This interior designer learned to trust her gut for her $150k renovation (4-room Bidadari BTO)
“The overall mood and feel of the home–we love how it turned out to be a space that is quiet, comfortable, and easy to live in.”
By Shannon Osztonits -
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The art of design…(After all, it is an art form.)
Sometimes, the most perfect examples of beautiful design shine through when you’re designing for yourself, and no one else.
This personal home of interior designer Melissa Wan and her husband Wei Liang is a pure testament of how a quiet space doesn’t always have to be a minimalist design, nor overly modern. Instead, it leans into the things that Melissa loves, as well as a few leniencies to accommodate her hubby’s requests–naturally.
Playing with familiar design elements that the interior designer has picked up through work with clients, as well as inheriting trends (without realising it, understandable though in her line of work), like hints of chrome, this house feels very much like a designer space. An apartment you might stumble upon in Tribeca, NYC...
It’s zen but full of personality. Bright and airy in certain rooms, but with other areas that completely sway from the rest of the home’s design, yet work. It celebrates geometric patterns. Bold colours, but natural palettes.
Starting with the layout
Looks and design weren’t the first things that the homeowner thought of when she and her husband landed their home.
“I kept thinking to myself, what do I really envision for the space? First and foremost, I thought I knew we wanted to stay in this space for at least 10 years,” says Melissa. “The layout was very important, whether this is because we want to have kids down the line, our needs change, we want enough storage…Once I had the layout, I could then envision how each room to be.”
Who Lives Here: A Singaporean wife (Interior Designer) and husband (Engineer) in the start of their 30s
Home: 4-room BTO
Size: 1,003 sq ft
Interior designer: Self-designed by homeowner, Melissa Wan, from Studio HP
During this full renovation, the couple did all of the flooring, from screeding to tiling, building everything from the ground up, including hacking works. The current layout comprises two bedrooms (originally there were three, but the couple knocked down one room to convert the space into a large dining room), two bathrooms, a living and dining room, a kitchen, a study, and foyer.
The couple love the neighbourhood that they’re in, which is quiet yet walking distance to all amenities and the MRT. A key selling point for them was how easy it is to travel around from here.
Describing their home in a few words, Melissa puts it as: “Modern, elegant and with personality.”
Zen Living Room
Soothing Japanese aesthetics, most obviously, Wabi Sabi, create a very calming and relaxed feel when entering the living room.
“There are certain elements of Wabi Sabi, because my husband was the one who, from the get-go, was quite clear that he likes the Wabi Sabi style,” explains Melissa. “There are elements of it so that he is happy as well.”
A lightly coloured Castlery sofa matches the ambience of the room, with a small, unobtrusive dark wood coffee table from Hay. The Jaipur Rugs carpet shows off Melissa’s love for geometric patterns. The planter lends another Japanese touch.
Turning to natural tones, the room is airy and bright, but still has a warm feeling. The interior designer opted for an oak-looking laminate to help with this, which is installed vertically across the entirety of one wall, as well as used for the bottom TV console (but here, the pattern runs horizontally).
The homeowners added a false ceiling with cove lighting at the back and front of the room, and opted for light-filtering curtains.
Bright & Airy Dining Room
The living room leads straight into the dining room, with no walls separating the areas, allowing the home to feel even bigger.
Melissa used the same oak laminate for the dining room wall, balanced with a solid black wood dining table from Castlery. Forgoing the typical dining set, the homeowners have dining chairs with a metal structure, as Melissa wanted to play with silver accents for these chairs.
“I knew I wanted a decorative pendant light in the dining somehow. When I saw this one, I thought it was timeless and can see myself still liking it in 10 years,” says Melissa.
The light-filtering ribbed curtains are the same as the ones in the living room.
Moody-Meets-Inspiring Office Space
Whilst the study was the last room that Melissa worked on design-wise, it has ended up being her (current) favourite space in her home; a place she feels most inspired work-wise.
“It was a very last-minute decision for me to add wallpaper, but it felt very satisfying to me how it all turned out. I really get inspired by the mood in this room,” tells Melissa.
Drawn to its reddish colour, the interior designer fell in love with the wallpaper because it lends a different look and feel in this room compared to the rest of the home.
“It doesn’t feel exactly the same. I wanted this to be the chance that I do something a little different.”
With its dark and edgy pattern, the wallpaper (‘Zebra Moonbeam’ by Masureel) is another example of the designer’s love for patterns.
Next to her workstation (desk is from Interdesk), Melissa opted for a storage decor piece that is also multifunctional. The reason? Her workdesk has wheels, so when they have guests over, the study converts into a guest bedroom, and this storage table becomes a bedside one. The lamp is from Bali.
