“We fell in love with the flat because of the layout, so we didn’t want to touch it,” Macer says.

Its attraction is immediately obvious in the living room, which segues into a dining area on one side and a charming, light-filled nook on the other. Off the dining space are an office-cum-sitting room and the kitchen, which is enclosed but visible through a glass wall. A corridor by the entrance leads to the private quarters.

Rather than enlist an interior designer, the couple decorated their own home, personalising rooms with furniture and artwork collected over the years. Their aim, they say, was to create an “uncluttered and coordinated” interior that evolved naturally.

Inside a Hong Kong interior designer’s bold, colourful flat

In the bedrooms, custom-made cabinetry replaced old wardrobes. To make the main bedroom feel more spacious, a built-in shelf-and-bedhead unit was removed. In their daughters’ rooms, 17-year-old Mia enjoys a curved bench that hugs a wall while 14-year-old Ana has a statement-making mural.

The open living and dining areas spill onto the terrace, where the family often dines alfresco.

“If we had a rooftop terrace, we’d have to go out and up,” Konn says. “But this is like another room. It’s absolutely part of the house.”

Curved, wraparound, floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the living area – which enjoys views of the sea and surround­ing greenery – enhance the connection between outdoor and indoor spaces.

A chaise longue, a desk and an armchair furnish this verdant spot.

Much of the couple’s furnishings were bought in Spain, where they lived for seven years after being relocated from Britain by fast-fashion retailer Zara. (The company also brought them to Hong Kong, although Konn has since started his own fashion-sourcing company, China Red Textiles, for which Macer handles accounts.)

Konn has high praise for Spain’s contemporary wood furniture, and the couple’s collection includes a turquoise armchair – more than 20 years old and reupholstered for the fifth time – and a vintage wooden television cabinet in the study. They had a white shelving unit custom designed to fit around this cabinet.

“I’m a slight tidy freak,” confesses Konn.

Macer adds: “I like to keep some walls empty so when we see [a new artwork we like] we can slot it in.”

She also prefers a neutral backdrop.

“I like bringing the outdoors inside, like a beach holiday,” she says. “Some people’s homes have a lot of blankets and cushions to make it feel warm and cosy, but I prefer the opposite of that.”

Living area detail Sumo and Stanley relax on a chaise longue that was reupholstered by James Curtain Service (40A Blue Pool Road, Happy Valley, tel: 2576 9448).

Ana’s bedroom The Hemnes bureau (HK$2,490) from Ikea is paired with an Eames-style chair (HK$980) from Nature Evolution against a mural by Elizabeth Hamill.

Tried + tested

Raise the bar The kitchen was left as it was, but David Konn decided to make a feature of an existing stainless-steel shelf hanging from the ceiling. Because a glass wall separates the kitchen from the dining area, making the shelf highly visible, it was turned into a decorative bar feature.

“I liked having something that wasn’t put away,” Konn says. “It makes you feel like not everything is completely tidy, and bottles are colourful.”