Home Tour: A female architecture boss’ colourful home in Sherwood Towers, Bukit Timah

Clearly, architect Lim Wenhui is a fan of colour. Her 132 sqm apartment at Sherwood Towers is a colour compedium that eschews typical ‘neutral-toned’ homes in Singapore. The brightly hued interior contrasts with the Brutalist exterior of the building in Bukit Timah, which was built in 1980. 

Founder of architecture firm, SPARK

Lim is a founding director of architecture and design firm SPARK, whose projects like the jewel-like Starhill building in Kuala Lumpur and transformation of the former POMO mall at Selegie into the multi-hued GR.iD youth hub reflect a sense of adventure and fun. Her former apartment was more like a white shell so here, she wanted to go the opposite direction. 

Favourite Colour is Green

“My favourite colour is green, but i do love all colours and how they interact with one another through the use of collage. For my home, my team at SPARK collaged material samples and checked their effect on site in actual lighting conditions as well as tested the combinations through a 3D model,” says Lim. For her, designing with colour is both an intuitive and curatorial process, where many colours are tested together before a combination is agreed upon. 

Inspired by Pedro Almodóvar

The use of colour in her home helps draw focuses to various parts while bestowing upon it a carefully layered visual narrative. Pedro Almodóvar’s home and movies are a strong influence in the apartment christened Project Moving House. The Spanish film director and screenwriter’s works commonly uses bold, rich colour and gloss décor to backdrop his complex stories. 

Open Concept Living

But before the colouration of her home interior, Lim first had to rework the plan.

“Prior to the renovation, the entrance faced the corridor. It was directly adjacent to the apartment’s secondary exit that connected the storeroom to the kitchen. We converted the storeroom’s exit into the main entrance, and set it back 600mm from the common corridor so that there is now a more discreet, private threshold. The original main door was sealed off, and replaced by a decorative door panel that mirrors the new front door design,” she explains. A wall of glass bricks amplifies light into the home. 

The breaking down of walls resulted in an open kitchen, living and dining area, lit by ample windows at two sides of the apartment. White subway tiles wrap the kitchen counter as well as the sink, while yellow and orange drawers brighten the joinery doors. Throughout the home, colour coordination is not just limited to the interior architecture, but also informs the choice of objects and tableware. 

Kitchen Decor

For example at the kitchen, an orange Dish Doctor drying rack from Magis, yellow tableware and cups designed by Ole Jensen for Royal Copenhagen, and a banana painting by Montreal artist Isabella Di Sclafani all complement the joinery’s colour scheme. Here, there is no stove, as Lim does not cook much. A kitchen island counter provides ad-hoc space for having a quick breakfast, prepping meals, working on a laptop or folding laundry on.  

“Most of the storage in the kitchen is concentrated in the central island, where preparation work and most cooking is done via mobile stove tops. There are 16 drawers in the island, eight on each side storing cutlery, napkins, crockery and utensils,” says Lim.

Without a kitchen hood, the kitchen wall is a vertical canvas for her artwork and kitchen items sitting on tiled shelves and metal-laminated cabinets that integrate an oven and microwave.  

Living Area Decor

The living and dining areas are playfully embellished with seven rugs in assorted shapes, sizes and colours, whose placements were carefully considered in relation to the three-dimensional elements.

For example, a semi-circular buttercup-yellow carpet appears to ooze out from the kitchen island’s drawers while a Polar Bear rug designed by Teresa Moorhouse for Mum’s playfully sprawls across the white floors.

At the dining area, the curves of Carl Hansen & Søn chairs are mirrored in a cobalt-and-baby blue carpet with circular lines.  

Master Bedroom

Mint-coloured sliding doors lead to the private zone, which contains a study with a small powder room, the master bedroom lined with a yellow storage wall, a deep-green walk-in wardrobe and a large master bathroom. Lim’s favourite colour further dresses Knoll armchairs in the living area and bedcovers.

In the master bedroom, viridian tiles are matched with red joinery, as well as black tapware and washbasins.

Study Room

A fan of French illustrator and graphic designer Jean Jullien, Lim has decorated her home with playful pieces such as a Bright Idea lamp and a ‘Bob the Bookend Napper’ metal bookend in the study room, both from Case Studyo.

In recent years, her AI artwork, where she creates colourful, dynamic environments for her ‘aunty’ protagonists under the moniker Nice Aunties, reflect a similar leaning to whimsy and wit. In both Lim’s real and art worlds, there is no room for the mild and mundane.