Home Tour: $100,000 Colourful renovation for a family’s 3-bedroom condo on Balestier Road
“I don’t think any home is ever complete. Elements—tangible and intangible—are constantly added, edited or removed. Just as our own stories are written over time, a home lives, grows, and evolves. We’ve all felt it instinctively—the aura or vibe of a place.”
By Shannon Osztonits -
Share this article
An expression of life…Of personalities…Of worldly travels and places that this family has called their home…Of joy.
Dazzling in splashes of bright colours (whether it’s a piece of furniture or choice of wall colour), cultural influences, plants, varying textures, and heritage items; home IS where the heart is within this family’s warm and vibrant 3-bedroom condominium.
“Unlike most magazine homes, ours doesn’t look like no one lives here,” the homeowners say. “A home is a breathing, evolving space that influences the mood of everyone who steps inside, while also reflecting our lives, passions and personalities.”
With a serious passion for interior design, wife Madhu goes to bed dreaming about it. Self-designing this abode, it goes to show how fervour can lead to something rather beautiful.
Not sticking to one particular style, the home is a confluence of design tastes and experiences that reflect the family.
“There’s a mix of joie de vivre, but also modern classic, global, eclectic and Indo-colonial influences,” explains Madhu.
“Each room has its own colour which gives it a distinct personality. And they work together,” adds husband Harish. “For example, indigo is a secondary colour in the living room but a dominant colour in the kitchen.”
Who Lives Here: A couple in their 40s, their helper, a 7-year-old boy, a one-year-old girl, and their Shiba Inu, Mishka. The wife is Head of Marketing and Communications in a large law firm, and the husband is AVP of Delivery in a global IT solutions firm.
Home: 3-Bedroom Condo
Size: 1,421 sq ft
Interior designer: Self-designed by Madhu. Contractor: Ideas Exchange. Carpentry: Pebbletree Designs. Custom design pieces: Louve Luxe
The property comprises three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a helper’s room, a foyer, a kitchen, and a living and dining area.
Size was a big selling point for them with this property, but it required a gutting to achieve their vision. They replaced floors, pipes, and air conditioning outlets, redid all the cabinetry, and completely redid the kitchen and the two bathrooms.
Madhu is from Singapore, and Harish is originally from India. The couple met in the USA, where they were both living at the time, got married, and eventually decided to move back home to Singapore. Now, they love travelling — favourite destinations are Bali’s Ubud and Tokyo, Japan — and spending time in nature with their kids.
“I love that our home is unique—colourful, eclectic and joyous. It refuses to fit neatly into any one category, and that’s exactly the intention. Some pieces are new, some pre-loved, some pricier and some wonderfully affordable,” explains Madhu when asked about the home’s furniture collection.
“I’ve mixed different eras. Nothing is too precious...our kids and dogs have left their marks everywhere, and that makes the home alive and real.”
Vibrant Living Space
Harish is also somewhat of a secret cinephile, and especially loves the living room for when he can sneak in a cheeky movie come early mornings before the rest of the family rises.
A standout custom-built velvet mustard couch is especially for Harish.
“I really enjoy holding the kids on the spacious sofa before sunrise every morning,” says Harish. “It’s basically my spot any time of the day.”
The sofa is paired with two reupholstered chairs in a purple magenta. Above the mustard couch is a painting of two monks, which Madhu picked up 16 years ago in Phuket. This wall is done up in wainscoting for a timeless touch. The standing lamp is from Lim’s.
Overall, the space is a celebration of bright colours, balanced with copious natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows. Even the live lemon tree would agree — which has been thriving and producing lemons for a year and a half now.
Bone Inlay Headboard
Next to the couch is a bone inlay headboard, made from ivory with a black background. Now serving as a heritage piece, it was purchased with the intention to keep for a very long time.
Adding a whimsical feel to the space is a section of a vintage painting turned into wallpaper, taking up one block of wainscoting above the furniture item.
Open-Concept Dining Area
The dining area shares the same floor space as the living room. With a large floor plan to play with, both hold their own, but still allow for open conversations. Flooring in both spaces is new and was replaced with vinyl.
“Our dining area flows naturally from the living space and reflects how we live—casual, conversational, and rarely formal,” the homeowners say. “Nothing is too precious. It’s a space that’s seen many full bellies, midnight conversations, and friends falling off chairs in laughter.”
The dark-coloured dining table from Ikea balances off the space’s brighter shades. Dining chairs are mix-matched: a combination of two black chairs from Hock Siong and the four cream upholstered ones are from a random shop in Jurong East.
A bubble-shaped chandelier adds character, as does the macrame tasselled wall piece (bought from Amazon USA).
Completing the space is a collection of family snapshots decorating the wall opposite.
The Indigo Kitchen
Not even the kitchen escapes colour, with its gorgeous indigo-coloured cabinets (constructed from wood and laminate), brass handles, pink pearlescent backsplash tiles, and light grey and white triangle checkered floor tiles.
