South Korean actress Gong Hyo-jin is known for keeping her personal life relatively low-key, which has led to the beloved romantic-comedy actress being labeled “notoriously private.” So, imagine our surprise when Gong recently shared an intimate house tour through her own YouTube channel.
Gong has always had the natural essence of an it girl. Before her acting debut, she worked as a model. It wasn’t long before she made a splash on the big screen through a debut role in Memento Mori, a film that is still cited by aspiring filmmakers and cinephiles in South Korea today as a cult classic. Thanks to the film’s critical success, Gong started to receive calls from agencies, and the rest is history.
As an actress, Gong is most known for her quirky dream-girl charms. She favours multifaceted characters whose personalities are as rich as the stories they tell—such as a single mother in When the Camellia Blooms, a social outcast in Missing, and a psychiatrist who falls in love with a schizophrenic in It’s Okay, That’s Love.
Inside her warm, eclectic new home, Gong continues to explore her evolving signature style. Her home is a visual treatise about how to create a practical space that also feels individual and alive, no matter the budget or square footage. Vibrant colours, bold patterns, tactile textures and an unmissable vibe that is riddled with nostalgia—this is Gong’s home in a nutshell. Below, we look at some of the best interior tips that we gathered from Gong Hyo-jin’s house tour.
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Play with contrast
Gong doesn’t shy away from using contrast in her home. In her living room, she uses different paint colours to divide her walls vertically, setting her dining area apart.
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Play with contrast
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Play with contrast
Gong organises the different zones further by adding in mismatched curtains and contrasting tiles, while still keeping the room cohesive and put together.
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Swap out overhead light for mood lighting
When it comes to the ‘big light‘ debate, we’re on Gong’s side. Overhead lighting is often jarring, overly bright and possibly harsh for our eyes at the end of a long day.
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Swap out overhead light for mood lighting
In her home, Gong ditches large ceiling installations in favour of multiple, smaller sources of light. She dots her home with multiple light sources—think accent lighting, standing floor lamps, both big and small table lamps, and more.
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Swap out overhead light for mood lighting
She even has a vintage magenta table lamp from Ikea hanging in her bathroom. According to Gong, “It’s my space—so I call the shots.”
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The more whimsy, the better
Kitschy statement pieces, unique knick-knacks, or oddly shaped items will add a dose of fun to any space. Gong does an incredible job furnishing her home with such pieces, eschewing rigid colour schemes or branded furniture in favour of personal taste.
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The more whimsy, the better
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Embrace open shelving
It’s a big commitment, since open shelving requires a considerable amount of cleaning and dusting. But nothing beats seeing everything we love on proud display.
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Embrace open shelving
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Embrace open shelving
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Embrace open shelving
Gong’s open shelves are stocked with her favourite tchotchkes, handcrafted ceramics, and a growing teapot collection amassed from all around the world.
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Balance bold colours with a minimalist backdrop
Gong clearly doesn’t shy away from colour. Her bedroom is decked out in her current obsession: red-and-white stripes. She got her bedding custom-made at a popular fabric market in Seoul.
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Balance bold colours with a minimalist backdrop
Equally, she embraces colour in the living room, keeping the rest of the room minimal and muted for balance.
