Home Tour: Engineer husband & wife’s $100k renovation for their 3-bedroom condo in Hougang
“Our designer created an interesting space as a home office, which is connected to the dining area and doubles up as an extra socialising space.”
By Shannon Osztonits -
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“Home is my refuge,” says homeowner Nicholas.
This one small sentence is very telling of the type of 3-bedroom condo in Hougang that he, his wife, and their two boys (aged six and four) call their home.
With no particular design style or theme as a restriction, the homeowners wanted to incorporate certain elements, such as woods for warmth. They wanted a space that suited their family: free from clutter (with two young children around), a space that maximises the unit’s floor area without things feeling cramped, and lastly… a lot of lights!
“Our previous home didn’t have lots of lights, so it was my wife’s one request for this home. Now, my wife tells me not to turn on all the lights,” laughs Nicholas.
As the saying goes, happy wife, happy life!
Whilst they didn’t have a set interior design theme in mind, one space in the home they were certain on needing a complete overhaul was the original helper’s room, now turned study.
Who Lives Here: A Singaporean husband and Vietnamese wife, who are both engineers, and their two sons
Home: 3-Bedroom Condo
Size: 1,087 sq ft
Interior designer: Studio Makal Pte Ltd
Studio Makal Interior Design
For them, choosing their interior designer, Ai-Ling from Studio Makal, was pretty much a no-brainer. As the wife of one of Nicholas’ close friends, the couple had always admired Ai-Ling’s work as an architect and designer.
“When we bought the place, she was the first person we thought of, and luckily for us, she had the time,” the homeowner recalls. “Most of the design cues and inputs we took from her.”
The homeowners stumbled upon the property during Covid times, when they felt the need for a bigger home as their second child was on the way. Apart from more space, location was another factor, and Nicholas wanted a home close to his parents–which is now within running distance.
“During Covid, there were not many options. When we bought this one new, we were lucky that there were still units available,” tells the homeowner.
3 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom Condo
Their home comprises three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room that extends into the dining area, study, kitchen, foyer, and balcony. Most of the furniture is new (with a few pieces bought in from their previous home), and sourcing was the effort of both the interior designer and homeowners.
Living Room
Introducing Nicholas’ personal favourite space in this three-bedroom condo. As one of the bigger spaces, it leads out to the balcony. Light-filtering curtains combined with the Forest Bather Green (paint from Gush) accent wall, the entire room is warm, inviting and breezy.
“The house had to feel warm, with white walls and splashes of colour to liven up the place,” the homeowner says. “Credit to Ai-Ling with the panels of colour on the individual walls. She suggested this to give some personal touches, too.”
Further pops of colour are created with furniture, decor and wall art illustrations and prints. The Beech Linen sofa is the Adams 2 Seater Sofa from Castlery. Porcelain floors are the unit’s original (as also seen in the dining room and kitchen). Time was spent on false-ceiling works and lighting, including downlights, accent and ambient lighting.
The console opposite the sofa features custom carpentry by the design team. The same light-wood laminate finish is used throughout the entire home, where you see custom carpentry.
The living room is devoid of a TV, and instead, features a cool dedicated coffee corner!
Coffee Corner
Remember back to Covid days when you couldn’t even go out to get a cup of coffee? Well, introducing the homeowners’ genius solution. A barista corner of their own, featuring a Lelit Bianca home barista coffee machine, pro grinder, and storage for all their coffee-related things, like beans, Vietnamese coffee phin, glasses and mugs.
The drawer below the machinery is used for coffee-related items, and the upper cabinet is used for storage for things like the husband and wife’s wine and whiskey collection.
“For the original unit, that side of the wall was empty,” explains Nicholas. “We thought it was a good idea to design not just a place for coffee, but more storage.”
Open-Concept Dining Area
Clever planning is another concept used throughout the home.
For example, the living room with its dedicated coffee corner flows directly into the dining area. (Next to this is the kitchen, and in front of the dining area, sharing a divider wall, is the study.) When the homeowners need to work-from-home, and still always have their eyes on their kids, each room and space is easily accessible, and feels open.
A sintered stone, rounded dining table (the Ohio from Comfort Design) sits in the middle of the room. Two different sets of dining chairs (also from Comfort Design) comprise the four seats. Two of them feature armrests, whilst the other two have a middle slit backrest. Finishing off the space is their Marset Ginger 60 pendant light.
In front of the dining table is a custom-built display shelf, doubling as the study wall with a glass window that slides open. On the dining area side, a cabinet features ceramics, including some from Vietnam.
“The divider was intentionally designed as Ai-Ling had the idea that if we have guests over, we can slide open the glass and chat with our guests,” Nicholas explains. “We wanted to maybe have a thick study wall, but she said it would make the study too dark.”
The Unique Study Room
To enter the study (formerly the helper’s room with a small sleeping area and toilet), you walk through glass doors. This allows maximum light to filter through the space, enhanced by the divider wall to the right-hand side with its glass panel.
“We love the study room that was previously a helper’s toilet. We converted and repositioned the door and enlarged the space, as it was hard to access and killed the kitchen space,” the homeowners say.
All of the carpentry was specifically designed for the study and matches the rest of the home in the same laminate finish.
The room features a desk to the left, and a standing desk on the right, with storage cabinets below the standing desk, and more storage above, as well as block shelving for their books illuminated by warm lights. Floors were changed into lightly-coloured vinyl floors (which are also used in the three bedrooms).
Master Bedroom Design
“We didn’t have a TV in our previous home’s bedroom, so my wife requested it as she wanted to be able to lie in bed and watch TV,” tells Nicholas.
A custom-built laminate-finish console with more storage was built in and added. The interior designer also custom-designed and had her team construct a queen-sized platform storage bed, with a matching headboard and rest, and two curved side tables (a place for the husband and wife’s books, phones, and glasses). These are all built from one panel. On either side of the bed are his and hers reading lights.
The master bedroom receives plenty of natural light, featuring light-filtering curtains. With two young boys, sleep-ins are a thing of the past. A false ceiling was added to the front and back of the room.
Entryway Design
Featuring accent lighting and a pop of green wall colour (the same as the living room), you feel invited in this home the moment you walk through the entryway.
A custom-built shelf was added by the design team, and this is where the family puts on or takes off their shoes.
“I like bright colours during the day, and at night, for it to be the opposite, where you can wind down and feel cosy,” says Nicholas.
You see this balance throughout the home, with its pops of colours paired with warm woods and ambient lighting that further enhances this feeling.
As this is Nicholas’ second home renovation, his advice was a lesson he learned from his first home renovation, which he was certain to carry into his second, and which he did.
“It’s always good to have a lot of electrical points and not too little lighting. This time round, we have a lot of electrical points and a lot of lights!”