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Aug-Sep15
CLEARWATER BAY
How do you spend your time?
We arrived in Hong Kong eight years
ago from London and, pretty early
on, decided to buy our first property.
It was a lot of work, so I figured I
might as well know what I was doing;
I enrolled in an evening course for
an advanced qualification in interior
design and architecture. Now I have
my own company, sb-décor, and I help
people create efficient and beautiful
living spaces to suit their needs and
budgets. My favourite part is the very
start of a project, working with a client
to understand their brief and creating
floorplans to suit their lifestyle, but I also
love the jou-jou of interior design! Colour,
size and proportion are so important,
and how you dress everything is key to
how an interior is going to look.
What made you decide to buy in
Hong Kong?
Our tenants in London wanted to buy
our house, so we thought we’d invest
in this market; we spent about a year
looking for the perfect spot. I have a
file on practically every single house
in Clearwater Bay! When we eventually
found this place, the clincher for me
was coming down the hill and seeing
the amazing view: the mountains, the
vast sweep of ocean and the Nine Pins
islands in the distance. I fell in love. It’s
a side of Hong Kong I wasn’t expecting
– I’d visited the city previously for work,
and had seen the skyscrapers, the
harbour and the factories in China.
But when I discovered the views in
Clearwater Bay, I knew I didn’t want to
live anywhere else, even if it meant a little
further to drive into town.
Po Toi O, our local village, is very
quiet and many of our neighbours in
the complex only use their houses at
the weekend, so we often feel as if we’re
entirely on our own. We love to have
friends over on Saturday and Sunday, and
the deck – complete with outside bar – is
the perfect entertaining space. It’s lovely
because all the junks and boats gather at
Clearwater Bay beach, and you can often
hear music and people jumping into the
water – it’s like Hong Kong’s playground!
Then from Monday to Friday I close the
door, and enjoy the tranquillity and peace.