VENUS RISING

Entrepreneur and mother-of-one Kylie Chan lets us into her world. A transformative journey, she gracefully navigates the intersection of introspection and physical wellbeing, embodying a harmonious fusion of wisdom and self-love.

- ZENA KHAN

Every home has a heart. A space or feature that defines it. At Kylie Chan’s home, nestled in the tranquil forest of a Kuala Lumpur heritage residency area, this heart is arguably the turquoise swimming pool that stretches through her green garden. Set against a backdrop of frangipani and rambutan trees with lush overhanging orchid branches, this pool inspired the inside/outside design Kylie and her husband, Liam Harkness, went for when renovating their house. Opening up black framed accordion glass doors creates a fluidity between spaces, with differing patterns in the poured concrete floors the only delineation. Nature and light filter through, harking at a sense of well-balanced clean living.

A seamless bond between protected seclusion and the natural environment was not simply an aesthetic choice. Kylie and Liam purposefully chose to construct their main living space in this manner, shaping it around their lives and daily pursuits, from gardening to swimming to drawing with their four-year-old daughter, Ruiya, while sitting on huge floor cushions at a low pool-side table. As I exclaim over the adorableness of splashes of paint and confident strokes of crayon on Ruiya’s ‘art desk’, Kylie shares that it was custom made for Ruiya from the crate in which ‘Pica Pica’, an artwork by French contemporary artist Patrick Rubinstein, was shipped to their home. Made with the intention to safeguard art, this crate is now the foundation from which more art is created.

SOURCES OF JOY