Jay Sim home
The living room is jazzed up with a furry rug as well as interesting, colourful accessories.
 

While other couples headed to furniture stores to pick up new pieces for their homes, Ms Pearl Leong and her husband Jay Sim searched for jettisoned items in their neighbourhood dumpster.

About three years ago, they were hard-pressed to find furniture they liked to furnish their HDB maisonette in Clementi with, which they were moving into. Ms Leong, 39, says: “We did go to the furniture stores, but the selection was quite limited and we didn’t like anything we saw. They were too expensive or looked mass-produced.”

The rubbish bins proved to be a goldmine – and the genesis of a thriving furniture business. The couple used to work in public relations, but quit their jobs to set up a photography business in 2010, and then last year, a vintage furniture store, The Rocking Chair. It is housed in 80 Playfair Road in Paya Lebar.

Mr Sim restores furniture while Ms Leong takes care of marketing and sales. Mr Sim’s older sister Tiffany, who is based in London, helps source for vintage furniture there.

The business idea arose when friends who visited their new home liked the furniture they had restored. The pieces include an old-school cane rocking chair in two candy-pop hues of pink and purple and a wood-framed chair, which Mr Sim sanded down and finished with some Danish oil for wood.

Jay Sim home
 

There is also a standing industrial fan, commonly found in coffee shops. He spray-painted the blades yellow and body of the fan matte black. The couple used to work on these home projects in the basement carpark of a condominium where Ms Leong’s parents lived.

Mr Sim, 36, who learnt how to restore furniture from YouTube videos, says the furniture is not difficult to find – many people own old furniture, but toss them out when they hanker for new pieces.

“Often, the furniture isn’t badly damaged. It just needs sanding down and a fresh coat of paint,” he notes.

It took the couple about six months to find all the furniture they wanted. They also made some of the pieces themselves. For instance, camping kerosene lamps were turned into hanging lights over their dining table.

Jay Sim home
 

A sentimental project involved creating lights for the stairwell out of two birdcages. One was no longer used by Mr Sim’s father and the couple bought a new one to make a pair. The cages were spray-painted and draped with fake vines from their 2005 wedding.

At the same time, they gutted the interiors of their maisonette, doing away with the old tiled floors and banisters. They opted for tiles which resemble cement flooring and accessorised with the furniture they found – and bought – to create an industrial-vintage vibe for the 1,550 sq ft apartment.

Jay Sim home
Photos from Mr Sim’s personal photography project, Adventures With Henretta, are placed at the top of the stairs. 
 

Mr Sim says: “It was a mish-mash of our styles and we wanted a bit of everything. We mixed textures and materials, and we didn’t stick to a theme.

“Maybe it’s the karung guni look that we have, because each piece of furniture is so different from the others,” he quips, referring to the rag-and-bone man style of collecting everything.

While decorating, they found their palette was mainly monochrome – they have an all-black kitchen with metal-top counters – and wanted pops of colour to lighten up the home.

Aside from accessories such as a furry lime-green rug and a coffee table made of coloured planks to look like a wooden pallet, the couple hung bright posters and photographs taken by Mr Sim.

Jay Sim home
Retro items such as a coin phone (right below) are part of the home owners’ quirky collection. 
 

And to make the apartment feel bigger, they removed the living room’s window grilles. Besides letting in the breeze, the windows offered an unblocked view of the neighbouring lush forest.

They admit their picture-worthy house is not child-friendly, which is why their son Jax threw a spanner in the works when he came along nine months ago. The couple also have a cat.

Jay Sim home
Jay Sim is seen on the left with his wife Pearl Leong and son Jax. 
 

They had to babyproof the place with safety gates and door stops.

Ms Leong says: “We are keeping our eyes peeled for things that are less intrusive, such as invisible grilles. But of course, we’ll make them funky – such as spray-painting the gates – so that they blend into the home.”

Written by Natasha Ann Zachariah for The Straits Times. Photos: The Straits Times. This article was first published in 2014.