Home Tour: $500,000 Renovation for Sol Luminaire co-founder’s 3-bedroom condo at Amber Road

Who Lives Here: Sol Luminaire co-founder in his 30s
Home: A 3-bedroom condominium at Amber Road
Size: 1,798 sq ft
Interior Designer: Spacebar Design

The popular phrase “East side, best side” reflects Easties’ pride and love for living in the Eastern region of Singapore. The co-founder of Sol Luminaire agrees for sure, having moved into his third consecutive home in the East. Apart from the location, his other criteria were that the apartment had to have a view of the sea, and there must be sufficient room for his three Siberian cats to roam around. “If my cats are comfortable, I am comfortable,” says the 38-year-old.

He is a firm believer that home is not a place, but a feeling. And the feeling that he was after for his new home is one that is open and visually and emotionally calming. To achieve this, he opted for a colour palette comprising dark, warm tones such as black, grey and ash that reflects his fashion sense and design influences from the likes of American fashion designer, Rick Owens.

There were two elements that he was very specific about in his brief to Jayelle Choo, the co-founder of Spacebar Design - wood engineered floors and glass bricks. He wanted her to incorporate these two elements into the interior design. “I just like the feeling of bare feet on wood engineered floors,” he shares.

Being in the business of architectural lighting does not necessarily mean that the home was designed around the lights. In most of the spaces, the lights were selected to complement the interior. “The home should not be overly bright, so we worked with layers to achieve the desired effect,” Jayelle explains.

Private lift lobby entrance foyer

The private lift lobby was designed to establish a sense of arrival that sets the tone for the rest of the home. Making its first appearance from the get-go is the wood engineered flooring that extends beyond the lift lobby across the entire home to maintain a sense of continuity.

A wall of glass bricks creates an ephemeral effect that is reinforced by a mirrored ceiling and soft lighting washing down the vertical glass surface. A glimpse of the kitchen beyond piques one’s curiosity and beckons you into the apartment.

The glass bricks meet the engineered wood in a band around the periphery of the lift lobby, blurring the boundaries of the space. In stark contrast to the smooth and glassy bricks, textured paint has been applied to the rest of the lift lobby walls and even the door leading into the apartment.

Inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion

The sense of openness within the apartment is palpable, heightened by a sweeping sea view beyond the spacious balcony. Jayelle drew inspiration from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. “I wanted to create an open pavilion concept where the spaces flow seamlessly,” she says.

In addition to the Barcelona Pavilion’s glass-steel-and-stone palette of materials, Jayelle also incorporated wood and cement into the design. The clarity in the way that they have been deployed around the home also emulates this precedent. Each material is used to define and distinguish one zone or space from another, or to establish a sense of continuity between spaces.

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Living room

The engineered wood flooring and walls with textured paint form the backdrop for a carefully curated assembly of elements in the living room. A black, L-shaped sofa in a cat-friendly non-scratch leather anchors the space. This is paired with the Press Table by Mario Tsai, whose sleek and thin metal silhouette contrasts with the sofa’s soft and rounded form. The iconic Wassily Chair from Knoll is a nod to Bauhaus design and the homeowner’s favourite spot to sit and listen to music.

Jayelle kept the television console simple, with clean lines and a rectangular shape, amplified by the choice of marble with dramatic veins in a greenish hue. Suspended in one corner of the living room is a cluster of lights from Sol Luminaire’s Boba Chain Pendant series. The steel chains and the spherical light orbs introduce a soft industrial edge that accentuates the surrounding finishes.

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Kitchen

Jayelle had her eye on the Mazha Lighting 5.2 by Mario Tsai right from the beginning and conceptualised the open concept kitchen around it.

It runs parallel to the kitchen island centrepiece below and strikes up a dialogue with the book matched marble island countertop - the same marble as the television console, which is perched above a glass brick base.

Inner sanctum

Beyond two sliding doors lie the inner sanctum of the apartment where the homeowner’s master bedroom, hobby room, two attached bathrooms and his walk-in wardrobe are housed.

It entailed major reconfiguration involving the hacking and shifting of walls and doors, and one of the bedrooms has been converted into part of the walk-in wardrobe. This strategy lends clarity to the zoning and is an ingenious way of getting around the constraint of existing structures in the home.

The columns are in an assortment of shapes and sizes and are positioned in various locations- both central and peripheral, around the home. Jayelle came up with a design scheme that integrates these disparate columns into the new spaces and features.

One of the most strategic moves was to conceal the linear, wall-like columns as part of the walk-in wardrobe that separates the shared and private spaces. This buffer zone is like a catwalk, with floor-to-ceiling, glass enclosed, built-in wardrobes running alongside, offering ample storage for the fashion focused homeowner.

The original third bedroom at one end is now part of the walk-in wardrobe.

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Master bedroom

The master bedroom enjoys the luxury of an L-shaped glass façade above the bay window that offers vistas of the surrounding neighbourhood and the sea and the horizon beyond. The homeowner requested that the bed be elevated on a platform, so that he can wake up to an even more spectacular view of the sea.

Two more Boba Chain pendant lamps can be found in the master bedroom. One is installed at the “floating” corner of the master bedroom where two glass panels meet at right angles, giving it visual focus. The other is hung above the dressing table that has the same marble as the television console and kitchen island. These lamps emit a subtle glow that gives the room a cosy and calming ambience.

Switches and electrical points have been integrated into the headboard against two vertical, recessed, mirrored strips with the same mirrored finish as the lift lobby ceiling. On one side, a Mario Tsai Grid wall light mounted against the dark wood veneer adds depth and accentuates the wall texture. “Its linear geometry reinforces the overall vertical design language,” Jayelle highlights.

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Bathrooms

Both the master bathroom and the bathroom attached to the hobby room feature a similar palette of colours and materials to ensure consistency and cohesiveness.

The master bathroom has been expanded into the original master bedroom space to create a more luxurious bathroom that can rival a five star hotel. The vanity with two basins is surrounded by the same marble as the television console and kitchen island that convey a sense of indulgence.

$500,000 Renovation

All in all, the renovation came up to about $500,00, with about $10,000 of this budget being allocated to the lights alone. The design and renovation took about nine months and the homeowner moved into his new pad in January 2025, before the lunar new year.

Can’t get enough of this home? We spoke with the homeowner to understand more about his design thinking and favourite home pieces here:

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