Home Tour: A banking couple’s $75,000 French Retro renovation for their 5-room HDB in Tengah
By Shannon Osztonits -
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In today’s modern society, is there anything technology can’t do? While these homeowners purposefully chose to steer clear of contemporary/futuristic styles for this renovation, it was with the help of the Chinese app, Little Red Book, that the millennial family discovered their Dream Home theme: French Retro (法式复古).
Working with the perfect interior designer, Jeremy from RENOSTUD.IO, who understood their vision clearly from the get-go, their brief included a space that is “aesthetic yet not overly complicated,” explains the homeowners, “so that we will feel relaxed when we are at home.”
Jeremy was also inspired by the unit’s amount of natural light. This factor is common among Paris’ Haussmannian-style buildings, which is perhaps what made the interior designer think of the City of Light’s architecture. “In general, I’m inspired by the wall and ceiling detail that Parisian apartments have,” says interior designer Jeremy, “(and the) generous use of ornate cornices and floor skirtings.”
Fluted glass archways are heroed, along with a colour palette of deep greens, blues, and monochromes of black and white, as well as custom carpentry.
“Jeremy suggested to us to stick to two to three paint colours per room,” says the homeowner, “so that the room will not feel overly complicated. We then added different colours like blue/green to the house theme through furniture or the laminate colours of our cabinets.”
The overall vibe is très chic. Stepping inside the French-inspired 3-bedroom (5-room HDB) family home, you could very much be somewhere in Paris. It’s timeless and elegant, but still speaks of the homeowners’ personality. “We like to keep things simple in life, and we feel our home reflects this personality a lot.”
Who Lives Here: A 36-year-old and a 32-year-old husband and wife in the banking industry
Home: A 5-room HDB in Tengah
Size: 1,200 sq ft
Interior designer: Jeremy from RENOSTUD.IO
The kitchen opening to the dining area in front.
5-Room HDB in Tengah
A 5-room HDB in Tengah, there is the master bedroom, an entirely dedicated wardrobe room, a study/ baby room, a dining area, a kitchen, and the living room. This husband and wife reside here with their newborn.
The homeowners were drawn to this particular property because of the Tengah BTO project’s specific ideation: to build Tengah as a forest city. The sustainable and eco-friendly features that the Tengah area plans to implement into its HDB homes were more exciting propositions for this family.
All of the furniture and appliances are brand new, sourced by the family, with some suggestions from the interior design team.
Taking into consideration the owners’ desire for a French retro home reminiscent of classic old European charm — as well as a space to meet their current lifestyle and future needs (like storage and space for the little one) — the interior designer began designing the home, where the layout took into account the human circulation side of things first. Then, he began incorporating design principles such as balance, symmetry, and contrast.
French Retro Kitchen Design
The sleek kitchen is a prime example of how one can create an interesting kitchen with not an excessive amount of space.
A kitchen island countertop with recessing window doors is such a clever way of partitioning off the kitchen, yet allowing for an open-plan feeling area when required. For example, when entertaining guests or seated at the dining table in front.
Not building top shelves for the kitchen was very much intentional, as the wife is not very tall.
“The kitchen used to be an open kitchen. Interior designer Jeremy’s team then suggested building a row of cabinets opposite the stove instead, which was a great idea as now we have a kitchen island with extra storage space and food preparation place,” explains the husband, “as well as being able to engage our family and friends at the dining area from the kitchen directly.”
Although it appears like marble on the kitchen backsplash, a large format tile was selected to match the theme. It’s a cost-saver, but still feels expensive. The countertops are sintered stone.
A corner pendant light adds a lovely touch of geometry, as well as depth.
The marble dining table is certainly a statement piece.
French Retro Dining Design
Directly in front of the kitchen is the dining table/ area, one of the interior designer’s favourite areas in the home.
The custom-made round dining table is constructed from marble. A neoclassical-esque pendant light hangs above the dining table.
To the left-hand side of the dining area (if directly facing the kitchen) is a custom-carpentry bookshelf, designed to reflect the glass archways as seen in the rest of the home. This elevates a sense of flow.
The living room is stylish, warm, and inviting.
