An industrial loft becomes a colour family home

100 years ago it was a factory and later the building was used as a car repair shop. Today, this industrial loft has been transformed by Nata Lee into a colourful family home.

This article was first seen on vitra.com as part of their "inside with" series.

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When Nata Lee Hahn first drove past the building that would become her family’s home, it was dark, rundown, and windowless. Despite its gloomy appearance, she was captivated by the large, open interior and began to picture its potential. At first, she envisioned transforming the space into an art studio. But as her imagination took over, she realized it could also make an ideal family home.

"My approach to an interior project is very similar to the way I approach art. It’s a big three-dimensional painting that I can enter. It doesn’t take much to make a place cosy: good warm lighting, a few soulful pieces that have personal meaning and just having good people with good vibes hang out in your place.

When I was growing up in Hong Kong, my father would often take me around antique shops. The shopkeepers would have a story for every item. I would just sit and listen to these tales. That’s when I developed my love of treasure hunting. Today my home contains an eclectic mix of contemporary, classic and vintage pieces, including Kokeshi dolls from Japan plus a number of soft furnishings, cushions and rugs collected during our travels. When my kids are older one day and move into their own homes, I hope they’ll look back and say they were inspired by living here. That it left them the space to be creative and use their imagination, that they think of it as a place where they felt safe and uplifted."

- Nata Lee speaking to Vitra.com

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Home should be a place where we can express our creativity, according to Nata Lee Hahn. Baking cookies occupies both the mind and the hands. Ingredients become dough, dough is shaped into figures. Sweet smells fill the kitchen as little ones gaze wide-eyed into the oven at what they have made: tomorrow’s memories.

Photography courtesy of Vitra.com