Home Tour: $95,000 Renovation for a banking couple’s 4-Room BTO in Ubi

It took homeowners Grace Wee and Ri Sheng Kwa seven attempts before they managed to get a BTO flat and the construction was slightly delayed due to the pandemic. Although these circumstances held back the couple’s plans to start their own home, the silver lining was that they had more time to save up for the renovations, which cost about $95,000 excluding furniture.

“We were able to allocate more budget for certain areas, spend on better quality materials and features such as an open-concept walk-in wardrobe and telescopic sliding glass doors,” says 38-year-old Ri Sheng, a bank executive.

Who Lives Here: A couple and their son
Home: A 4-room BTO flat in Ubi
Size: 1,001 sqf

Dan’s Workshop Interior Design

The extra time also allowed the couple to ponder over what they wanted for the interior design before approaching Dan’s Workshop, which they came across on Instagram. They showed up for the meeting with creative director, Dan Wu armed with a layout plan indicating the locations of key furniture. They were also very clear as to what they did and did not want. 35-year-old Grace, a bank associate highlights: “We both cannot deal with colours, so it was easy for us to decide on a monochromatic colour scheme.”

Consistency was an important part of the couple’s brief. “We wanted to have a place for everything, from furniture and appliances, right down to the docking station for our cleaning robot,” Ri Sheng adds. They also did not want any curved elements or anything that would go out of style. Timelessness was key.

Monochrome Interior Design

While the couple agreed on many aspects of the renovation, including going for a monochromatic colour scheme, there was a compromise that had to be made. Ri Sheng prefers dark colours while Grace likes lighter shades.

The solution was to allow each other to call the shots in different rooms- a dark-coloured kitchen and master bathroom for him and a light-coloured living room and flexi room for her. The result is a black, white and grey colour palette.

Full Height Cabinets

With a young child in the home, the young family needed ample storage to hide any mess. The full-height cabinets to the right of the entrance foyer offer not just storage; they also conceal the household shelter door. A recessed ledge with a bird lamp casts a soft and inviting glow.

Recessed Ceiling Track Lights

Dan put a lot of thought into using lighting to connect the various spaces and to orchestrate the spatial experiences. Recessed ceiling track lighting that runs from the entrance foyer to the living room draws you into the space.

Strip lighting along the top of the built-in cabinets at the entrance foyer turns the corner and continues all the way to the living room feature wall and helps to tie the two spaces together. The large format 900 mm x 900 mm homogeneous floor tiles, which have been used throughout the entire house, were selected to achieve a similar effect of seamlessness.

Monochrome Living Room

The living room is a light-coloured space that epitomises simplicity- no ceiling fan, no coffee table and no exposed cables. It is a well-restrained and controlled composition of elements that exudes a calm and quiet ambience.

The default dining area lies just outside the open-concept kitchen. This is where an extendable dining table usually sits. The couple often hosts their extended family and friends, so the three-metre table comes in handy for large gatherings. The mirrored backdrop is one of Grace’s favourites as it gives the illusion of a larger expanse of space.

Dining Room

One of the bedrooms beside the dining area is now a flexi-room that can function as a home office, an additional hosting area and even a guest bedroom when needed. It has been opened up by replacing the wall and door with telescopic sliding glass doors. They did not come cheap and the couple had to wait about three months for the fabrication, but it was all worth it.

“We love these glass doors as they allow us to convert the room for multiple purposes when needed,” Grace expresses. When not extended, the dining table fits comfortably into the room and can be used as a large work desk to complement a smaller desk concealed within the built-in cabinets.

All-Black Kitchen

Ri Sheng clearly had his way with the kitchen if the all-black colour palette is anything to go by, down to the appliances. Dan specified anti-fingerprint finishes for the built-in cabinets, an important consideration when working with dark-coloured environments. Lights flushed above the backsplash provide mood lighting and sufficient illumination for simple tasks around the kitchen. The ceiling downlights can be switched on when performing more complex household chores or when cooking.

Service Yard Hacked

The existing service yard door was hacked so that the yard space can be part of the kitchen. “The clients wanted to have the refrigerator in the yard. I originally thought that it was quite an unusual request and was not sure whether it would work out, but I was convinced eventually as it helps to free up more space within the kitchen itself,” Dan admits. The original kitchen wall and door have made way for telescopic sliding glass doors like the flexi-room. This allows the kitchen, dining area and the flexi-room to read as one fluid and interconnected space.

Monochrome Master Bedroom

The highlight in the master bedroom is the walk-in wardrobe. The open rail system enclosed by floor-to-ceiling, dark tinted glass is an unobtrusive presence within the room, yet elegant and practical. The glass also allows a certain amount of natural light to filter through from the bedroom windows.

Drawing inspiration from luxury hotels, Ri Sheng went for a grey-black master bathroom, even a grey water closet, as he finds the dark setting relaxing and therapeutic.

3-Month-long renovation

The renovation took about three months and the family moved into their new home in November 2023. “Our son just turned three and with the space that we have, we managed to host our extended family for a mini birthday celebration in our new home,” Grace shares happily. As for Ri Sheng, he says: “Our home is a minimalist and comfortable space that we look forward to coming home to every day.”