Home Tour: A fashion industry bachelor’s ground-floor 3-room HDB in Toa Payoh
His 3-room HDB flat in Toa Payoh, where he has lived since 1997, is anything but “retro”.
By Sng Ler Jun -
Share this article
Calvin Ong doesn’t like it when people call his home “retro.” The word, he says, conjures the image of a themed restaurant, a curated set piece with no pulse. His 3-room HDB flat in Toa Payoh, where he has lived since 1997, is anything but. “It’s evolved,” he explains. “And I’m finally happy with how it feels.”
Who Lives Here: A bachelor in his late 50s
Home: A 3-room ground floor HDB flat in Toa Payoh
Size: 700 sq ft
Interior Designer: A designer friend and himself
3-Room Ground Floor HDB
Before semi-retirement, Calvin spent over two decades in the fashion industry, where he rose to the role of fashion director. It shows. Step inside his ground-floor HDB flat and you get a sense of someone who knows what he likes, including cast iron rabbits, fashion zines and hardcover books, and furniture tailored to feel right. The bachelor doesn’t do this for effect. “A home should be an extension of oneself,” he says. “Not your interior decorator.”
He was 35 years old when he bought this 3-room HDB flat, unfazed by his friends’ warnings about rodents and noise on the ground level. “I liked that it felt open,” he explains. He has built a mini garden right outside his metal gates. “It doesn’t feel boxed in.”
Two decades later, the Toa Payoh HDB unit remains largely intact: original mosaic tiles, the same petal-design metal gate, and an unrenovated kitchen he barely uses. “I don’t cook. I have friends over, maybe two or three at a time. That’s enough.”
By repainting the metal gate, Calvin preserved its nostalgic charm while giving it a subtle modern update. Being on the ground floor has its perks too, he even grew a mini garden right outside his home.
Old is Gold
He’s kept the original mosaic floor tiles and metal grilles, features most renovators would gut without a second thought. “I’d be a fool to hack the floor,” he says. “It reminds me of my childhood.” Even the petal-design metallic gate, now repainted, holds court like an artifact from another era, calmly defiant amid the upgrades.
The space is less about entertaining and more about being. One of Calvin’s favourite memories isn’t even indoors. Some years ago, a bulbul bird nested in his hanging plants. “I watched the babies hatch and fly off. That felt special,” he says.
Doing it Himself
Calvin isn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty either. Several of the wooden pieces in his home, such as the old teak cabinet, which was salvaged from a disposal corner near his home, have been refreshed with chalk paint, a matte-finish medium that adheres well to solid woods without much prep work.
“Chalk paint just works,” he says, referring to French brands he swears by. “It lets me modernise old pieces without erasing their character.” The effect is subtle but considered wooden textures muted in dusty teals and greys, never loud, just layered.
“A home without books has no soul,” Calvin says.
Inside, the flat is layered with objects that mean something to him: a cupboard once owned by artist Jimmy Ong, a side table salvaged from a junk shop in Rangoon Road, and various display pieces inherited from now-defunct fashion boutiques. The common thread? Everything is curated, edited, placed.
“You know, I repainted that old teak cabinet with chalk paint,” he says. “I just got tired of people saying it was retro.”
The Living Space
The living room, painted largely in a moody shade of green that changes in colour every few years, is where he spends most of his time. “The light comes in beautifully in the morning,” he says. “That’s why I never installed air-conditioning here. I keep the door open. I like seeing the plants.”
The coffee table in the living area used to be taller, Calvin says. Inspired by low-slung tables in Japanese homes, he had its legs cut down and gave it a fresh coat of teal paint to lighten its once-dark wood finish.
The Bedroom
His bedroom carries the same visual rhythm: CD racks turned shelves, memorabilia arranged by colour, fashion magazines stacked up in neat piles.
In the bedroom, a white hutch cabinet anchors the space; its open shelves styled with fashion books, art prints, and collected curios, while the glass-front base showcases magazine covers and framed photographs like a private gallery.
The cream-toned hutch cabinet is flanked by two contrasting characters: on one side, a bold red-and-blue metal cabinet that adds a graphic jolt; on the other, a tall, pale yellow wardrobe with vintage lines and a muted patina. The pairing is unexpectedly balanced; its old-meets-new tension offset by the playfulness of surrounding objects: a ceramic polar bear perched on stacked books, a small black lacquered drawer chest with butterfly motifs, and a low grey armchair that ties the mix together.
Calvin’s approach to home isn’t nostalgic. It’s ongoing. He paints, rearranges, and most importantly, he discards. “A home isn’t finished just because you moved in,” he says. “It takes time to get it right. And then sometimes you start over.”
If you asked him to sum up his journey, he’d call it illuminating. “This space feels lived in,” he says. “It has texture, stories. That’s what makes a home.”
And books, he adds, with a smile: “A home without books is like a person without a soul.”