Home Tour: $230,000 Eclectic renovation for a 5-bedroom condo in Pasir Ris
Blending vibrant colours, travel keepsakes, and cultural influences, this eclectic 5-bedder condo reflects a family’s warmth, personality, and shared passions.
By Gwyneth Goh -
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For Dolly and Gaurav, creating their first permanent home in their mid-40s was a milestone worth waiting for. After years in rental properties, they knew exactly what they wanted—bold colours, eclectic character, and a space that celebrated the artefacts and memories they’d collected over decades of travel. But finding the right designer to translate that vision into reality proved harder than expected.
It wasn’t until they met interior designer Ami Yap from The Interior Lab—the ninth designer they interviewed—that the puzzle pieces fell into place. “When she showed us the first sketch, I told my husband, ‘How does she know I wanted this?!’” Dolly recalls. “Some things are just meant to be, so with her I think it was just meant to be. I call her our soul whisperer.”
With a renovation budget of $230,000 (including furnishings and appliances) and a clear brief to incorporate vibrant colour without overwhelming the senses, Ami set out to design a home that felt lively yet functional, rich with cultural influences but still cohesive. The result is an apartment that’s as warm and expressive as its owners—where every corner tells a story.
Who Lives Here: Dolly (a homemaker), her husband Gaura (Vice President), their 18-year-old son Aadi (currently serving National Service), and their helper of 16 years
Home: A 5-bedroom condominium at 25 Pasir Ris Grove (converted into 4 bedrooms)
Size: 162 sqm
Interior Designer: Ami Yap, The Interior Lab
TV Feature Wall
The living room is where the family spends most of their time together—sharing a meal, watching TV, or simply enjoying the breeze that flows in from the balcony. For homeowners Dolly and Gaurav, it’s the heart of the home, and for interior designer Ami Yap, it’s the feature that sealed the deal. “My personal take on why they decided to proceed with me would be the tv console design and the dining feature wall design,” Ami shares.
Ami Yap recalls that the couple “didn’t have a concept of how their TV wall would look like. They knew they wanted storage and display, but it had to be slim.” Her solution was a navy blue feature wall just 15cm deep, integrating sleek partitions for display with hidden storage to keep the space feeling open. The design met their practical needs while giving the room a strong visual anchor.
Sitting proudly atop the open shelves, a precious Balinese wood carving—which Dolly recalls hand-carrying home on her lap during a flight—rests nestled among other keepsakes from their travels. These understated, personal objects lend the display a quiet warmth, grounding the bold navy cabinetry in family history.
The Dining Wall
Just steps from the living area, the dining space reflects another of the family’s shared passions: Lego. Ami designed a custom display cabinet to showcase their creations while keeping everyday items neatly stored. Adding a touch of creative asymmetry, a small section of the shelving is dropped lower, forming a subtle T-shaped outline to accommodate taller items.
“This cabinet has quite a few layers,” Ami explains. “The middle part is especially for the Lego display. Right below this display is a row of drawers for them to put their cutlery, spices and sauces, and the cabinet below is for their plates. Right on top, that display cabinet is also for a Lego display but it has a glass door to prevent dust from entering… so basically this cabinet has a lot of storage and at the same time they can display their Lego pieces.”
For Dolly, having a dedicated home for these pieces was important. “In our previous homes, we’d just slot it where we could find space. Ami made space for all those things—the Lego we wanted to display, the trophies, the books… the memorabilia and artifacts we picked up while travelling.”
The couple often hosts friends and family here, taking advantage of the apartment’s breezy balcony and open flow between kitchen, dining, and living areas. “We don’t do formal parties,” Dolly says. “It’s all very impromptu, very casual.”
Pantry
“There’s a lot of space, a lot of flexibility,” homeowner Dolly continues, “The extra pantry area also gives us a lot of space. If we fall short of table space, we use that as well.”
Just beside the living area, the pantry and foyer continue the home’s interplay of colour, texture, and personal detail, setting the tone for the home’s eclectic spirit. Different pieces from around Asia sit comfortably together, telling the story of the family’s travels and the cultures they admire.
“They like Peranakan, a bit of eclectic, they also like traditional stuff,” says interior designer Ami. “The stools are Chinese or a bit Turkish-looking, the paintings above are Japanese, so there are a lot of different cultures in the same space.”
Kitchen Design
The kitchen carries through the home’s signature blend of colour and cultural influence, pairing muted olive cabinetry with a marble-topped island—providing both a prep zone and an informal gathering spot.
Peranakan-style patterned tiles from Chinatown add a playful accent, while custom spray-painted double doors—a rich navy chosen to echo the living room console in the homeowners’ favourite colour—hide the wet kitchen and service yard.
Custom Made Kitchen Doors
Two of interior designer Ami’s proudest features in the home are the bespoke kitchen door and the master bedroom door, which were both specially and meticulously fabricated with thoughtful detail. The kitchen door combines navy spray-painted nyatoh wood with specially sourced patterned flower glass inserts. The result recalls the charm of old Nanyang coffee shops, while feeling entirely at home in this modern setting.
Peranakan Floor Tiles
At the end of a lovely Peranakan-tiled corridor, the master bedroom resides behind a door that was as much a design project as any room in the house. Interior designer Ami describes it as a “bi-fold door” with Peranakan tiles in the centre, also specially sourced from a tile shop in Chinatown. “We went there and mixed and matched the tiles’ combination, and after purchasing the tiles, I delivered them to the door vendor and they inserted these tiles into the door,” she says.
