How to decorate a small tea house in hundred years old farmhouse ?

The decoration is a combination of East and West because it is the identity of Hongkongers. Some of the plates at lower part were picked in refuse centre. All the herbs were produced in The Little Garden Organic Farm nearby. The display was aimed at creating the feeling of professionalism in tea making and a lively atmosphere in the village.

The Little Garden Tea House sold herbal tea which all the ingredients were produced in the nearby The Little Garden Organic Farm, that was 100% “From Soil to Teapot”. I made a vertical integration of this ambitious business step by step.

I got this 100 years old farmhouse by luck ! It was abandoned by the owner who lived overseas. At that time, no one wanted it because they couldn’t see its potential. As I was considering running a One-person local movement in Hong Kong, I needed to make everything local. I push everything to the extreme like there was no killing one insect in the farm, the standard was higher than ordinary organic farming standard.

I worked day and night to create new farm product. This photo was when I experimented winter melon sugar for my herbal tea.

As there was a strong objective of creating values from the existing cultural symbols e.g the structure of the building, the interior design was under a lot of limitations. Then most of the efforts would put into ‘the decoration related’ issues. Abandoned antiques furniture were collected one piece after another during my daily walk within the village. Most of them were over 50 years and were picked from refuse centre during demolition of the old farmhouses. I also picked some bowls which were made 40 years age. Most villagers enjoy modern decoration in new build houses, there are nothing wrong with them. Usually, there are not space to keep the antiques and it seems that they don’t know the cultural and monetary value of them. This old farmhouse lived a family of six. When some of the family members came back from overseas, they told me the features of the farmhouse and how they used different part of it. There was a big bamboo hanging on the wall which I felt very strange, but then I knew it was used to hang the veggies and meat to avoid mouses because refrigerator wasn’t something common to people 50 years ago. I carefully observed the house and gradually created a character of it by balancing different factors.

All in all, my goal is to keep the original character of this old farmhouse as much as possible. It's not only a tea house, it's one of my life projects. The Little Garden Living project did create the imagination for people in the farming community and they saw the potential of village life. I tried to show the importance of preserving the traditional value through the tea house, the herbal tea and the brand 'Present ! Organic Tea' as the carriers of my message.

The early stage of the tea house.

At the time, it was still in investment stage, but I got a lot of positive feedback. Some foreign chefs and bartenders would come to learn about the local herbs and took photos in the teahouse. Media loved it, too. Finally, I got high-end restaurants as my clients and my retail branded products in shops.

Outside the TLG Tea House, I also sold seedlings.