This Designer’s Home and Studio in Seoul Has Walls That Hold Secret Storage

According to the Korean principle of baesanimsu, which recommends building a house with a mountain at the back and a river at the front, interior designer Hye-Jin Ris Kim’s home in Seoul’s hilly Hannam-dong neighborhood is perfectly situated. “Historically, this area has been considered ideal for living because we are at the foot of the Namsan mountains, facing the Han River,” she says.“It's a private family space, so I wanted it to feel very emotionally warm,” Kim says, explaining the logic behind the gridded walls, clad in sycamore wood veneer and featuring hidden storage. In the living room, custom chairs by studio HJRK pull up to an Amoeba table by Paul Frankl, with a Murano bead “necklace” by Jean Michel Othoniel glistening in the background. “It changes in the light throughout the day,” Kim says of the work she and her husband acquired almost a decade ago. “At dawn it’s almost blue instead of purple.” The console is by Osvaldo Borsani and the painting is by Andrea Eriksson. An Art Nouveau and custom chair pull up to a custom ceramic-and-maple desk in one end of the living room, alongside a striking floor lamp by Osvaldo Borsani. It was one of several auspicious signs that drew her to the two-story house, the former residence of the Romanian ambassador, which seemed like the perfect envelope for the live-work arrangement Kim wanted to try out. “My life was changing,” she says. “My daughter was growing and she needed me more and more, but it was also time to focus on my business.” Why not combine the two? This setup would allow her to stay close to her young family (she and husband Ik Jae Jeong, just welcomed a second daughter) as well as her blossoming 10-year-old design business.The salon is painted Benjamin Moore’s moody Tamarind, with a glossy coat on the ceiling, a perfect contrast to the ochre mohair upholstery of a pair of 1960s Olivier Mourgue Montreal chairs. The 1950s coffee table is topped with an antique metal Korean grain smasher. The artwork is by Jacob Kassay and the rug is from Nordic Knots. ISA Bergamo Coffee TableOlivier Mourgue Pair of Montreal ArmchairsBorn in Seoul, Kim, who studied art history at Northwestern University in Chicago and interior architecture at the École Camondo in Paris, worked for interior designer India Mahdavi in Paris before returning home to open Studio HJRK in 2015. The firm has built a reputation for crafting personal interiors that range from hospitality to residential to exhibition and product design. Now, settled in its new home, the four-person team has its very own live-in laboratory.In the media room, where Kim conducts research with her team and screens movies with her family, a screen print by Koo Ja Hyun sits with Olivier Morgue lighting and a custom sofa and coffee table. Olivier Mourgue ‘Flower’ Wall Applique SconceIndia Mahdavi Bishop Stool (Set of 2)The simple white-oak-clad kitchen with custom knobs is filled with objects of interest, like the ottchil, or Korean lacquer, vessel by Yuri Jung, and the Puiforcat candelabra. The café curtain made with Chiarastella Cattana linen adds a subtle dash of color. In the breakfast-nook-slash-snacking corner, Charlotte Perriand’s Meribel chairs gather round a 1970s elm Pierre Chapo table beneath a painting by Claire Tabouret. The counterweighted wall lamp is by Robert Mathieu from the 1950s. “This space is like a living archive with no fixed vision,” Kim says of the house, which she began to renovate in 2023. Today, the interiors read like snapshots of her tastes and interests over the intervening years. The team visited Piero Portaluppi’s famous Villa Necchi and left inspired by its rationalist architecture; they decided to keep the home’s wood-clad stairway (one of the few elements of the 1980s design left intact) and they installed gridded wood walls with hidden, integrated closets on the second floor.