A Soulful Home in China Highlights the Owner’s Vintage Furniture Collection

For his longtime friend, designer Bob Chen creates a tranquil residence wherein every piece tells a story.

Jul 16, 2020 - 21:34

A Soulful Home in China Highlights the Owner’s Vintage Furniture Collection

For his longtime friend, designer Bob Chen creates a tranquil residence wherein every piece tells a story.

Chen designed circular copper bases for the Bluestone. The light is the Artemide Aggregato ceiling light with a counterweight.

By his own estimate, advertising executive Guang Liu’s passion for collecting vintage furniture has only grown over the last decade. "About 10 years ago, my obsession with used articles began, and I started to buy a lot of them, and gradually developed my ‘guilty pleasure,’" Guang. "My office and my friends’ warehouses are filled with weird things that I have collected."

More recently, Guang asked his friend, designer Bob Chen of Bob Chen Design Office, to help him outfit a home that was up to the task of storing and displaying his treasures. "Bob and I have known each other for about 15 years, and have been working our way through our own careers in Hangzhou together," he says. "We are good friends, and at the same time we learn from each other."

Chen led a talented team of designers and makers to create a cohesive home for Guang and his collections, one that combines and contrasts the homeowner’s favorite finds with bespoke and modern pieces.

In the living room, a fifteen-foot custom sofa with integrated tea station sits across from a console table built from a log over eighteen feet long. — In the living room, a 15-foot custom sofa with an integrated tea station sits across from a console table built from a log that was over 18 feet long.

Wen Office

A vintage Pierre Jeanneret chair found by Liu sits beside a coffee table designed by Bob Chen. — A vintage Pierre Jeanneret chair found by Guang sits beside a coffee table designed by Bob Chen. In the background, the tea station integrated with the couch has an outlet for an electric kettle and storage for supplies.

Wen Office

Getting the mix right started in the living room. There, a 15-foot custom sofa anchors one wall, with one end incorporating a discreet tea station housed in a cabinet. The cabinet stores water, accommodates an electric socket for plugging in the kettle, and stores tea and tea-making supplies. "My wife, who loves to drink tea, is very fond of the design," says Guang.

At the opposite wall, the team placed a low-lying console carved from a single log that was over 18 feet long. "My good friend, Yonghong, who is the creative director of the furniture brand SoLIFE, took me to Indonesia for half a month to find [the log]," Guang recalls. Chen then designed a coffee table from four pieces of 19th-century Bluestone from the Netherlands, and paired it with a rich garnet velvet Pumpkin loveseat designed by Pierre Paulin for Ligne Roset.