Daudi bungalow@ hkif

The interior of the house is focused around a large central hallway serving as the main avenue of traffic and entrance area to the adjacent rooms. The hallway flows into a large, wide staircase that provides the main means of egress from the entertainment area of the house to the private rooms on the second floor. Four formal rooms with sixteen foot ceilings, pocket doors, fireplaces and tall windows form the main block of the building. On the first floor, the hallway and front parlor still retain the original wallpaper from 1882 with classic Anglo-Japanese asymmetrical designs and exotic motifs. The other rooms have been redecorated to approximate the original wallpaper and paint colors.

As you enter through the front door on the east facade, you pass into a grand hallway. The wallpaper is Anglo-Japanese design with Roman and Greek themes in the frieze on the ceilings and walls. The predominant colors are dark with tan and gold highlights, creating an interesting contrast to the original interior trim painting of ashen pinks, tans, pale blues and black detailing. This combination of colors is repeated throughout both floors of the house. The tall, heavy, varnished wood doors have as the top panel, colored glass panes of amber, blue and pink, in a geometric design. On either side of the main doors are smaller, longer versions of the colored glass windows. The doors and small windows have molded surrounds of painted wood with bulls-eye cornerblocks and decorative accents on the door surrounds and on the baseboard. The door knobs, plates, and hinges are brass with raised Eastlake style ornament.

Off the main hallway, to the right, is a small sitting room. The fireplace, situated on the interior wall facing east, has a tall mantel of birchwood with turned spindles flanking a rectangular mirror supporting a tapered hood. The hearth is set with dark patterned tiles of Eastlake designs with light blue and white floral tiles surrounding the firebox. The ceiling is painted pressed metal with a curved crown molding. The tall windows are of the Queen Anne style, banded at the top by a panel of colored lights (blue, amber, purple, red). The height of the window is emphasized by a dado panel of wood with molded trim beneath each window. This style of window is repeated throughout the fenestration of the main block of the house.

On the south side of the hall is the large front parlor. This room contains original wallpaper including ceiling panels of small birds and orange flowers with vibrant leaves of green and yellow set upon a light blue background. The main body of the wallpaper is shades of tan and brown with light blue highlights. The fireplace is on the west wall of the room with a mantel similar to the one in the front sitting room. On the hearth are dark tiles of geometric designs with lighter colored tiles of a thistle design around the firebox. This room retains the original Brussels carpeting laid when the house was built.

Continuing down the hallway, there is a center arch of decorative painted columns and molding with ornamental keystone designs. The haunch of the arch is angular rather than curved. The arch is formed by two freestanding columns flanked on either side by a smaller arch with engaged pillars. The side arches form decorative surrounds for the classic statuary that was placed in this area. The archway serves not only as a support for the upper floors, but as a visual break to make the main hallway feel less imposing.