Home Tour: $120,000 Renovation for a lady’s 2-room HDB with 100 dolls in Jurong West
“I’m not doing a house for you to stay in, I am doing a piece of art.”
By Shannon Osztonits -
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The blueprint for cottage core, be prepared to be whisked away to a fantasy land within this magically inspiring space…It’s the type of home you’d imagine Snow White and the seven Dwarfs to call home, or for Belle from Beauty and the Beast to pop up at any second…
A space where you feel like every dream is possible, and its childlike essence that we often forgo as adults rings true throughout every corner. In some moments, you’re transported within the walls of a dollhouse; other times, it feels as if you’ve stepped inside a castle.
With its unique custom, all-wood interiors and exquisite collection of dolls, bears and other rare collectables, it’s part home, part museum, part art piece.
Interior designer, Ju Li (a former music and sound director in Singapore) was entrusted by a good friend of hers on this project, who placed all her faith in the designer’s vision, pretty much giving Ju Li full freedom reign for the concept. Often travelling to Europe and abroad together, the interior designer understood her friend’s personality, especially her love for country cottages.
Vintage chandeliers, gorgeous wooden beams and delicious frames, a cuckoo clock chiming to the hour and a 1912 Titanic bear…Every room in this house tells a story. And each one is far from ordinary.
Shelves are between the dining area and the living room as you walk into the master bedroom.
Who Lives Here: A bachelorette and over 100 dolls
Home: 2-room Flexi HDB in Jurong West
Size: 506 sq ft
Interior designer: Independent interior designer, Mo Ju Li
Portraying the true cosy essence of a classic, quaint cottage, the home comprises a master bedroom leading into the living room, a dining area, kitchen, one bathroom and a small princess bedroom-cum-dressing room (ideal for a caregiver, as is the typical design for flexi HDBs).
Ju Li didn’t start with one room in particular for this full renovation, instead, the paintwork and woodwork guided the way. And the rest followed.
Employing an artistic paint technique, the walls and ceilings flow into one another, all in a cloud-like “sad blue” effect. This colour was achieved with a combination of blue and grey tones. It amplifies the whimsical cottage effect that the interior designer was after, and certainly makes you think of a castle far away.
One of the most special parts of this home is undoubtedly its woodwork.
Cottage Woodwork
It’s not very often you stumble upon a home in Singapore where so much natural wood is displayed. Many homes utilise wood-like features to mimic the material, such as a wood-finish laminate. However, that is not the case in this home. All of the finishes, floors, and furniture are custom woodwork.
Heading into Singapore’s forest, Ju Li and her contractor sourced wood from real trees, Torreya Nucifera to be exact, also commonly known as Japanese yew or “kaya.” All of the wood within this abode comes from these trees. The varying darker and lighter shades were achieved via woodwork treatment.
The prized Titanic Bear sits above the piano, along with the other bears.
The Doll Collection
The designer is an avid doll collector, and many items you see in the home are from her personal collection.
For example, the antique Strawberry Shortcake that Ju Li’s mother handmade 20 years ago. Other notable models include Blythe Dolls, Pullip Dolls and Steiff Bears.
All the wooden features in this room, including the window frame, wardrobe and side tables, are customised for the space.
Master Bedroom Design
Guiding you through from the living room into the master bedroom, the interior designer tore down the original sliding doors and opted for an open wood frame entryway.
“It carves out the beauty of the space. You don’t need anything to cover it up because the room itself is designed for a one-person stay and is quite small. A divider wouldn’t be successful,” says Ju Li.
The beauty of the bedroom is the custom poster canopy bed. The size adds to the master’s cosy feel, heightened by a colourful patchwork quilt from Kraków, Poland.
Chandeliers and wall scones are Italian.
A matching chandelier to the one in the bedroom hangs from the ceiling. (Throughout the home, Ju Li used the same chandeliers, just in various sizes.)
Living Room Design
It feels as if you could be sitting down for a Teddy Bear’s picnic in this room, where bears take their place at the round custom centre table, piano or upright on the custom-built occasional chair. The wooden shelves on the back wall are lined with more bears and other rare antiques. Ju Li also designed the TV console from the same wood as the rest of the cottage.
Windows are adorned with cafe curtains constructed from hessian fabric (imported from Australia), which she had tailor-made.
Considering the original size of the flexi HDB, opening up the spaces is clever, making the home look and feel bigger.
Open-Plan Dining Room
Directly next to the living room is the dining area, enhancing the open-plan concept.
This room is home to the majority of the dolls from Ju Li’s collection, especially the Blythe Dolls. These are housed on wooden shelves and behind glass cabinets. The custom-built dining table weighs about 60kg, and each specially-made chair weighs around 20 kgs.
The front iron door is accessed from the dining area. Handmade by a local blacksmith, the designer opted for this type of front gate for its vintage-esque appearance. It’s the type of door you often see in castles and old mansions in fairytales.
A two-plate stove includes one induction plate and one infrared plate.
Wooden Kitchen
You immediately notice the intricate attention to detail in the kitchen’s cabinetry, where patterns are created by cross-sectioning wood panels or shaping parts at an angle. Exposed hinges and iron locks finish off the look, and again, further enhance the cottage vibes.
“I didn’t want any normal handles. Instead, I was looking for the older kind of handles, but they are very difficult to find. My contractor spent a lot of time sourcing these,” says Ju Li. “They are from Vietnam.”
Countertops are wooden, too. The kitchen chandelier is the same as the others, just differing in size.
On the far end of the kitchen is the washing machine area, as well as where the appliances are stored. Fronting this part of the kitchen wall are Italian tiles from Soon Bee Huat, creeping up from the kitchen floor.
Ju Li was specifically after a fairytale-like feel for the bathroom.
Strawberry Shortcake Bathroom
Just like the rest of this home, this room is laden with custom woodwork, and areas where pipes or ceiling work are exposed are covered with wood for its cottage-like aesthetics.
For continuation, the tiles are the same as the kitchen, albeit a different size. Gold brass finishes are used in the bathroom, which comprises a shower, toilet and vanity.
The only space in the entire home that isn’t blue is the “Princess Room.”
Princess Room
Instead, the walls are pink. Doubling as a dresser room/spare room, it can also be used if the homeowner ever requires a live-in caregiver.
The wooden desk and chair are custom-built. Different princess ornaments and figurines decorate the space.
“With the lighting and long mirror, you can do your makeup here, and take yourself back to being a little girl again.”
Matching decor is seen throughout the home.
The design and construction process took half a year, with most of this time spent on the woodwork and carpentry side of things. This procedure was lengthy, moving stage by stage. For example, after the trees were chopped, the wood had to be sawn, then ground down and smoothed out. For furniture, each piece was constructed using multiple pieces of wood, then treated.
Paintwork was also time-consuming, waiting for both walls and ceiling paint to dry before moving on to installing all of the customised wood features and furniture.
This home was first featured here on Zaobao.