In a way, this place is a misnomer because it's a store for housewares and home decor. Then again,…read moreyou could say all of the items in the store are waiting for homes so they're homeless. Or, you could just agree that this place is just frikken hipster and leave it at that. I enjoy browsing through this store because they have such fun brands (Fred, for example.) You can find interesting kitchenware like egg yolk separators, neat picture frames, cool light fixtures... you get the gist. To be honest, I can't think of a similar place in Singapore that compares, and that is also in an affordable price range like Homeless is. This probably explains why my husband and I ended up buying one of those funky looking dusters, a pretty picture frame, and a moosehead-shaped cutting board (that's right- I found a moose in Hong Kong!) I wouldn't put this store on your must-visit list, especially if you're not in the market for home goods, but considering I can't find similar styles in Singapore and prices are a good here, a visit to Homeless is always welcome!

You have all the greatest and most useless home decor and furniture right in one shop. Yes, I said…read moreuseless. Well given the vibe and hipster-ness on Gough Street, Homeless certainly has its fame. Everyone loves spending some time here woo-ing the design of things they have. It's a shame I'm a strong believer of "Form follows Function", and overwhelming designs are just not my thing. Also, whenever you buy your first item here... it's so great it would definitely stands out at your apartment. And the only logical solution is... buy more. Make your house like a designer's house. Ops. Before you know it, you now have a dozen different expensive and useless decors at home. So yeah, the a few times I wasn't window shopping, I came here and looked for specific items. The staff were so chilled that they didn't seem to care about if you got what you wanted to buy (imagine the opposite of the "shadow-sales" at SaSa). I wanted a box. Wooden, metal, jewelry box, don't care. Staff showed me the only two "boxes" they had. Of course they were designer boxes and didn't quite serve the purpose of being a box. I will come back again only if I buy gifts for friends, because that gonna be best use of useless decors.

Visited this location with my Mom to help her spruce up her apartment. This location is huge with…read moremany floors. Great variety in product. Very easy to get to via MTR.

Life Goods is one of those stores that should be on every corner. It is a "general" store that just…read moreseems to stock everything that one would need for life! What I like, is that provide across a number of household needs; home-wares like Japan Home Centre, stationery like the mom and pop shops, hardware like the guys on Wellington Street. It seems that if you need anything, you can get it here. It is moderately cramped in the store, I suppose the stock has to go somewhere, so if you have shopping bags or a ruck sack, be careful! There are two floors, with mainly stationery, kitchen-ware, and hard ware downstairs, and bigger home-wares upstairs, like ironing boards and plastic boxes. Some of the store highlights include; photo albums, plastic boxes, paint pens, plastic spiral key chains, lots of carabiners, toys, and decorations, and a few items that I would not have expected, including; gas torches and soldering kit for plumbing, and thick transparent plastic sheeting, like stuff they drop down the sides of the junk boats to stop the splashes coming in. The staff are very friendly, if not a bit difficult to spot as they don't wear any uniform, and will help you to get out stock, or cut rolls of linoleum. The prices are very very reasonable, basically cheap as chips, so fill your boots! The store is also very close to Tin Hau station, so only a short walk if you are carrying a plastic box full of stuff!

Ikea, located in the Causeway Bay area, was downstairs to the hotel that we had stayed at (Park…read moreLane Hotel). This review can only comment on the food bistro section as we opted to grab a few treats during our stay in HK. The food bistro at Ikea is located on the basement floor. They are completely cashless where you do have to order from a kiosk. Once you finish ordering from a kiosk, you bring your receipt to the food pick up area and staff will prepare your food for you. What was neat was that Ikea in Hong Kong serves breakfast items, lunch, as well as desserts. Their soft serves also often change from time to time and we were lucky that they were offering a triple pistachio sundae during our time in HK. There is a small space (standing only) with tables where you can enjoy your food items as well. We stopped by Ikea on a weekday afternoon to grab some triple pistachio sundaes. What was frustrating was that we did have cash we wanted to use, however, the food bistro is cashless only where there was not even a cashier where we order from. We were forced to use the kiosk and pay by card. After paying I wasn't sure how it worked with picking up our sundaes but I figured that we would need to go to the food pick up area. Once we gave our receipt to the correct staff, she made our sundaes quickly. The pistachio sundae was delicious and full of pistachio flavour. A nice treat on a hot HK day for sure!

IKEA is literally right downstairs from the Park Lane Hotel where we stayed, so we made a point of…read morestopping by for ice cream--because that's kind of our thing. In Taiwan, we really loved their black sesame ice cream, which was rich and creamy, so we were curious to try it in HK. Here, they offer the "yuen yeung" flavor, a split of Hong Kong-style milk tea and coffee. You can also order either flavor on its own, but we went with the mix. Unfortunately, the milk tea side was quite weak--very subtle in flavor and more icy than creamy. The coffee side, on the other hand, was much stronger and more noticeable. It cost HKD 8 (a little over USD $1), which isn't bad for a unique flavor, especially for those who haven't tried it before. We didn't explore the rest of the store this time, as we were really just there for the ice cream.

This is a cute little store with an eclectic mix of merchandize, from home goods to clothing and…read moreaccessories to tea leaves. They use a lot of Hong Kong elements in their design, such of photos of the 60s on a placemat, mahjong or neon signs for a tote bag, double happiness for a cup lid, an apron that says kitchen god or open rice. If you speak Cantonese, you can appreciate the humor of some of the designs. However, not everything has a tourist look. Travelers can definitely come here to get some nice souvenirs to take home. Compare to what you may find in places like Stanley and Mong Kok, the stuff here is made with higher quality and with a less common designs. Naturally, expect to pay more and no price haggling.

