Home Tour: Chic wabi-sabi look for this 2-bedder at South Buona Vista

It pays to do your homework. Mr and Mrs Chua, a public servant and homemaker in their 30s carefully considered various criteria before selecting this penthouse unit located on the top floor of a low-rise block facing the Kent Ridge forest. Based on the location of the show flat, they were able to gauge exactly which section of the forest their unit would face. They studied the unit’s orientation to ascertain that they would not get any afternoon sun. Knowing that the ceiling height of their apartment would be 4.65m, they went around scouting for places with similar headroom that could help them visualise the space. All these were carried out during the construction of the development, well before they collected their keys.

Who Lives Here: A couple in their 30s
Home: A two-bedroom condominium Penthouse at South Buona Vista Road
Size: 861 sq ft
Interior Designer: Wolf Woof/ Carmen Tang

The couple also had a very clear idea on what they wanted for the interior design of their new home, which was entrusted to Carmen Tang, design director of Wolf Woof. As health-conscious individuals who love nature and who value experience over material possessions, they wanted a home that would embody Ikigai, a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason to live, and a reason for being. “Everything in our home must have a specific purpose for being there and they should bring us joy in some way,” says Mr Chua. They were adamant that their home should not be pretentious and were conscious to avoid over-accessorising.

The kitchen provided by the developer is located to the left of the main entrance. It is a compact, single bank set up comprising a small sink and a two-hob induction cooker, cabinets and drawers below and above the counter, as well as space for a refrigerator and oven. As the couple cooks on a regular basis and Mrs Chua also enjoys baking, Carmen extended the kitchen to what was originally designated as a study on the opposite side of the main door. She opted for a light-coloured wood laminate for the new kitchen extension and wrapped the carpentry in the original kitchen in a matching finish. Sleek, Japanese-look Kit Kat tiles on the backsplash tie both sections of the kitchen together.

Moving beyond the kitchen, the dining and living areas are elevated on a low platform to create layering and a sense of entering a different realm within the home. What appears to be an artwork on the wall to the right flips down to become a dining table with one end hinged against the wall. This two-in-one feature allows the dining table to fold away when not in use to free up space within the compact apartment. The living room is a minimalist and clean space with a re-upholstered sofa from the couple’s previous home, a small coffee table and a rug below.

The couple had an inkling that they wanted a loft to take advantage of the apartment’s high ceiling, but admitted to having concerns as to whether the addition of a loft would subtract from the grandeur of the space. To mitigate this, Carmen kept the structural elements of the loft to a minimal. She designed an open riser staircase supported by one central stringer beam and even dispensed with balustrades on the lower section of the staircase. Handrails along the top few steps are required for safety reasons. A frameless glass balustrade along the loft platform ensures safety while maintaining visual porosity.

Carmen comments: “It is really a very different feeling when you are high up there in the loft where you can enjoy the Zen-ness and peace and be at one with your soul.” Indeed, the loft is where Mrs Chua heads to when she needs to be quiet and ponder, or to enjoy a cup of tea and a book. This is also where Mr Chua likes to look out of the window and enjoy the greenery outside, especially when it is raining.

Removing the existing master bedroom door was Carmen’s attempt at enhancing the spatial flow between the bedroom and the living room so that they can “breathe”. The convex fluted panels on the feature wall behind the headboard is her way of deviating from run-of-the-mill fluted panels and to inject a softer touch into the bedroom.

The latter is the same rationale that applies to the arches around the home- from the television feature wall to the new doorway leading to the second bedroom-turned-study and the recessed niche demarcating where the original door used to be. The existing door had to be sealed up and moved further in to accommodate the new loft staircase.

The couple needed a dedicated workspace within the home, so the second bedroom was converted into a study. The wardrobe provided by the developer was hacked and, in their place, Carmen introduced a shallower wardrobe that would encroach less into the limited space. She also added a series of low, wall-hung cabinets and a wall-mounted desk below the window that overlooks the greenery outside. “As a designer, part of my challenge is to work with existing furniture pieces that the clients wish to bring over from their old place. In this case, apart from the sofa, they also wanted to keep their dining bench, which I managed to repurpose into a bench in the study room,” Carmen shares.