“This space is where my personal and work lives blend,” says Kim of the “blank canvas” living room, where a custom HJRK Studio table and chairs hosts family dinner and client meetings depending on the time of day. “It’s a place to receive so many aspects of my life.” The artwork by Chang Sup Chung, passed down from Kim’s mother, is made of Korean mulberry paper. Vintage Serge Nekrassoff DishLulu and Georgia Ashwin Pendant LightRoom to room, you can track Kim’s range of collecting interests, which hopscotch across the globe but come mostly from the mid 20th century. There’s Paul Frankl’s cork-topped Amoeba table, which she fell in love with and selected as an anchor piece for the living room. Modernist French classics like Charlotte Perriand’s Meribel chairs and a Pierre Chapo table lend an alpine coziness to the kitchen. And midcentury Italian treasures, like the Osvaldo Borsani floor lamp in the living room with an ivy motif creeping up its base, add a touch of glamour. In between those blue chip objects are custom pieces produced by Kim’s firm, working with new materials and local craftspeople. “I see this house as a testbed for our studio,” she says. “Almost like a prototype.” Kim’s desk in the family room is hewn from maple with a top made by local ceramic artist Minseon Kim. Meanwhile, the low slipper silhouette of the chairs in that same room, reminiscent of Billy Haines’ Hollywood Regency designs, are in conversation with the midcentury forms around them.In Roseline’s room, the custom bed is cloaked in C&C Milano drapery and the window treatment is made from Décors Barbares fabric. The pair of stools are 1950s Hans Klarskov and the light fixture is by In Common With. Artek Stool E60Ginori 1735 Corona Dinner PlateWhile the home has a distinctly international flavor, elements of Korean art, design, and craftsmanship are present in every room. Ottchil, a Korean lacquer technique, can be spotted on a vessel in the kitchen and the custom screens Kim’s studio commissioned for the primary bedroom. Window treatments were made from oksa silk, a sheer, organza-like textile dyed with onion peels. And a beautiful work of jogakbo, a type of traditional Korean patchwork, is framed in the material library.A child’s vanity is sheathed in a candy-striped fabric by Dedar. Her reading nook is around the corner. Kim’s mother, who nourished her daughter’s interest in design, passed down a handful of pieces that add a touch of family heritage to the house. An ink black Gaya Dynasty vessel is displayed in the salon and the artwork made of hanji, or Korean paper, by Chang Sup Chung, an important artist from the Korean monochromatic movement, hangs in the kitchen. Newly interested in landscape design, Kim’s mother also cultivated the property’s garden, grooming its old red pine tree and planting the grounds with tulips, chrysanthemums, and daisies.“She is like an invisible collaborator of this house,” Kim says, “passing down so many valuable art pieces and objects. Sometimes she drops by to check on her garden.”A linen lampshade with antique brass wall light by Alice Palmer in the child’s bathroom, which features fittings by The Water Monopoly. The custom mirror has a frame coated in ottchil, Korean lacquer. Kim hopes it will be the same with her own daughters, raising them in such a creative environment, where work and life stir together. At their home, the custom birch dining table hosts client meetings by day and family dinners at night. The rustic white-oak-clad kitchen doubles as the employee canteen. Kim likes to hold court in the cloudlike living room, where she can keep an eye on matters both personal and professional. “Sometimes my daughter will come home from school when the client is still sitting across the table,” she says. “She is exposed to this work environment all the time. Sometimes she asks, ‘Oh, why is this chair here?’ or ‘You changed the color of something.’”A 1950s three-armed chandelier by Jean Touret anchors the primary bedroom where the side tables, bed, and screen are all custom made by studio HJRK. The artworks are by Gary Hume (hanging, right) and Robert Indiana. The primary bath features a custom marble sink and lacquered mirror by studio HJRK. The woodcut print on the counter is by Koo Ja Hyun and the custom sconces are slicked in Korean lacquer. By design, this home is a perpetual work in progress. “I don’t really see this house as finished,” she says. “I actually hope it never is—that would probably mean we’d stopped living inside it.”A Bishop stool by India Mahdavi and a sconce by Paavo Tynell in the materials library where custom oak shelves hold a wealth of fabric samples. A 1950s Mauri Almari pendant crowns the office, where Jean Prouvé Standard chairs pull up to custom desks. Organic Midcentury Brass MirrorVitra Standard SP Chair by Jean ProuvéThe marble sink in the powder room was custom designed by studio HJRK as were the Trapezoid powder-coated metal sconces. The mirror is made from a vintage picture frame. Kim’s mother designed the property’s garden, which once housed the Romanian ambassador. Kim with her daughter Roseline.