Looking closely at the curtains (from Drapes Studio), you’ll notice another fun print: little horses!
Red Wine Powder Bathroom
A very intentional space, the red wine and geometric print powder guest bathroom goes to show how a bathroom can be a star of the show.
“As I was designing the home, I noticed that I really liked patterns, so I leaned into this,” says the interior designer.
She knew playing with geometric shapes for this bathroom was a must–a space she wanted to be impactful. Once she had finalised the dramatic black and white triangle-print tiles (which Melissa purposefully placed at odd angles), she designed the rest of the room around them.
“Matching the wall tile was easy. I wanted a soothing tile and to keep the party on the floor,” she details. “The ceiling colour didn’t come immediately. I felt like the tiles were black and white, so then I had the idea of injecting a pop of colour in the ceiling. Once I did that, I couldn’t go back. I tried different colour combinations, but nothing felt quite right except for this very specific wine red.”
Melissa’s boss (and mentor) gave her the idea to border the floor in the same red wine colour as the ceiling, creating a little drama, and it also adds a lovely, thoughtful detail.
The gun metal sink from Modeste is the perfect colour for this room. It sits on a custom-built vanity, constructed from a matte black laminate with a sintered stone top.
Elegant Master Bedroom
Bringing peace and elegance, the master bedroom is done up in creamy tones and soft textures.
The king-size bed is supported by a velvet-like headboard with a piece of art above; a print with a very soothing texture.
Space-saving (but also extremely aesthetically pleasing), Melissa opted for black wood semi-circle floating shelves over bedside tables. Drawing in geometric shapes is a set of triangular chrome reading lights.
The master features wheat-coloured Roman blinds (for night) and softer curtains for the day.
Playing around with the space that they had, the homeowners had a piece of custom-built carpentry made for a set of black wood drawers, extending all the way across one half of the room. With both sliding slim pull-out drawers and cupboards for clothing and storage, this unit also doubles as a vanity in the centre. Here, the top part flips up to a mirror with more storage inside for Melissa’s beauty products. A red niche stool slides in underneath.
“One of the reasons why we did the custom carpentry piece is that the cabinet covers a portion of the window overlooking a school below. It covers this view, also acting as a privacy piece,” says the homeowner. “A typical way people do their wardrobes is an L-shaped wardrobe or a walk-in, but after thinking super long about the room space, I felt this way is a better use of space. We went with breaking it up instead.”
The sliding cupboard across also feels very Japanese Zen-like, with its linen-textured laminate.
Roundball sconces on the side of the cupboard add warm ambient lighting. From here, ribbed fluted glass doors open up to the primary en suite.
Calm Primary En Suite
Melissa went for an interesting yet calming look for the primary en suite, using large-format sand terrazzo tiles for both the floors and walls. All of the house’s tiles are from Hafary.
The top cabinet is adorned with a large mirror. Outer shelves decorate the edges of this and match the cabinets below. The sink countertop is sintered stone, and the bathroom comprises a toilet, sink and shower.
Classy Kitchen
Opting for a dark wood laminate for the kitchen, this was used for both top and bottom cabinets, as well as the structure of the kitchen island. The upper half of the kitchen has a two-tier set of cabinets (the bottom layer is a grey-coloured laminate).
For a seamless feel, sintered stone features across the countertops (including the island) as well as for the kitchen backsplash.
Matte Black Foyer
“I colour-drenched the entire foyer area in a matte black paint: walls, ceiling and cabinets as well…The matte colour is also more for longevity and fingerprints.”
The light oak laminate in the entrance matches the living and dining rooms.
Making a statement is the foyer’s chandelier, with a round ball centre light and statement linen-like cones around it.
“The reason why we liked this particular light is when you switch it on, because of the glass, it gives off a shadow (especially at night), when it bounces off the shape of the pendant light itself,” recalls the homeowner.
The process
Whilst the design has been an ongoing thing, design and construction works took a total of six months.
“Apart from having to adapt to the structural elements on-site and make small modifications to the design after getting the keys, I would say the renovation phase was pretty smooth! The main challenge for me was actually deciding what design direction to take,” says Melissa.
“As an interior designer who works with many different aesthetics tailored to each client, when designing my own home, I had to really step back and reflect on what I personally enjoy and want to live with.”
There is another very important self-reflection that Melissa took away from this process, and that is to trust herself. Designing homes for others comes so easily to her, but when it came down to designing her own home, she found herself second-guessing things.
“I leaned on my mentor for resounding advice, and I learned to really trust myself and trust my gut. In the end, it turned out exactly as I wanted. Zero regrets.”