

Hong Kong