Hush Home Co-Founder Stephanie Huen on Quality Sleep in Hong Kong

Hush Home, founded by wife-and-husband duo Stephanie Huen and Rick Chen, has made a name for itself in the mattress market with its commitment to quality sleep.

In July, the brand opened a new retail location in Telford Plaza, Hong Kong. It offers a unique shopping experience, allowing potential customers to spend 30 minutes in a private space to nap and try out what sets Hush Home above the rest.

An internationally qualified sleep expert, Stephanie shares her vision for helping Hong Kong people sleep better with Hush Home and how we can get better rest in our rushed and busy city. 

Why does Hong Kong need Hush Home and quality organic bedding, mattresses?

As proud Hong Kongers, my husband Rick and I realised years ago that Hong Kong needs better sleep. To get better sleep, we all want a comfortable bedroom furnished with high quality sleep essentials that are natural, safe, and affordable.

In the previously dichotomised sleep market where you could only get quality at a high price or purchase something priced well but lower in quality, we felt there’s no reason we shouldn't be able to buy something high quality and organic while staying within a reasonable price range.

That’s what we were set out to do with Hush Home. We wanted to offer natural, high quality sleep products at an affordable price.

What makes a mattress organic?

We can call our mattress “certified organic” because it is – we’ve painstakingly selected natural and upscalable materials to create it.

Our new Organic Mattress uses safe, natural materials to help our customers get better sleep. The mattress has been handmade layer by layer with a special blend of natural materials, such as organic cotton, natural bamboo fibre, and organic latex.

These layers come together in a beautiful mattress designed especially for Hong Kong’s sleep preferences and the city’s infamously humid weather: the mattress is breathable, supportive, and responsive.

What is your mission to get Hong Kongers to sleep better?

Hong Kong is such a fast-paced, go-getter, nightlife-driven city that it’s incredibly easy to neglect and deprioritise sleep. I know, because for years that was me.

Quality sleep gives our bodies a chance to reset and for our brains to clear out metabolic waste for a fresher mind for the next day! Not only can great sleep make the next morning better, [but it also] has such an influence on our short-term [and] long-term health.

What struggles and success have you seen growing a lifestyle brand in Hong Kong?

As a small business owner, I would say ups and downs come on almost a daily basis. We started and built Hush Home in the years of protests and COVID-19, and that in and of itself presented many challenges and uncertainties.

The past few years of COVID-19, challenges have come from smaller issues like not having enough manpower in our retail shops, to bigger ones like our products getting stuck at customs or partners running out of business and owing us money.

For me, success is very simple. I feel it every time a customer tells me how much better now that they sleep on one of our mattresses, or that they crave going home to their Hush bed after traveling and staying in amazing 5-star hotels.

Our city likes to travel. What does Hush Home do to counter the effects of jet lag?

Beating jet lag means adapting your circadian rhythm to your new location. The best free tool that we have to help with that? The sun!

Appropriate sunlight exposure at the right time tells your circadian rhythm how to schedule your internal clock. For long-haul flights, I try my best to choose an itinerary where I arrive during the day (the earlier, the better), so that I can be in the sun for as long as possible before dark.

How does Hush Home ensure that we can sleep cool in Hong Kong?

One of our guiding design considerations is the climate in which our customers sleep in constant humidity. To build that consideration into our choice of product materials and structural designs is one of the advantages we have as a locally grown brand.

Temperature regulation is essential to our sleep quality; the cooler we feel, the better we snooze. When we design our mattresses, we use both naturally cooling materials and ones designed to dissipate heat. All our materials and fabrics are chosen to be breathable.  

If you would like to know more about Hush Home and their award-winning products, check out their website.