T
he Mid-Levels home of Australian expatriates Tamara
and Andrew Toon and their two boys, Coby, aged
seven, and Ayden, aged four, is bright and cheery, the
central living space making it feel lit from within.
Floor-to-ceiling windows send light everywhere, calming
everyone, Tamara says. “We’re fortunate to have a great
view of the harbour and, as both my husband and I grew up
living near the ocean – he sailed before he could walk – it
was really important to us to be able to see the water. We feel
claustrophobic if we can’t.”
The living room is their most-loved area in the home. Airy
and white with minimalist furniture and objects, the room is
a design lesson in uncluttered, yet relaxed, neutrality. “Our
house in Australia is near the beach, with white walls and
floors, and has that real beach-house feel and that’s what
I tried to capture here,” Tamara says. She and her husband
sometimes feel that they might have the only beach house in
Hong Kong.
A neutral palette with natural wood plays a large part
in providing this holiday-at-home backdrop. “We had the
dining room table custom-made based on one I’d seen in
an interiors magazine. I love the plank look as it keeps to our
beach-house theme,” she says. And though the couple are
very much driven by the lack of artifice in the coastal vibe,
modernity and antiques are interesting to them, too. An
Eames lounge chair sits in the living area and eight Barcelona
chairs cast an air of sophisticated precision around the dining
table. “I also love my stunning antique silver-plated tray, and
fiddle-back soup ladle and serving spoon, originally from
London but sourced here from a great new fine antiques store
called Authentiques in Sheung Wan,” Tamara says.
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