Home Tour: $80,000 Minimalist renovation for a civil servant and opportunity manager’s 4-room BTO in Yishun
With his industrial design eye, Russell teamed up with his ex-classmate Natalie to reimagine his matrimonial home—a minimalist yet personalised space defined by clever planning and a dramatic granite island.
By Gwyneth Goh -
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When Russell received the keys to his BTO flat in Yishun, he already knew who he wanted to collaborate with on the renovation. Natalie, his ex-classmate turned interior designer, was the natural choice—she understood his quirks and preferences from years back, and they had even worked together previously on the renovation of his parents’ place.
With his background in industrial design, homeowner Russell approached the process with a clear sense of purpose: the home needed to be minimalist, efficient, and shaped around their daily routines. Natalie embraced this philosophy, translating Russell’s practical ideas into spatial solutions that balanced restraint with warmth. Together, they shaped a home that feels both pared-back and deeply personal, with every detail designed around the way he and Yvette live day to day.
Who Lives Here: Russell, a civil servant designing digital products, his wife Yvette, an opportunity manager in a tech firm, and their two dogs
Home: A 4-room BTO flat in Yishun Ave 6
Size: 1,001 sq ft
Interior Designer: Natalie Chin, Roughsketch Pte Ltd
The living area is anchored by a projector-friendly wall and long sofa, designed for openness and flow.
Floor-to-ceiling curtains frame the space, with functional gadgets tucked neatly into corners.
Living Room Design
The most striking move in this Yishun flat was structural: two of the bedrooms were hacked away to create an expansive living and dining area. The result is a space that feels far larger than its 1,001 sq ft footprint, designed around openness and flow.
Homeowner Yvette shares with a laugh: “Everything is open, it’s like a giant studio apartment. We like to joke with our friends who ask for a house tour: it’s just a one-bedroom apartment.”
The ceiling here tells a story of precision. To conceal aircon trunking and ensure the curtain tracks aligned perfectly when drawn across the projector screen, interior designer Natalie deliberately dropped part of the ceiling lower. “It took a little trial and error,” she says, recalling how they repeatedly tested the height to strike the right balance of proportion and function.
For homeowner Russell, the choice of a projector instead of a television was key to keeping this sense of spaciousness. “The biggest thing that bugs me is the giant big box,” he explains. “With a projector, we can put it away when we’re not using it. It makes the space feel bigger and brighter. The living room was two bedrooms combined, so the dogs can run around, and kids too—it’s quite big in that sense for a HDB.”
A pared-back dining table sits under a sculptural pendant, keeping the look minimalist yet distinctive.
Dining Room Design
Set right beside the large living room, the dining area is pared-back yet purposeful—occupying the space that was originally HDB-designated as the living area. Without heavy partitions, it shares in the openness of the combined rooms, making everyday meals feel casual and connected. The clean-lined table sits beneath simple pendants, reinforcing the couple’s preference for essentials over embellishment.
The study nook doubles as a shared workspace, compact yet efficient.
Concealed cabinetry hides away the work desk, keeping clutter out of sight when not in use.
The Stowaway Study Room
Directly in front of the dining table is the enclosed study—one of homeowner Russell’s non-negotiables. “We also needed a study, but we’d knocked everything down so there wasn’t really much space for a study,” he explains.
The solution was to tuck it into a small nook that can be closed off when not in use. “We knew that we wouldn’t be working when we were hosting, so it makes a lot of sense to use the space that way. That’s also the messiest space in the house, so it makes sense to be able to hide away the mess.”
By integrating the study into cabinetry that blends with the larger wall cladding, interior designer Natalie ensured the dining zone remains uncluttered, whether the couple are working or entertaining. This way, when the couple aren’t working, the doors can be closed and the work “mess” instantly disappears from sight.
The dramatic granite island is the centrepiece of the home, built for cooking and entertaining.
A dedicated pantry wall houses the couple’s coffee and tea setup, aligned seamlessly into the cabinetry.
Details of the stone island showcase its textured grain, the visual anchor of the kitchen.
The Kitchen Design
If the living area is about openness, the kitchen is about precision. Every cabinet and surface was carefully planned to maximise efficiency while maintaining the home’s minimalist clarity. At the centre sits the granite island—the anchor piece of the home. “The island, the granite that was selected… that was the main piece that stood out in the whole house and is also the centrepiece as well,” says interior designer Natalie.