The living room is stylish, warm, and inviting.
French Retro Living Room Design
Not over-stylising the living room, the homeowners purposefully strayed away from too much carpentry and furniture in the living room. “It appears more spacious, and the selected paint colours are easy on the eyes,” tells the homeowner.
Floor-to-ceiling French boiserie is used for the living room walls, adding sophistication and a bit of a “historic” feel, lending to that old-world European aesthetic. An arched window separates the living room and foyer.
Looks can be deceiving; the custom-built unit below the TV is constructed from wood!
Chandelier-looking wall sconces decorate either side of the TV, transporting one to France circa the 18th century. It’s no surprise this stunning setting is the family’s favourite space in the home.
“Both my wife and I love kids,” says the homeowner, “so when guests come over with their kids, they love to run around the living room because of how much space there is.”
The entrance foyer doubles as a storage space, elevated by an arched window feature
French Retro Foyer
Next to the living room, on the opposite side of the fluted glass arched window, is a foyer area. It’s striking and classy; an allusion to what awaits guests throughout the rest of the home.
“We requested our ID, Jeremy, to build a partition with a see-through blurred glass window in the living room to mirror a foyer when we welcome guests to our home,” details the homeowner.
More than just a welcoming entrance, there is also storage here.
“We removed the DB doors and customized storage outside of it,” says Jeremy. “On the other side, we built carpentry to conceal the household shelter door and provide storage as well.”
The arched custom-built bookcase by the dining area.
Arched Design
One interior design element that’s hard to miss is the recurring use of arched design in the home.
This was proposed by the interior design team, and there are two arched window spaces: one at the entrance and the other behind the dining table. It adds another dimension to the home.
The blue and white themed Master Bedroom.
French Retro Master Bedroom Design
One unusual feature, especially among Singaporean households, is the lack of electronics in the master bedroom. Again, small, intentional details like this reflect the old worldy feels, as well as the family’s personality. The bedroom has its own en suite.
Overall, the homeowners wanted to replicate the primary after Paris’ Hotel Chou Chou, where they stayed.
“We really like their blue and white theme hotel rooms,” describes the homeowner. Their dark navy colour palette mirrors this.
In Parisian apartments, bay windows are a common architectural feature. The bay window/ seating area was custom-built by the interior design team.
The wardrobe room with storage and a vanity.
Walk-In Wardrobe Design
It’s probably every woman’s dream to have an entire bedroom solely for a wardrobe space. One of the rooms was converted into a walk-in wardrobe room.
But beyond just a place for clothing, there was more thought behind the reasoning.
One might notice that the house doesn’t have an awful lot of storage in the other rooms, purposefully requested by the family to avoid unnecessary carpentry that tends to look bulky or too stuffy.
“We did not build a lot of cabinets around the house as we want the house to be spacious,” says the owner, “so most of the cabinets were built in that room instead.”
Although it’s a wardrobe room, they still wanted the space to look and feel elegant and classy — which it does. Following a light grey and white colour palette, there’s also a vanity in here.
The bathroom with blue subway tiles.
French Retro Bathroom Design
The home has two bathrooms, including one en suite.
Interestingly, the bathrooms’ design was inspired by the colours and details of the combination of subway and grid tiles used in both.
While the bathrooms share some similarities, their colour palette differs, but continues with the same blue and green tones as the rest of the home. European-style floor tiles are used in bathrooms one and two.
The finishing touches that bring in that French design element are the use of wall sconces and pendant lights instead of modern recessed lighting, as well as the brass-like finishes in the showers.
The design and construction process took approximately four months, with no delays.
The homeowners requested that one of the bedrooms (previously used as a study) not have too many renovations done to it. At the initial renovation time, the family did not have any children, but the plan was always to convert this room into a children’s bedroom. Chatting to the couple now, they have welcomed their newborn.
“Currently, my wife is slowly designing this room to become a happy place for our son,” tells the homeowner.
Overall, the interior design team hit the nail brief on the head with this one. “My part was to conduct research on elements suitable for the house, create a layout that meets their needs, and propose an overall concept that incorporates their love for French details and colours,” tells interior designer Jeremy.