(All tiles in the entire home are from Hafary.)
“I also painted Mughal-motif flowers on the kitchen doorframe,” says Madhu.
The family added pull-out tables to the kitchen cabinetry to place their groceries and hot appliances. It’s converted into a place where the husband and wife’s children love to snack or eat dinner.
Eclectic Master Bedroom
“The enormous bed in our master bedroom is our children’s playground and hides luggage and winterwear,” jokes Harish. “Madhu designed it to be tall, so she tiptoes to climb on it.”
Like many of the home’s standout features, the scallop-shaped headboard was another one of Madhu’s ideas. They worked with Louve Luxe on the design, with embroidered patterns of birds and trees decorating it. The wall above is adorned with repainted picture frames (intentionally the same colour as the wall) by Madhu for texture and dimension.
Green hanging pendant lights are from Anthropology. The bedside lamp is from Tailor Bee, and the solid wood table next to the king-sized bed is from Hock Siong.
Walk-In Wardrobe
“Our bedroom is also dotted with post-its—affirmations, inside jokes, strange little reminders,” Madhu says. “My niece once asked why. I told her that during times of great tragedy, those messages kept us from shattering completely. This became the start of a conversation about resilience.”
All of the floors across the bedrooms were replaced with parquet flooring. Leading to the master en suite is a little passageway-meets-walk-in-closet.
A Grand Primary En Suite
Welcome to Madhu’s favourite space in the home. Overflowing with light, it’s truly a happy space for this wife. The bathroom is also the perfect size for all the kids, dogs, and Mom to convene together, where plenty of memories have been made, and the kids especially love their bath time.
Afforded more space than is the typical Singaporean bathroom, the primary en suite comprises a bath, shower, toilet and vanity.
With its all-marble effect (which are actually large-format tiles from Hafary), this room has a very grand-esque feel. Walls are painted in “Pinky Swear” from Benjamin Moore Aura paint collection, and the shade transforms colour as each hour passes.
“I love it for east-facing rooms,” advises Madhu.
The vanity counter is sintered stone, backed by bright pink cupboards below (constructed from wood with a laminate finish). The herringbone-shaped tiles work well with the marble-like bathroom aesthetic.
Storybook-Inspired Kids’ Bedroom
The shared kiddos’ bedroom expresses a sweet story-book feel, enhanced by the tree gathering wallpaper, the bookshelf opposite the trundle bed (with storage underneath), as well as the choice of painted wainscoting (Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore), lending a soft, cosy and airy feel.
“Our seven-year-old has moved on from an ancient history phase and is now into crystals and geology. Interestingly, he’s also fascinated by Buddhist and Hindu mantras—I am not sure how,” the husband and wife detail lovingly. “His crystals sit along the window ledge, catching the sunlight and casting tiny rainbows across the room.”
Their bedside table is very similar to the one in the living area, and is also bone inlay. The wing armchair is from Ikea’s iconic STRANDMON series; however, they replaced the legs with rocking ones (bought from Etsy).
Playful Guest Bathroom
The guest bathroom boasts marble-like floor tiles that extend halfway up the walls, finished off in a navy blue paint. Adding the final touch is a piece of art by Richa Kashelkar, who Madhu specifically commissioned to do this piece for her.
This bathroom includes a shower, toilet and vanity with its funky green drawers (constructed from wood with a laminate finish). The counter is sintered stone.
Showcasing the couple’s eclectic taste are two round pink wall lights on either side of the vanity, or as the family likes to call them, the “boob lights.”
The Pink Foyer
The foyer, with its creamy rose wall colour, is perhaps the perfect foretelling of what to expect from this home.
Contrary to what some believe, the print is not wallpaper; instead, it was hand-painted by Madhu, drawing inspo from a design she saw online.
The rattan cupboard was a Taobao find, which acts as their storage cupboard for bags, sunglasses, caps, sunscreen, insect repellent, and all other goodies they typically grab before heading out. It perfectly fits the wall’s 1-meter-wide dimensions just by chance.
“The wall hanging of the word happiness in Chinese characters is from Harish’s bachelor pad,” details the couple. “It has moved countries and homes with us, reminiscent of our couple hood days.”
This is the couple’s second home renovation, and Madhu had some solid advice to share for other potential homeowners. For example, avoid dark kitchen laminate unless it’s “fingerprint-proof,” especially if you have little ones running around. Dark floors are a no-go for pet owners whose fluffy friends shed a lot — the hairs show up way more than on a lighter floor.
“Ultimately, our home reflects our story—our personalities, values and journeys. It’s an intimate space that reminds us what matters and what makes us happy,” Harish and Madhu say. “Though we’re always a little sad when vacations end, we’re relieved to come home to the comforts we’ve built for ourselves.”