Beverly Garden — Interior Design and Renovation in Tseung Kwan O
A 1998 subsidised housing flat, renovated in the only order that works: infrastructure first, storage second, styling last. See the sequence, layout strategy, or request a quotation.
Interior design project by D-8 Limited at Beverly Garden, Hong Kong.
D-8 Limited is an integrated design firm on interior design. It emphasizes on details in its design philosophy, which could be reflected on both the user experience and form of its works. As an evolving design studio, it offers animation visualization as an advanced presentation tool for their client to easily understand the design and outcome in a more comprehensive way.
Because design and construction sit inside the same company, the drawings for a flat like this are not handed to a stranger. The designer who planned the layout is the person who checks the wall lines before tiling, confirms every socket position against the joinery shop drawings, and answers the carpenter's question on site. In a 431 to 592 square foot flat that matters more than in a large one — there is no spare space to absorb a mistake.
About Beverly Garden, Tseung Kwan O
Beverly Garden stands at 1 Tong Ming Street in Tseung Kwan O Town Centre, a Home Ownership Scheme and Private Sector Participation Scheme estate jointly developed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority and Chevalier Group on reclaimed land, with occupation from July 1998.
Estate facts
- 10 blocks, 3,966 residential units
- Occupation from July 1998
- Saleable areas approximately 431 to 592 square feet
- Two and three bedroom layouts
- Roughly a five to six minute walk to Tseung Kwan O MTR station, near Tseung Kwan O Plaza and the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground
- Primary One Admission school net 95, secondary allocation in Sai Kung District
- Land lease running to 30 June 2047
What this combination means for a renovation
Three characteristics shape every brief here. The layouts are efficient rather than generous, so storage has to be designed rather than bought. The building is now more than twenty-five years old, so infrastructure — wiring, drainage, waterproofing, floor level — is usually the real starting point regardless of what the owner initially wanted to discuss. And the estate is large and school-netted, meaning most clients are families working to a firm budget with a fixed move-in date, which makes sequencing and phasing decisions as important as design decisions.
The Only Order That Works in a 1990s Flat
Owners usually open the conversation with paint colours and cabinet styles. In a flat of this age the money has to go, in this order, to the things that cannot be revisited later.
- Survey before designing. Actual dimensions, ceiling heights, beam depths, duct positions, existing socket and switch positions, drainage condition, and any damp — all photographed before demolition so variations are provable rather than arguable.
- Fix the infrastructure. Rewiring to modern circuit loads, replacement of concealed drainage where it has reached the end of its service life, renewed bathroom and kitchen waterproofing with flood testing, and floor levelling. None of this shows in a photograph; all of it decides whether the flat performs for the next decade.
- Settle the layout against structure. Confirm which partitions are non-structural before drawing any change. Load bearing walls, slabs, beams and columns require proper assessment and the correct statutory route.
- Design storage from measured capacity. Count hanging length, folded stacks, shoes and luggage, then consolidate into one dense full-height wall — the method is set out on our storage audit case study.
- Coordinate services against joinery. Socket, switch and data positions confirmed against cabinet internals before boards are cut, because an outlet 40 millimetres out can render a shelf unusable or force visible trunking forever.
- Style last, and phase if needed. Paint colour, lighting fittings, curtains and loose furniture are reversible. Secondary room joinery can be a second phase once the essentials are complete.
The full eight-stage programme with durations is on our Design & Build page, and the trade sequence that cannot be reordered is here.
What a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Flat Actually Needs
Electrical capacity
Original layouts in late-1990s housing were designed for a fraction of today's appliance load — before every household ran a router, air fryer, dryer, dehumidifier and several charging stations at once. Rewiring, a modern distribution board with residual current device, dedicated air conditioning circuits and a generous count of new socket and data points belong at the start, with positions coordinated against cabinet internals rather than guessed.
Concealed drainage and waterproofing
Pipework of this generation is often at or past the end of its service life, and bathroom and kitchen waterproofing rarely survives untouched. Replacement is unglamorous and unavoidable. Bathrooms are flood tested for roughly 24 to 48 hours with the result recorded before tiling proceeds — insist on seeing this, because a failed membrane found later means demolishing finished work.
Level, plumb and beams
Expect floors that fall across a room and walls that lean slightly. Cabinets are levelled with adjustable feet and scribed at the ends of runs, and final joinery measurement waits until plastering, tiling and levelling are complete because joinery is cut to the built dimension. Beams crossing a bedroom wall mean a stepped cabinet top rather than a run that stops short and wastes the volume above.
Damp and possible spalling
External walls, ceilings under a neighbour's wet area and boxed ducts are the usual suspects. Where lifting concrete or rust staining appears, that is spalling and it is repaired before anything is built against it — repair of structural elements is a minor works item requiring a prescribed registered contractor, and D-8 Limited is a Registered Minor Works Contractor Class II. See Spalling Repairing Works.
Windows and ventilation
Aged frames, tired sealant and single glazing are common. If windows are due for attention, that work precedes joinery against the adjacent wall. Ventilation matters too: deep cabinets keep a gap at the back and shoe storage is ventilated, because Hong Kong humidity punishes sealed cavities.
