ROSHEEN RODWELL, an interior designer in Hong Kong, has called many neighbourhoods home. She’s now happily ensconced in an older-style family apartment near Stanley Market, Southside.
Where are you from originally? What brought you to Hong Kong and when?
I’m from the UK – I came here 25 years ago with a four-week old baby and my husband who is a pilot with Cathay Pacific.
You’re an interior designer in Hong Kong. Tell us a bit about it.
My small studio specialises in carefully crafted residential and commercial designs that cater to the specific functional and aesthetic desires of our clients. We’re passionate about listening to our clients and delivering unique spaces – this means that I work very closely with clients on a select few projects per year, for a truly bespoke outcome. I also design and make furniture, and I’ll shortly be launching a small online collection of ottomans, cushions and headboards.
Where else have you lived in Hong Kong?
I lived in Discovery Bay when we first arrived (with all the other pilots) but soon moved away to The Peak, as our young children were at Peak School. We then lived in Pok Fu Lam for 14 years in the university building called High West, which was demolished in 2020. After that, we were at the top of Magazine Gap Road in Mid-Levels, in another (iconic) building that was demolished after we moved out.
Tell us about your current home
We now live in an apartment in Stanley and are hoping that this building will survive! I live with my 12-year-old daughter and my husband, and my two grown-up children spend time here too when they can.
It’s a three-bedroom flat with a balcony – low-rise and old style, with high ceilings and the original windows, which I love. It’s smaller than our previous apartments; we have had to get rid of quite a bit of furniture and squash the rest in.
What do you like about living in Stanley and the area?
I love Stanley. We are surrounded by beautiful hiking trails and we’re a barefoot walk from the beach. We have friends all around us and are walking distance from Stanley Market. It’s the closest I have ever come in Hong Kong to living in a village and it suits me perfectly.
What’s your closest go-to café, bar or restaurant?
Unfortunately, restaurants don’t seem to be able to survive in Stanley. There are very few left. My adult kids go to Smugglers for drinks when they’re here! We all love Bake House too – the best egg tarts in town.
As an interior designer, have you had the chance to make many changes to the home since moving in?
I’m not allowed to make any structural changes here, so I have to live with a very basic and dated kitchen and bathrooms, which I struggle with. But I have changed pretty much everything else – all the wall colours, all the handles on every cupboard. I’ve installed multiple storage solutions, removed cupboard doors to replace with curtains, covered up ugly shower screens with shower curtains, stuck down vinyl floor tiles, changed all the lighting, had multiple bespoke pieces of furniture made to suit the space, installed curtains and pelmets everywhere to hide the plastic curtain rods, installed drapes above beds to hide off-centre beams and so on.
Tell us about a couple of items in the apartment that have an interesting background or story behind them.
Our home is a representation of 28 years of travel, a collection that has been years in the making. I try to curate it very carefully so that it doesn’t look too cluttered and retains a fresh, contemporary feel.
We still have the first piece of furniture I ever bought, which is a batonka stool from Zimbabwe (my husband is from Zimbabwe) and a framed map on the wall which was the chart that my husband used when he learnt to fly – including the scribble of coordinates that he used when he had to fly to rescue someone who had been stranded in the bush.
I have a photograph of my grandmother which is much treasured – they drew in the eyelashes on top of the photograph in those days.
Is there a spot in the home that you enjoy the most?
We love all sitting together in the evening watching a movie, and I designed an ottoman so that everyone can sit comfortably with their feet up. I’m not a fan of L-shaped sofas as only one person gets to be comfortable. The ottoman has a glass waterfall table that slides backwards and forwards so that you can put drinks on it, and decorate it with candles or books. It’s in a beautiful sage cotton velvet and is one of the core pieces of my furniture collection. I am so thrilled with it.
For anyone keen to give their home a zhuzh, or start on a full-scale project, what are your recommendations for where to shop in Hong Kong?
In all honesty, I have difficulty finding things I like in Hong Kong for my projects. A great deal of the furniture I use is made bespoke for each client using a series of trusted contractors and craftspeople who I have been working with for years now. It has been wonderful to find these people over time, and I treasure my relationship with them.
I also import a great deal – especially lighting – and seek out craftspeople and small businesses on platforms such as Etsy. Increasingly, I am finding a few suppliers in China for bespoke sisal rugs and wallpapers. Fabrics are often imported, although I can sometimes find good quality linen and velvet in Sham Shui Po. I also use Victoria Cheung Interiors, Altfield, Avante Garde, Cetec and Master Resource for fabrics in Hong Kong.
For furniture, I have found some wonderful vintage pieces in Crack and Anecdote, and I also like Manks for designer furniture. Of course, 1stDibs is amazing for one-off pieces. Lane Crawford is also a go-to, as well as TREE, OVO and Timothy Oulton. I like Baea for bed linens (the comfiest) and The Ginger Jar Lamp Co., Old HK Lights, Zara Home and Permanent Resident for decorative pieces.
What about recommendations for more general shopping?
For boutiques, you can’t beat Frey for edgy, tailored clothing for women. The fabrics are sustainably sourced (end-of-run fabrics, very high quality) and they tailor to fit once you have chosen your piece. The price is good too. I designed their store so I am very lucky to have been an early adopter. (I’m wearing Frey in the photo in this article.)
And, away from retail, how about your favourite places to eat in Hong Kong?
Our family-favourite restaurants are definitely not high-end. We like BariUma in Lan Kwai Fung, BEP Vietnamese Kitchen, Coconuts in Deep Water Bay, Din Tai Fung in Causeway Bay, Pici, the VRC, and the Willow Room at the Hong Kong Cricket Club. Of course, I always love to eat at The China Club, Yardbird, Ho Lee Fuk, La Vache… the list is endless. I prefer restaurants to be fun and vibey and not too rarefied.
What are a few things you like to do in Hong Kong when you’re not working?
I like to hike, run, swim, spend time with my family and have dinners with friends; and I am slightly obsessed with travel. It’s the greatest privilege to be able to travel the way we can with Cathay Pacific and we take full advantage of it. Exploring new places and cultures energises me and so I do it as much as I can. We also visit our home in Bali often, and I go back to London and family several times a year.
Rosheen’s top tips for transforming your rental bathroom
Sadly, rented flats in Hong Kong generally come hand in hand with ugly bathrooms. But don’t despair! There are some easy and impermanent ways to transform these sad spaces.
#1 Introduce furniture that doesn’t look too bathroomy; a wooden framed mirror, for example, or piece of art, a wall cabinet that isn’t mirrored, a little stool or a wooden bin.
#2 Fabric is your friend. One good trick is using curtains under the sink to replace white laminate doors. Also, a shower curtain hides a multitude of sins; avoid plastic ones like the plague! You can put a plastic layer on the inside and a lovely 100% linen on the outside. Or splash out on a fabulous designer fabric to draw the eye away from the shiny white tiles.
#3 If at all possible, change the lighting in the bathroom so you can have an atmospheric option. If there is a wall light, you may be able to replace a white plastic globe with an antique brass and glass one; or, failing that, make sure you have a candle on the go at all times.
#4 Give the ugly bathroom hardware some love – change the towel rail, install an eye-catching hook for a hand towel, remove the sad loo roll holder and put the rolls in a wicker basket instead.
#5 Often the floor is the biggest letdown – for instance, a shiny white expanse of 30-by-30 ceramic tiles, and not the nice kind. It’s so easy to install peel and stick tiles over the top – just make sure you buy the removable ones!
This article on an apartment in Stanley, Southside first appeared in Expat Living magazine in Hong Kong. You can buy the latest issue or an annual subscription or read the digital version free now.
