Brave new world
Keen to educate her natural eye for design, Fé Valvekens signed up for a year-long interior design course, then put her new-found knowledge to use in her family’s Stanley rental house.
Buying a chalet in France was the motivation Fé Valvekens needed to sign up for a year-long course in residential interior design at the Insight School of Interior Design, in Chai Wan. The property required a full renovation and although Valvekens has a natural eye for design, she wanted to be able to communicate with her architect without getting tripped up by all the technical details.
“I don’t have a design background but I had been using concepts like balance and harmony intuitively so it was good to learn to apply them properly rather than through guesswork,” says Valvekens, who is half Belgian and half Filipino, and has been living in Hong Kong for 13 years. “I finally learned the principles of design and the reasons behind why I did or didn’t like certain things.”
During her course, she moved with her husband and their three children, aged seven, 10 and 11, from their Stanley flat into a detached two-storey house across the street. It offered the perfect opportunity to unleash her creativity and practise her new-found skills.
Because the 2,800 sq ft, four-bedroom, three-bathroom home is a rental property, Valvekens couldn’t gut it and start again. Plus, she hates waste. Using knowledge gleaned from her course, she set about modifying the house to suit her family’s needs. One of the first things she did was to tone down the colour of the kitchen.
“When I arrived, the kitchen was overwhelmingly red,” says Valvekens. “It’s a beautiful colour but I prefer something a bit more Zen.”
Unable to change the existing cabinetry for something less prominent, she bought a movable white island for the centre of the space and equipped the room with wooden stools. This made the kitchen more balanced, drawing the eye away from the vivid hue.
A module with interior designer and Insight lecturer Catherine Bourquin, of Atelier B, introduced Valvekens to the significance of wallpaper, textiles
LIVING ROOM
mix of designer names and ethnic treasures.
restored vintage items. The grey Ploum
(ovo.com.hk) and the white sofa came from
Maisons du Monde (maisonsdumonde.com).
Propped against the wall is an artwork by
and forest green stool came from Francfranc
(hk.francfranc.net). The rug, which is a
Moroccan wedding blanket, was from a
village near Mount Toubkal. The Qlocktwo
digital wall clock was bought from Colette,
which has since closed, and the wingback
chair by Tom Dixon came from Lane Crawford
(lanecrawford.com.hk). and texture. Previously more of a fan of neutrals and hesitant to incorporate pattern, she reset her preferences upon hearing Bourquin’s words of design wisdom. She papered one wall in her son’s bedroom with his chosen cheese plant design and went to town in the dining room, with a magnificent handprinted wallpaper, which she paired with simple wooden furniture and a monochrome print of Jimi Hendrix to avoid excessive busyness.
“I never used to see wallpaper as an asset and wouldn’t take the risk in case it didn’t look right,” she says. “After doing the course, I’m no longer afraid to go bold as I’ve learned about the
One end of the open-plan living room is
by Juan Ford (juanford.com) – from a
gallery since closed. The vase came with a
bouquet from a local florist and the lamp
was from Taobao. The ceiling light was
from Indigo Living (indigo-living.com) and
the CH88P chair, by Hans Wegner, came
from MyConcept (myconcept.com.hk).
importance of decorative elements and how to use them. This whole dining room started with the wallpaper.”
Discovering the joys of texture, she changed all her rugs and had a field day with fabrics, breaking away from a previous penchant for block colours. She sourced interesting fabric for a throw to transform a plain sofa and gave new life to a “boring” white leather bench in the main bedroom by upholstering it with embroidered fabric.
“We visited showrooms during the course and this beautiful ethnic fabric ‘spoke’ to me, so I just needed to find somewhere to use it,” she says. “I made cushions for the bed out of it, too, and it has changed the whole room.”
Valvekens also learned how to partition spaces creatively. She created a reading nook for her book-mad daughter by positioning floor cushions next to shelves and moving a toy chest to block off the cosy corner from the rest of the bedroom.
“My daughter’s reading nook was simple to do and cost next to nothing, and it’s her favourite place,” she says. “I always move our things around. I like to see what works best in a space.”
On the subject of moving things around, Valvekens describes how Insight made her realise all her artwork was positioned at the wrong height. This jarred so much she eventually took down all the paintings and had them rehung.
“It’s a common mistake but the centre of the composition has to be at eye level, which is about 160cm from the floor,” she explains. “The larger the artwork, the lower the bottom edge will sit.”
Valvekens loved her course so much that she took a second one in commercial interior design. Her current project is growing her business as an interior designer – a career friends say she should have embarked on years ago.
DINING ROOM
Having completed a course module on wall treatments, Valvekens felt
confident enough to cover an entire wall in the dining room with hand-printed
Jaipur wallpaper by Antoinette Poisson (antoinettepoisson.com). It is balanced
with a black-and-white photograph of Jimi Hendrix, by Gered Mankowitz, from
10 Chancery Lane Gallery (10chancerylanegallery.com), and a striking Gyro
chandelier from Timothy Oulton (timothyoulton.com). The Eero Saarinendesigned
Knoll Tulip table came from Lane Crawford, and the Verner Panton
chairs, from Vitra, came from a shop since closed. The rustic Chinese bench
and baskets on and under it all came from Lumeun, and the display cabinet was
bought second-hand from a friend who was leaving Hong Kong. The glass vases
and the mirror came from Indigo Living. The Fornasetti plates were from Lane
Crawford and the small rattan chest of drawers was from G.O.D. (god.com.hk).
The mask was from a street market in Bali, and the pineapple planter, which
came with a bouquet, from Bydeau (bydeau.com).
Having previously gone for neutral block colours,
Valvekens fell in love with the Taza collection by
chcconcepts), which made the cushion and bench
covers. The black Verner Panton-inspired chairs and
both came from Pony Rider (ponyrider.com.au).
(homeessentials.com.hk). The circular jute rug
was from DhurrieWorld and the rectangular rug
from Miss Amara (missamara.hk). The balcony
chair was bought second-hand.