I'm guessing everybody's familiar with Homeless, the eccentric but often pricey lifestyle store. If…read moreyou're into that kind of fun, creative stuff, it's worth checking out lesser-known Lost & Found, which is similar to Homeless but in my opinion sells more practical things rather than quirky items that you'd use once or twice and then set aside. Lost & Found isn't hard to locate (ha!). It's at phase two of Olympian City, and you'll definitely walk past it when you take the bridge to phase three. There's another store at The One in TST, but I've never been to that one. This means that if you live on the Island or in New Territories, coming to Lost & Found may be a little bit of a trip. If I had just moved in to a new place or am redecorating parts of my apartment, I would definitely make a stop at Lost & Found. I like to think that things here can be classes into two categories, in my opinion - the vintage-y stuff and the more modern, colorful items. I love anything with that rugged, brassy look, and Lost & Found has tons of that in its vintage section. I can totally imagine decking my living room out on their gorgeous photo frames and little cupboards! For the more... FUNctionalist ones out there (sorry, I couldn't resist!), Lost & Found is big on colorful, modern-looking kitchen supplies. There are lots of colorful, disco ball-like bowls and plates that can jazz up any dinner party. Kitchen essentials like soup spoons and spatulas come in all sorts of different colors here, so if you're not one to settle with all that boring kitchen ware, this is your place! Another thing really worth checking out here are the clocks. They have loads of vintage hanging clocks featuring adorable animals like polar bears and pugs. Others are attached to a little countryside cottage and those are really cute too. I wanted to get one for a friend for her birthday, but as per Chinese traditions, it's considered sending somebody bad luck if you gift them a clock for their birthday. But just like Homeless, Lost & Found does not come cheap. One of those clocks I mentioned will set you back at least $300, and the more intricate ones with the cottage house are about $480. Although there was a sign outside that said 'on sale - up to 50% off', I didn't see a lot of items that actually were on sale! Overall, this is more of a place to browse and window-shop than to do actual shopping for me. Maybe one day if I'm thinking of redecorating, and if that coincides with them doing a massive sale, then I'll definitely pick up an item or two here!

Practicality and utility seem to be the only concern for most Hongkongers here when it comes to…read moreinterior design. However, who says we cannot make it both fun and practical? Come to Lost & Found, which is a unique lifestyle concept store where you may find all sort of things including furniture, gifts, home accessories, etc. It's flagship is in Tsim Sha Tsui but this one is not as crowded as the one there since it is at a corner on the second floor of Olympian City (which is currently undergoing reconstruction). They have over hundreds of different brands from all over the world like Koziol, Fred, Magis, Umbra. They also have local designs as well. I personally adore the clocks there with all of them having their own design. All are rather unique and innovative. At this modern age where most people tend to use their smart phone as their telling time device, clocks may one day become obsolete. However, once you have seen what they have here, you may buy more clocks than you actually need. Next time when you are looking for home accessories or gifts for your friends, this place will not disappoint you. Warning though: you may probably end up like a kid in a candy store with so many creative products on display here. So... worry about your purse.

Dulux Colour Solution Centre is one of those stores that I never thought I'd need to enter or even…read moreknow of its existence. It's not often that I need to repaint my walls, or fix a broken tile - that's usually left to the landlord. That was until I accidentally dragged a bed frame against the entire length of my bedroom wall. I found Dulux much by chance. I wasn't looking for it as I knew I still had a couple months before my contract on the flat ended. Upon seeing it I thought, why not? I entered and realised how much out of my depth that I was. The different types of paints for different types of pain jobs, all sorts of glue, and at least fifty different paint brushes... or are they brushes for glue? I tried asking the lady behind the counter but her English, better than my Cantonese, was not perfect. While exploring the shop I managed to find a section that sold tape. The sticky kind. You don't know how long I've been looking for tape - much of my free time I'm working on video or photo shoots and tape is super handy. So instead of buying a bucket of paint and some brushes I ended up leaving with a bag full of tape. However, the scratch on my bedroom wall is a constant reminder that I need to research what paint to buy, as soon as I know that I'll head straight back to Dulux for I'm sure, with all the buckets they have, they have what I need.

Hong Kong has a surprising lack of Paint stores. The ones that do exist are tiny and dingy and…read morespecialize in hardware and supplies. Paint chips, if they have them, are old, faded, are on a ring and lean toward the pastels and tropical. This paint shop in Wan Chai has more variety, updated paint cards and will mix sample pots in 15 minutes (I had them mix 10 last time I was there). It's with a trip even from Kowloon.

Kind of a "sliver" of a store. Literally meaning that it is a small slim store front that goes…read moreback deep versus having two floors or being wide. Such a sliver of a store front, we almost missed it. If you have never been to a G.O.D., absolutely go, you are going to love it. From necklaces, to clothes, to mouse pads, to shower curtains, to flip flops...the have a little bit of everything and most is Hong Kong themed in one way or another. It has the exact same goods at other G.O.D. stores around Hong Kong, but for some reason this one seems more lazily put together for the layout of their retail shop. The GOD in Central on Hollywood Road is a much better layout and much more inviting. This location almost seems like an orphan to the G.O.D. family. I like the G.O.D. offerings (really have some cool Hong Kong specific items that are cool for yourself or great for gifts), but simply wish they rotated stock more with "new" stuff. It seems like from month to month, season to season, I see the same stuff.