Layout Strategy, 431 to 592 sq ft
The 431 square foot two bedroom
Every function competes for the same floor area, so the plan is decided by three moves. First, consolidate storage into one full-height wall and leave the others clear. Second, borrow daylight — where the kitchen partition is non-structural, opening or part-glazing it brings light into the interior and makes the living area read wider. Third, remove door swing arcs with sliding or pocket doors where clearance is tight. The second bedroom then takes one decisive option: a platform bed with deep drawers, a high bed with a desk beneath where ceiling height allows, or a desk integrated into the wardrobe run.
The 592 square foot three bedroom
Storage stops fighting circulation. The primary bedroom takes a full wardrobe run with stacked short-hang and a top box, plus a bedhead panel with reading light and charging that removes bedside tables in a tight room. The third bedroom usually doubles as study and guest room, which argues for a convertible desk or a wall bed rather than a fixed single-purpose fit-out. A utility cabinet for vacuum, drying rack and ironing board keeps those items out of bedrooms.
The entrance, always underestimated
In both layouts the door tends to open straight into the living area. A ventilated shoe cabinet with a drop shelf at hip height, a mirror on the door face and a return panel creates the hallway the plan never provided — and stops the flat looking untidy from the moment you walk in.
Living and dining
A TV feature wall concealing router, set-top box and cabling with ventilated compartments, closed storage below for what otherwise lives on the dining table, and where dining space is tight, a wall-fixed bench with drawers rather than four loose chairs.
What we test before recommending
At least two layout options drawn with real clearances — including the space needed to make a bed and to pass a dining chair — and, where the layout itself is the risk, an animation walkthrough so circulation is felt rather than imagined. That is what animation visualization is for; the reasoning is on our Design Project page.
Kitchen and Bathroom — Where Age Shows Most
Kitchen
Drawer stacks replace deep base cupboards so nothing is lost at the back, a tall unit lifts appliances off the worktop, and a slim pull-out fills the awkward 150 to 300 millimetre gap that every older kitchen has. Plumbing and gas positions are rarely where you want them, so the layout follows what can actually be moved. If the partition is non-structural, opening or glazing part of it is the single most effective daylight move available in these units.
Bathroom
Full waterproofing renewal with flood testing, drainage falls corrected, then a moisture-rated vanity and a mirror cabinet — in a compact bathroom the mirror cabinet is usually the highest-value single item because it adds storage without stealing floor. Where a washer position exists, a tall cabinet conceals the machine along with detergent, mop and bucket.
Why these two rooms set the budget
Wet trades and services carry the highest proportion of hidden work, and they are the rooms you cannot phase. Everything else in the flat can wait a year; a bathroom stripped halfway cannot.
Storage Is the Design, Not the Decoration
In a flat of this size, joinery is usually the largest single cost group and the main determinant of whether the home feels calm. Retail cabinets waste roughly 60 to 150 millimetres at each wall plus the dead space above, which in a 431 square foot unit is a meaningful share of the entire home.
- Full-height wardrobe run with long-hang, stacked short-hang, folded bays, drawers and a top box for suitcases and seasonal bedding
- Ventilated entrance shoe cabinet with adjustable shelf pitch and a drop shelf
- TV feature wall concealing equipment with ventilated compartments
- Platform bed, high bed or wardrobe-integrated desk in the second bedroom
- Kitchen drawer stacks, tall unit and slim pull-out
- Utility cabinet for vacuum, drying rack and cleaning equipment
The detailed joinery approach for this specific estate — piece by piece, with materials and hardware — is on our Beverly Garden custom furniture case study, and the full service is Custom Made Furniture.
Timeline and Estate Rules
Realistic durations
Design, drawings and quotation commonly run two to four weeks. Construction for a second-hand flat of this size typically takes eight to fourteen weeks, with demolition three to seven days, wet trades and waterproofing five to ten days, electrical and plumbing seven to fourteen days, joinery fourteen to twenty-one days, painting five to ten days, and installation and cleaning five to seven days. Allow three to five months in total from taking keys to moving in.
What a 3,966-unit estate requires
- Works application with schedule, contractor insurance details and a refundable deposit
- Service lift booking — genuinely competitive in an estate this size, so early booking is worth more than extra labour
- Protection of lift car, lobby and corridor before any material enters
- Specified delivery routes and same-day removal of debris
- Restricted hours for noisy operations, which is why demolition is sequenced first and compressed
Statutory submissions
Where the works fall under the Minor Works Control System, Class II submissions use Form MW03 as the notice of commencement and Form MW04 as the certificate of completion. Full detail on the Design & Build compliance section and our credentials page.
Where the Money Should Go First
In a typical Hong Kong residential project, electrical, plumbing and wet trades take roughly 20 to 25 per cent of the construction budget and custom joinery another 20 to 25 per cent. In an older flat the infrastructure share sits at the upper end, because rewiring and drainage are rarely optional.
Priority order on a fixed budget
- Rewiring, drainage, waterproofing and levelling
- Bathroom and kitchen, which cannot be phased once started
- Primary bedroom wardrobe run and entrance storage
- Living room feature wall and secondary bedroom joinery
- Decorative work, lighting fittings, curtains and loose furniture
Phasing honestly
Phasing works, but each new phase reopens protection, access and mobilisation cost, so two campaigns beat five. The market reference ranges for design-and-build packages, and the eighteen-point quotation checklist to compare any quotation against, are on the quotation page, with warning signs listed here.
Beverly Garden Renovation FAQ
Same Estate, Same Constraints, Different Family
Send the floor plan and photos of the current condition. Free site visit, free measurement, written itemized quotation. Call 9135 3998 or email enquiry@designd8.com.
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