L
aurian de Ru loves the challenge of creating
aesthetically ideal spaces for children. The interior
designer specialises in bringing the whole look
together for babies’ and children’s rooms through her
design agency KidsID, where she blends different design
styles and cultures, using both modern pieces and bargain
buys.
After relocating to Hong Kong nearly seven years ago
with her husband and three children, Mette, aged seven
years, Allard, five, and Sandrine, three, Laurian wanted to
find a space that would feel like home for her family. Even
though they started out with different plans, the family
settled in Mid-Levels and they love it. “We thought we would
move out of Mid-Levels within a couple of years, but we have
lived in our current apartment for three and a half years now
and the best feature is the terrace, which looks onto the
green slopes of The Peak. It is ideal for the
children but we ourselves love to eat and
sit outside at night and on the weekends,”
Laurian says.
Furniture is important to this style expert.
“I am very fond of Mid-Century design.
Designers like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
Eero Saarinen and Marcel Breuer were
ground-breaking at that time and their
designs are still current now,” she says.
Though for Laurian that does not mean
everything has to be high-end. She happily
admits to a love for Ikea. “They have so
many great solutions for storage and they
are starting to do more and more wooden
pieces, which you can easily individualise by painting them,”
she says.
Laurian’s love of mixing expensive pieces with second-
hand market bargains or eclectic finds from various travels
means she lives in a residence that she never gets bored
with. She takes inspiration from the bustling life on the Hong
Kong streets and different neighbourhoods, such as Tai Hang,
Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun.
Many of her clients want to know how to make things
match and combine. “As long as you buy what you love, it
will always go together and that is how you truly end up with
a space which has character and that reflects you,” Laurian
advises.
She encourages this adherence to visual and creative
truth throughout the home. Laurian believes people want a
room with an easy, clean palette for their children that offers
a feeling of cosiness – a quiet but fun retreat
from the rest of the world. “Children’s rooms
have so many functionalities,” she says. “They
are bedrooms, but often playrooms and
study rooms as well.”
For Laurian, decorating is as much
an exercise in listening and working to
understand and accommodate her clients’
practical needs as it is having the imaginative
freshness to bring it all together into contoured
designed areas where children love to sleep
and live. Her own residence is neither pristine
nor unfinished; its detail grows as the family
grows with it, combining whimsy, love and
plenty of room for playing and living.
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