Home Tour: A Bali-inspired 5-bedroom condo in Sentosa Cove with stunning ocean views
A 5-Star Resort-inspired home transporting you straight to Balinese shores. It’s elegant tranquillity at its best.
By Shannon Osztonits -
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Unparalleled sea vistas…Imagine waking up to a view like this every day? It’s like a scene out of Bali — Nusa Dua to be exact.
Travelling opens eyes to worlds beyond. As homeowners who frequently love to travel, forever staying in premium resorts, the idea was to bring a piece of their love for the ocean into their home: but make it resort style.
With the best premium modern Balinese resorts in mind, the design team from Wolf Woof brought their vision to fruition, and in the most stunning, stylish and classiest of ways. Tons of light woods comprise custom carpentry, floor-to-ceiling glass walls let the sunlight enter from every angle possible, textures play a role, and the addition of curves and subtle arches adds softness and a homely touch.
The interior team carefully considered a lot of typical resort features throughout their design process.
Every moment feels as if you’re within the walls of the most gorgeous 5-star stay right on the ocean’s doorstep. The 5-bedroom condo fits the Sentosa landscape down to the last grain of sand.
“Practically every holiday for us is a resort holiday. If we like it so much, shouldn’t we try and see it every day?” the homeowner says. “The prices of Sentosa properties are much cheaper than what you can get on the mainland based on PSF. And it comes with unrivalled views. It was an easy decision to make when the right apartment came along…We hunted for a place for three years.”
The outdoor terrace patio on the second level. The interior design studio selected all of the outdoor furniture, leaving visitors to constantly remark: “Is this in Singapore?”
“We don’t do the typical cookie-cutter stuff or are predictable,” tells Carmen of Wolf Woof. “Hence, for every home, we go in-depth into the client’s personality and their preferences, and come up with something different. You won’t see my design and say: ‘this looks familiar, I have probably seen it somewhere before.’”
The condominium features five Balinese-style bedrooms, four bathrooms and a powder room, two kitchens (wet and dry), a living room, dining area and outdoor deck patio for entertaining and al fresco dinners. This is set across two levels.
“If we wanted a state-of-the-art cookie press home, we would have stayed in an HDB flat overlooking the East Coast,” the homeowner says.
A floating staircase guides you between levels 1 and 2. The corridor in front of the stairs leads to the master and guest rooms.
Reconstructing rooms and levels
The biggest challenge on the design front was splitting up the space and rearranging the two levels. The original master bedroom was shifted from the upper floor to the lower level, and then this downstairs space was further split into two bedrooms (master and guest/guzheng room), along with a pavilion walkway concept.
In its place, a second kitchen was added. Wolf Woof also ensured there was enough storage created in every nook and cranny.
“We slept outdoors with the moon and the stars watching us from above on many occasions, sleeping to the sound of gentle waves, cooled by the constant sea breeze, and the moonshine telling us that we are safe with Mother Nature that night.”
The master bedroom is a work of art, giving all the tropical Balinese vibes.
Resort-style Master Bedroom on Level 1
Every design element, across every room and space, was to be soothing and an easy transition as you move through the home. Starting in the master bedroom, notice recurring elements in here that carry into the rest of the home.
Light wooden cabinetry, an imported wood trunk (also in the living room), Mediterranean-inspired 3D textured walls (made from faux rockwall) — reminding one of a sea cave/Greece’s cladded buildings — and exposed beams done with a laminate finish.
It screams “relaxed beach vibes,” where nothing weighs too heavily.
Floor-to-ceiling glass panels were chosen for walls, making the sea a forever view. Roman-style leather blinds were installed with the panels. Raw-edged doors were mastered using normal wood cladding and expensive veneer. The herringbone flooring is vinyl from Arc Floor. The king-sized storage bed was also a custom job, as well as the vanity behind the bed, constructed from plywood with a laminate finish.
Furniture and decor-wise: a Castlery settee adds a warm, elegant touch at the bed’s edge. Rattan lamp shades add that quintessential Bali feel.
The primary en suite is the size of a small room in some HDBs.
Primary En Suite
Entering the bathroom, you first hit the vanity area, where a quartz countertop displays a Modeste sink. The bottom half is constructed from laminate with an ABS finish. The floating mirror is customised. Travelling through the bathroom, stone-esque tiles transport you to Positano along the Amalfi Coast.
A glass door divides the vanity from the shower and toilet area.
All of the bathroom tiles are from Hafary, including the wooden panel-appearing large format shower tiles. All finishes are done in brass. The combination of varying textures in the bathroom feels super rich.
Thinking outside the box, the interior designer was against the idea of having the two rooms enclosed. The reason? Rooms had to feel separate, replicating resort settings
Corridor to heaven
“Whichever angle you’re standing at, you should be able to look right into the sea. Hence, eventually I came up with this pavilion concept,” Carmen explains. “It’s as though you are on a walkway towards the beach, and you have glass pavilions on your left and on your right. The left being the master bedroom, the right being the guest room.”
