Home Tour: $15,000 Renovation for TV host Lee Teng's 5-room HDB in Bishan - designed by his mum
Oh, memories! The Taiwan-born TV host lived in a 1,300 sq ft all-white, minimalist home designed by his mum in 2013.
By Natasha Ann Zachariah -
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Key to the design of TV emcee Lee Teng’s flat was building storage for his wardrobe and hobbies. When it came to doing up his bachelor pad, television host Lee Teng’s mother called the shots.
The Taiwanese-born Singaporean says: “I travel once every two to three weeks so my mum came from Taiwan to help me find a place. It took us about six months and she viewed about 50 units before we decided on this one.”
As of time of shoot, the celebrity was living in a 1,300 sq ft 5-room HDB flat in Bishan with his younger sister, Rainnie.
Lee Teng’s designer mum
TV host Lee Teng’s prized possessions include his cabinet of toys.
When it came to designing the space, he turned to his mother, who was a fashion designer when she was in her 20s. He says: “She had a lot of ideas for what the house could look like and she has an eye for design.”
She is also a stickler for detail. “To my mum, home is very important and it has to be comfortable, so she felt that if anything wasn’t nice, we had to change it,” he says.
Lee Teng’s walk-in wardrobe and shoe collection
TV host Lee Teng’s extensive wardrobe.
The result is an all-white minimalist look, broken up by feature walls such as a gold one on which the TV hangs, and a brick wall that faces the main door.
His mother also converted one of the rooms into a walk-in wardrobe because she did not want his bedroom to be too cluttered. He says: “She nags that I have too many clothes so she suggested storing them out of my bedroom, so that I can get a good night’s rest.”
Streetwear brand called ‘Stage’
The accountancy graduate from Nanyang Technological University used to own a streetwear shop in *Scape called Stage. His sister is a store manager there and he will open another fashion store there in June, called Ground Zero.
Outside his walk-in wardrobe is a customised shoe cabinet to store his 100 pairs of shoes. He bought most of his furniture from Ikea as they are “easy to assemble”, he says.
He estimates that he spent between $10,000 and $15,000 on renovations.
Carpet from Pakistan
A leopard-print carpet in the living room of TV host Lee Teng.
A prized possession is the leopard- print carpet in his living room, which he spotted at a carpet factory in Pakistan where he was filming a travel show called Life’s Big Factories in 2012. He paid US$100 (S$124) for the 3m-long carpet, which is half hand-stitched and half machine-made, and had it shipped back to Singapore.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit such a place and I probably won’t go back again. So, when I saw this carpet, which is really smooth, I immediately bought it.”
Something else he loves – his collection of toys. He had a cabinet built to house about 30 action toy figurines such as Iron Man and the teddy bear character from the 2012 American comedy film Ted. He also has various Bearbrick toys displayed around the house. He says he started collecting toys after visiting a toy fair two years ago.
Lee says: “When I’m free at home, I’ll take out my toys and play with them, like changing their postures or moving them around.”
Written by Natasha Ann Zachariah for The Straits Times in 2013.