Soft Partitions in a 300-Square-Foot Home: Curtains and Function

In practice, when the client first told us they wanted curtains instead of a partition wall, we had our doubts. But in a Hong Kong flat of around 300 square feet, where you need to separate a bedroom from the living room without making the place feel boxed in, curtains turn out to be a genuinely practical solution. We recently renovated a Southside studio for a young owner who works from home often and loves hosting friends. They needed a space that could transform on demand. Taking a cue from a creative agency in LA, we installed a multi-coloured, semi-sheer curtain system, and the results were surprisingly good.

Why Choose Curtains Over a Partition Wall?

Many Hong Kong flats have a ceiling height of only around 8 feet, so putting up a brick partition wall both eats into the floor area and makes the space feel rigid and closed off. The beauty of a curtain divider is that you can open or close it at will: draw the curtains when you need privacy and a “room” appears; pull them back for a party and the living room returns. Curtains are also soft by nature, so they do not block light or airflow, and they can even help absorb sound, especially velvet or double-layer fabric. For this project we used semi-sheer polyester in white, blue and grey, hung from ceiling-mounted tracks. The tracks run along diagonals and curves, which let us split the space into flexible triangular zones.

Of course, curtain partitions do have physical limits. The most important one is that the ceiling has to be strong enough to carry the track: on a concrete ceiling you can screw it straight into the slab, but a drop ceiling needs a secondary frame built in first for reinforcement. Before fixing the track or adding such a frame, a qualified professional should confirm the ceiling’s load-bearing capacity. Sound insulation will also never match a solid wall, so if you need a bedroom that is genuinely quiet, it is worth pairing the curtains with a heavier fabric or an extra layer of acoustic felt. In this project we also laid cork tiles on the floor to help absorb sound, with the bonus that they are pleasantly soft underfoot.

The idea was originally inspired by Public Art Company in LA, who used a curtain system to turn their studio into what they called “muppets on acid,” riotously colourful. We brought the concept to Hong Kong, keeping the flexibility but toning the palette down to grey, blue and white, paired with wood furniture and concrete textures for a look that is clean rather than loud. Best of all, the owner can now open the curtains for yoga in the morning, close them for a Zoom call in the afternoon, and turn the space into a home cinema at night: the setup does exactly what they need it to.

If you are wrestling with a similar design dilemma, please contact our team to discuss your requirements. A curtain partition is not a cure-all, but for many compact homes in Hong Kong, it is a practical, low-cost option.