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A Labour of Love

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A one bedroom apartment in the new Nova Park undergoes a total transformation by an enterprising couple with a passion for interior design
 
 
When the new Nova Park residential tower in downtown Taipa was opened for purchase back in November 2013, the number of interested buyers was oversubscribed several times over.  Names were entered into a draw in order to be selected as eligible for purchase.  And if you were one of the lucky ones, you were entered into another draw to decide which unit you’d be able to buy.
 
With this somewhat fraught set of ‘what ifs’, one can well imagine the leap of faith Portuguese couple Sofia and João Mendoca took when deciding to buy. 
 
“The official launch was at Macau Tower.  The whole place was crazy, full of people, like a casino!” exclaims Sofia. “You could feel the tension in the air, the stress.  When we arrived to put down our deposit it was the first time we’d even seen the plans of the building and the layout of the units!”  
 
They were delighted to discover that the apartment drawn out for them to buy was on the second top floor, with a great view, and directly under the spacious, residents’ club lounge, which can be accessed from outside the apartment, up one flight of stairs.
 
Two years after buying off the plans, the building was finally finished and the Mendocas proudly took possession in March 2015.  
 
“The location is amazing, one of the top locations in Macau, with Central Park in front and the public parking underneath, supermarkets, restaurants all around, and near the international schools,” João enthuses.  
 
The only problem they faced was how to maximize the rather small living space and still have room for lots of storage. They realized that luck was with them again in that the ceiling height, 3.3 metres, is considerably higher on their floor than on any of the lower floors.
 
With Joao being an engineer and Sofia’s innate sense of sensible solutions and good taste, they came to the conclusion that they’d tackle the renovations themselves.  Joao got down to putting the drawings together and then engaged a friendly contractor to make their vision a reality.
 
First, all the original dark brown doors were changed to white so there was a cohesive theme of lightness and modernity.  The kitchen door was given a 6-foot vertical clear glass panel, and the bathroom the same but in frosted glass for privacy.  
 
Throughout the apartment, one design feature borrows from another and flows from room to room: the stainless steel of the room divider is incorporated in a horizontal panel on the wall cabinet doors, in the elegant steel-grey metal framed mirror hanging above the dining table and complemented in the wall hangings above the sofa in the living room.  Then as one goes through into the bedroom, the stainless steel theme continues in the metal curtain rod and the thoughtful detail of stainless steel open wall shelves for high level storage.
 
“This is a buy to rent property for us, so we wanted to design the interior to be suitable for a business man or woman,” explains Sofia.  “We have kept the basics neutral and then splashed colour, using accessories, turquoise, greys and white, so we have maximum flexibility in the colour scheme; we can change it easily and inexpensively any time.”  
 
Fortunately the original floors are an attractive and modern pale wood.  The walls are white, like the doors, to give a sense of space “and then we added a pale grey feature wall above and below the living room window seat causing an optical illusion of making the window look much bigger.” 
 
The grey leather sofa and the grey window blinds were purchased in a furniture mall in Qianshan road, Zhuhai.  The Noguchi coffee table that sits on a grey rug is from Di-Mension Living, Hong Kong.  
 
All the cabinetry was designed by João and Sofia.  They wanted a white piano gloss finish to reflect light and further help make the space look bigger.  Infinite care was taken to anticipate the needs of a tenant; drawers for shoes, a tall thin compartment for an ironing board and a shorter wider one for a vacuum cleaner.
 
On the dining table we see again the stainless steel theme in its frame and legs.  It has a raw wood top, and a matching bench – the wood gnarled and pitted having started off life as a set of doors. This lovely natural wood provides an ideal balance with the otherwise hard, metallic colour and surface of the steel.  
 
One gets the idea that whilst stressful, it was a fun project that this couple, both busy with full time jobs, enjoyed tremendously.  
 
“We did a lot of online research ahead of time, so when we set out on our buying trips we used our time very economically – a weekend in Hong Kong  and a day in China, and we had it all sorted out.” 
 
One of their piece de resistance finds was the cement stool, used as a side table for the sofa.  This came from in Ovo, Hong Kong. 
 
Window treatments in the apartment were inexpensive but have a quality look.  The living room blinds, ingenious in design, are made of a continuous piece of fabric, but with a switch of a pulley, horizontal sections of them become transparent one moment, and solid the next.  In the bedroom, the grey tiger eye curtains run on a stainless steel rod, and have a white blackout roller blind behind.
 
The colour palate of greys, turquoise and natural wood in the living and dining room flows into the bedroom; wardrobe, bed and side tables are in pale washed beech wood, and bed linen is in greys and turquoise.  The metallic elements are brought through in the form of the metal based bed side lamps from Zara Home and the wall hanging above the bed.   Even the clothes hangers in the wardrobe are sleek, modern and stainless steel!  The bed, with super comfortable mattress, opens up for huge storage space underneath.  It was custom-made to fit the room (six weeks order time from Ou Mei Furniture on G/F of Chun Leong Gardens building, Av. Dr Sun Yat Sen, Taipa).
 
 
“We wanted to put a mirror on the wall facing the bed but our contractor insisted this was bad fung shui” smiles Sofia.  Instead they attached it to the side of the wardrobe with a little picture light above it.  The mirror reflection again adds a sense of openness to the otherwise compact space.
 
Very little changes were needed for the bathroom or kitchen, however the balcony off the kitchen had a mini-make over, the ugly external building tiles being replaced with more elegant square grey tiles with white grouting.  They also installed hanging space for a ladder, a clothes drying rack, and a number of cleaning items like mop and brushes.
 
“Yes, it’s been a labour of love,” agrees Sofia, “we really tried to think of every little comfort a tenant would want from their home.  And irrespective of nationality, everyone who has seen the end result has loved it!”  
 
No surprise then when it was snapped up by a senior executive looking for a downtown home virtually before the paint was dry!
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