The detailing didn’t stop there. The long glass panels are Peranakan flower glass similar to the kitchen door’s—richly textured with floral motifs rather than the smooth panes more commonly used—and the door handles were also chosen from a specialist handle shop.
“This door is sourced from different vendors to put into one, to put together,” Ami explains. “A lot of details to take note of.” The result is a piece that feels both bespoke and deeply rooted in the home’s layered cultural influences. “You can’t just buy this off the shelf,” she proudly adds.
Master Bedroom
In the master bedroom, a tricky L-shaped bay window posed a design challenge. The only possible location for a TV was on the bay itself—requiring a tricky bit of designing and devising from interior designer Ami. “I had to build a pillar on the right and connect a feature wall in order to mount the TV,” she says, describing the careful planning, weight calculations, and coordination with the carpenter needed to make it both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
The master bedroom’s colour palette leans further into the couple’s love of blue, with soft furnishings that echo tones from other parts of the home. The space is designed for comfort and everyday ease, balancing statement elements like the feature wall with the calm needed for rest.
Hotel Bathroom Design
The master bathroom underwent one of the home’s most dramatic transformations. From the outset, homeowner Dolly had a clear vision. “I, from the very beginning, insisted I wanted the washing machine in the master bath,” she recalls. “I had a few criteria—a double vanity, the washing machine slotted in, and to remove the bathtub. It was a major reconfiguration of the bathroom and that seemed to be a challenge with a lot of the IDs we met up with.”
Other designers told her it couldn’t be done, but interior designer Ami found a way. She reworked the layout so that the washing machine sits neatly beside the vanity, running new plumbing and ensuring the set-up would be practical for everyday use. “It’s about installation, how we’re going to run the plumbing, the pipes,” Ami explains. “Next to the vanity is the washing machine.”
The result is a space that feels tailored to the family’s routines, with the elegance of a hotel bathroom and the efficiency of a multi-tasking laundry zone. For Dolly, it’s proof that persistence—and the right designer—can turn even the trickiest wish lists into reality.
Junior Master Suite
Perhaps the biggest layout change in the condo was made for Aadi, the couple’s 18-year-old son. Two smaller bedrooms were combined into a single, more versatile suite, giving him both a private sleeping area and space to relax with friends—what Dolly fondly calls “his entertainment room”.
“Dolly wanted her son to have his own personal space, which is why they converted two rooms into one for him,” says Ami. “Bedroom and entertainment area, so when his friends go over, they can hang out there instead of the living room.”
Dolly recalls how Aadi worked directly with interior designer Ami to refine the palette. “Our son’s room was left entirely up to him. He discussed his needs with Ami directly and both of them came up with a plan for the colours they wanted to use. He couldn’t decide what laminate to use but she has used a subtle tone of grey and blue, so he’s not going to outgrow it.”
The thoughtful planning ensures the room grows with him—practical for his National Service years now, but flexible enough to adapt as life unfolds. As Dolly puts it: “I would love to have a multigenerational home… but even if it’s not a multigenerational home per se, you may have grandchildren, and will need the space for them.”
Study Room
For homeowner Gaurav, having a functional and stylish study was a priority, given his regional role and frequent need for a quiet work zone at home. His desk is topped with sintered stone—a material he chose with Ami’s guidance—accented with a deep teal shade that ties in with the family’s broader love of colour.
“That is all Ami, I think,” homeowner Dolly reflects. “We just told her we wanted bursts of colour. We did tell her we like teal a lot… My hubby’s study desk top is sintered stone. So this we chose through Ami and then she matched everything else in the room. She’s the one who came up with the entire colour scheme.”
The result is a calm yet energising workspace, layered with the same eclectic spirit found throughout the rest of the home—trophies and model cars sit comfortably atop neat wall shelves, making it unmistakably his own corner.
Guest Bathroom
The guest spaces carry the same thoughtful layering of colour and cultural references. One of the bathrooms features patterned tiles with birds and foliage, accented by a decorative wall light. Interior designer Ami recalls: “In the guest bathroom we had an accent piece for the wall light… more of decorative lights in some parts of the house.”
Guest Bedroom
The guest bedroom is finished in a soft blue, accented by a geometric pendant light that adds a playful note without overpowering the room. Kept intentionally versatile, it works equally well as a comfortable retreat for visiting relatives or as a cosy space for friends to stay over.
$230,000 Renovation Cost
The entire renovation took about four months, following two months of planning before works began. Excluding electricals and furniture, the cost came to around $150,000, while the total spend including furnishings and appliances was approximately $230,000.
For Dolly and Gaurav, the experience was far smoother than they had anticipated as first-time homeowners. “Absolutely happy with the result. It’s the way we envisioned the house all along. Exactly. To the T,” Dolly says. What might have been an overwhelming process turned into a rewarding one, thanks to Ami’s patient guidance and attention to detail.
Their relationship with Ami didn’t end when the renovation did either. Dolly still invites her interior designer over, and the two remain in touch—a rare bond that speaks to the warmth of both the homeowners and the trust they placed in the design process. For interior designer Ami, it’s a connection she describes as heartwarming and deeply fulfilling.
The finished home is bold yet welcoming, layered with personal stories, and designed to evolve with the family’s future. As Dolly sums it up: “Happy, fulfilled, dream come true, just perfect. Our home in the true sense of the word.”