A serious home renovation, the kind that involves more than just a new paint color or a powder room refresh, is an exercise in keeping sane. The months-long disruption, the draining bank account, the incessant dust, the steady stream of strangers in boots—none of it is something that most homeowners want to go through again.
Mandy Lee, the blogger (Lady and Pups) and cookbook author (The Art of Escapism Cooking), lived through the down-to-the-studs ordeal twice…in nine years…in the same apartment.
The first overhaul was in 2010 when she and her husband moved from New York to Hong Kong for his job and bought the apartment. They gutted the space. “I was still clinging to the industrial/lofty aesthetics that we left New York with, and everything was distressed concrete, distressed woods, distressed metal and glass panels,” she says of that renovation. “The kitchen had a concrete wall finish with stainless steel cabinet doors, very ‘you can take the girl out of Brooklyn but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the girl’—[except that] I’ve never lived in Brooklyn.”
Nine years later, they gutted it again. In between, the couple had moved to Beijing for a few years before moving back to their Hong Kong apartment—and they’d grown up. “We did the first renovation in our late 20s, when our lifestyle and mentality were completely different from where we are in our late 30s,” she says. “The functions and layout no longer fit our current lifestyle.”
The latest redesign still shows an affinity for distressed wood, but everything else has been replaced. Gone is the hardness of concrete and steel; in their place, billowing curtains, soft colors, and textured walls.
Let’s take a tour. And be sure to check out Mandy’s characterful kitchen in our earlier post (Kitchen of the Week: The ‘Angry Food Blogger’ at Home in Hong Kong.)
Photography by Mandy Lee.
![\2\20;the first design element i knew i wanted was a completely plastere 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-living-733x489.jpg)
![their third floor apartment is in an old walk up building in happy valley, a re 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-balcony-733x1100.jpg)
![mandy\2\17;s favorite part of her home. she sourced almost all the furni 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-dining-733x1100.jpg)
![\2\20;due to budget, i used plywood for the wood wall that separates the 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-wood-wall-733x1100.jpg)
![\2\20;the actual square footage of the apartment is about \1,050 square 21](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-front-door-733x1099.jpg)
![the guest bathroom has artful brooms hanging off a peg rail. painted textured w 22](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-guest-bath-733x1100.jpg)
![a glimpse of the moody green kitchen. their dogs’ water bowl sits on the 23](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/lady-pups-mandy-lee-kitchen-refrigerator-733x1100.jpg)
![entering the master bedroom, where mandy\2\17;s love for distressed wood 24](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-bedroom-733x1100.jpg)
![curtains conceal the walk in closet. \2\20;i love a floor to ceiling cur 25](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-bedroom-closet-733x1100.jpg)
![an antique chinese low table works as an artful breakfast tray. 26](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-bedroom2-733x1099.jpg)
![the master bathroom. 27](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mandy-lee-lady-pups-hong-kong-apartment-bathroom3-733x1099.jpg)
For more on the homes of chefs and foodies, see:
- Love in Danish: A Chef Couple’s Warm Scandinavian Apartment Above Their Michelin-Starred Restaurant
- Kitchen of the Week: Seattle Cookbook Author Aran Goyoaga’s Under-Budget Kitchen Remodel
- 5 Clever, Efficient Ideas to Steal from a Cookbook Author’s Home Kitchen
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