The “boulevard of hope” (as the homeowners affectionately have named the space) was created by building a raised platform from composite decking in the middle, flanked by two sides of pebbles. Artificial succulents line the two pebble trenches.
Opposite the master bedroom is the music and guest room featuring a Guzheng.
Music-meets-Guest Room
Whenever guests come over, the music room is shifted around and transformed into a guest room. Otherwise, this is where the lady of the house practises playing the guzheng.
Tropicana-like wallpaper is, in fact, stickers applied to cabinet doors with storage space behind them. Italian-style occasional chairs add an elegant touch, carried over from the owner’s previous home.
The living room boasts an open plan, and the entire area is very spacious.
Living Room on Level 2
This room already had a vaulted ceiling shape, so Wolf Wood added full beams to accentuate the vault. (The living room now used to be the entire old master bedroom.)
Decked out in light woods, continual finishings (floors, textured walls) and a warm colour palette, it’s a very inviting and relaxing part of the home.
“The TV doubles as a fake fireplace against the backdrop of a chimney shape. With the cold aircon running in the night, the fireplace from YouTube lights up the mood and brings life to the upper floor,” explains the homeowners. “It has its own diva status.” Above the television is a painting by artist Lee Sin Bee.
Taking an army to install, the chandelier shows off a gingko leaves design, which had to be individually inserted and redone until there was equilibrium. It was well worth it, though.
Room-encircling floor-to-ceiling glass panels open out to the patio, and the dry kitchen and dining area were designed at the other end of the room, open-concept style.
There’s complete separation in this home between the wet and dry kitchens, each on its own level. Entering the foyer on level 1, the entrance then leads to the wet kitchen.
Wet Kitchen on Level 1
Three glass panels retract to one side (or slide across to join the glass door), enhancing an open-concept appearance. The island counter is Caesarstone, with a textured coating underneath similar to the primary bedroom. Marble-like tiles are from Hafary, and all of the cabinets are custom.
Three hanging pendant lights are a lovely touch, and the island is lit with under-counter lights. The high stools are Son and Bear.
Although the dry and wet kitchens are on different levels, similar design is integrated.
Dry Kitchen on Level 2
Countertops and the island are the same as the wet kitchen for uniformity, but the bottom half of the central island in the dry kitchen is the same fluted material and design as the storeroom at the foyer. There’s a tiny induction stove on the island — perfect for quickly warming meals. The tree branch effect hanging light above here, again, adds a Bali feel.
Next to the dry kitchen is the dining area. A piano in the corner completes the room.
Dining Area on Level 2
A few steps from the dry kitchen is the dining area, complete with an elegant round Son and Bear dining table and chair set. A curved display cabinet in front of this safeguards souvenirs the family have collected during their travels.
“The client prefers curves to sharp edges,” says Carmen. “Even with the door, the shape is recurring.”
One of the daughters’ bedrooms is on the first floor.
Daughter’s Bedroom on Level 1
All of the carpentry in this bedroom is custom-built. The super single bed is raised on a storage platform. Beneath these are drawers and storage cupboards. Top cabinets display a soft arch design, added to minimise clutter. Parallel to the bed is a closet.
The son’s bedroom is also on level 1.
Son’s Bedroom on Level 1
Masculine yet still with its Bali charm, the son’s bedroom is flecked in navy blue paint from Nippon. This room has a small balcony area. Just like the rest of the house, the floors are herringbone vinyl.
This is the only bedroom on the second floor.
Daughter’s Bedroom on Level 2
With a wood laminate covering the entire ceiling, this daughter’s bedroom oozes a cosy, cabin-like appeal. However, the design team still wanted to ensure that the bedroom sticks to the homeowner’s Bali-style brief.
To do so, they used pops of greenery on the fake planter wall. The storage platform-cum-bed has a desk at the far end, with a hole underneath to slide your legs into. The ceiling lamp is both a light and a fan.
Spot the same floor and wall tiles as the primary en suite in the powder room.
Powder Room
The “skylight” is a stroke of genius: an artificial light mimicking a skylight, with a control panel to switch between different settings/times of day, for example, sunset mode.
A floor-to-ceiling mirror across the entire wall makes the bathroom appear bigger. The sink is another Modest Bathroom addition.
The second floor’s living room, dry kitchen and patio.
Renovation Timeline
Wolf Woof’s design process took a month and a half, and the construction work took six months because it was an expensive renovation.
“Carmen was warned…The woman of the house wears the pants. Please her and you get the contract,” says the homeowner. “Well, that supermum-cum-superwoman was smitten by their design approaches. The breadwinner was attracted to Wolf Woof’s promise to cut costs and make dreams come true without biting off an arm and a leg.”
As this is the homeowner’s third renovation, they come with a bit of experience — and advice:
“Choosing a contractor and designer is extremely challenging, it is almost like looking for a lifemate. We are extremely thankful to God for finding us, Carmen,” tell the owners. “If you have the budget and means, get a designer that works for your interest (in design and cost).”