Chic Inspirations: Moving to Hong Kong Part 4

When I first met with our contractor Andy, I had a scrapbook of images of how I wanted the apartment to look like. They were carefully edited images that all evoke the three words I had in mind for the apartment: classic, modern and glamorous. I know classic and modern don’t always go in the same sentence but you’ll see what I mean when you view the photos below.

Versace designed apartment at The Plaza

On our initial meeting, I really stressed that I want mouldings on the walls, especially in the living, dining and guest rooms. I wanted an apartment that had the same feel of a pre-war apartment on the Upper East Side. I have been obsessed with mouldings since the launch of the The Plaza apartments in New York decorated by Versace. While I am not a fan of the Medusa motif, I found the use of white mouldings against black walls very chic. And I wanted to replicate that.

The bedroom at The Plaza apartments

On our Christmas trip to Italy, we stayed at the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel in Florence and our room had beautiful mouldings in two shades of green. When we went to Rome after Florence, we stayed at a suite at the Westin which was painted in pale gray and accented by white mouldings. These two places made me want mouldings all the more.

Our room at the Four Seasons in Florence

Our suite at the Westin in Rome

Right now, we are still under discussions as to whether we would install mouldings or not. The biggest pro is that it will make the apartment look extremely chic. But there are a lot more cons: it will be an extra expense; it’s a rental so we would have to reinstate everything back to its original state; reinstating the apartment would also cost a lot of money. Andy said it wouldn’t that be difficult to reinstate to original conditions because installing mouldings is a lot like hanging a framed artwork on the wall, but with only just the frame and no picture in the middle. And besides, we’ve already drilled holes for all our artworks.

Dior's mouldings are also very chic

So the question now is, should we or shouldn’t we?