Because Russell and Yvette cook often, storage and workflow were paramount. The cabinetry was designed to appear seamless, with magnetic closures and flush finishes eliminating gaps. Even the yard wall was hacked to extend the kitchen outward, making room for a deeper cooking area and tucking the fridge partly into the yard to give it a built-in look.
The island doubles as a social hub, with appliances tucked discreetly into the wall behind.
A shallower pantry cabinet accommodates the coffee machine, while the wine cabinet was pushed deeper into the storage wall to align perfectly with its neighbours. “We went quite extreme to match up to this clean look,” interior designer Natalie recalls. “Everything is flush, there are no gaps.”
The concealed door to the service yard continues this sleekness—indistinguishable from the rest of the cabinetry until opened. This is a space designed not only for daily cooking but also for entertaining, with the island serving as a social hub when friends gather.
Wood cladding hides bathroom doors and wardrobes, keeping the living area calm and uncluttered.
Concealed Doors
Running alongside the wall behind the long sofa, what looks like simple wood cladding actually conceals the entrances to both bathrooms as well as the couple’s wardrobe storage—stretching seamlessly from the kitchen all the way into the master bedroom.
By tucking these necessities behind a continuous plane, interior designer Natalie ensured the room feels clean and uncluttered, with no bulky wardrobes or doors breaking up the lines. “All the clutteredness and storage is parked against the wall,” she explains. “As you walk along the wall, it’s actually hidden storage and hidden doors.”
Even the ironing board folds away into built-in storage—proof of the home’s space efficiency.
To make this possible, Natalie and Russell eked out extra inches by pushing the cabinetry into the corridor space. “The typical BTO corridor space, we aimed to reduce the wasted space in the corridor,” interior designer Natalie adds. “That’s why the space between the cladding and the sofa is quite near.” The result is a wall that presents a calm and consistent appearance, while secretly working hard to keep clutter at bay.
Concealed panels open to reveal the master suite, maintaining the home’s minimalist lines.
Master Bedroom Design
The reddish wood laminate that begins along the living room wall flows seamlessly into the master bedroom, uniting bedhead, wardrobe, and bathroom doors into one continuous plane. The effect is intentional—a room that feels composed and uncluttered, with no obvious breaks between sleeping and storage zones.
“You wouldn’t see—that’s how they hide all their storage to be clean,” interior designer Natalie explains. “It’s one whole wall from the kitchen all the way to the bedhead. That whole row consists of two toilet doors as well as their wardrobe storage.”
Sheer curtains soften the light, balancing privacy with openness.
For homeowner Russell, it was equally important to keep distractions out of this space. “For us, the bedroom is a place to rest, chill—that’s why we decided to not have anything in the bedroom,” he explains, “It just brings us mental peace, to not have anything going on in the bedroom.” This decision reinforces the calm, pared-back atmosphere, with the reddish tones of the laminate adding warmth and intimacy to minimalist lines.
The master bath conceals piping behind a tiled false wall, which doubles as a built-in niche.
Bathroom Design
Both bathrooms came with site-related challenges that demanded inventive solutions. In the common bath, the vanity had to be reconfigured around a dark grey tiled pillar — built deliberately to conceal awkward drainage pipes. “It looks intentional, but that’s actually where the original pipe was,” interior designer Natalie explains.
The master bathroom had its own constraints, with sewage and aircon piping running along one wall. To resolve this, Natalie clad the area with a false wall that also functions as a shower niche, keeping the space visually clean while hiding the services behind.
The couple also decided to repurpose the common shower area to house the washing machine, since they anticipated little need for a second shower. This freed up the yard to become an extended pantry, a move that reflects the project’s overall focus on space efficiency and tailored planning.
The master bathroom is designed with clean lines and clever concealment, balancing practicality with a minimalist calm.
$80,000 Renovation Cost
The renovation, which cost around $80,000, took about four months to complete after careful pre-planning. Every wall hacked, cabinet tucked, and detail flushed into place reflects the collaborative process between homeowner Russell, with his industrial design eye, and interior designer Natalie, who helped translate his ideas into an executable spatial plan.
For homeowner Yvette, the outcome goes beyond aesthetics. “Home is like a safe haven for us to relax and spend time,” she says. “That’s how we create the spaces in our house, to host our friends. That’s how we sort of started with our design of the functional spaces in the house.”
The result is a flat that feels like an expansive studio apartment—open, efficient, and deceptively simple. What began as a typical BTO has been transformed into a home that reflects both precision and personality, a sanctuary for daily life as well as a place to welcome friends.