House Tour: Modern monochrome bungalow in Ampang Melawati, Kuala Lumpur
By Melody Bay -
Editor's Note: This project garnered the Silver award for Best Residential Design (Private Houses), at the IDCS 2020 Design Excellence Awards.
Managing the spatial flow of a home is no easy feat, especially when the layout is long and narrow, but the interior designers at Pins Studio got it right for this landed zero-lot bungalow in Ampang Melawati, Kuala Lumpur.
The interior design team removed the walls where possible to open up the spaces on the ground floor, making way for a living hall, dining area, dry kitchen and wet kitchen.
In order to visually segregate the different areas while allowing them to transition smoothly into each other, they used semi-open display panels and a gradient monochrome palette that subtly defines each space.
Who lives here: A three-generation family of five
Type of home: Landed zero-lot in Ampang Melawati, Malaysia
Size of home: 5,367 sq ft (498 sqm)
Interior Designer: Pins Studio
Different design for every room
The result is a different experience and ambience in each room, even though the home is technically an open-plan one.
"The house is modern, minimalist and luxurious all in one," says the design team.
“The main challenge was deciding how to bring a different experience into each space, and how to use the colour tones to transition from one space to another. We are glad we went for it as the interplay of different materials and tonal values resulted in a strong design outcome.”
Zero lot bungalow
This zero-lot bungalow (meaning: the actual house veers close to the property lines) in Kuala Lumpur features an open-plan space subtly defined by a gradient monochrome palette and luxe touches.
Dark Living Room Aesthetic
The living area features custom-designed floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors.
Dark wood and artfully-placed lighting creates both formality and sensuality, balanced out by the soft furnishings that help to make the space cosier.
Dark Leather Couch
Design elements like a modern leather sofa and marble finishes add a touch of luxury.
Living Room Design
A row of partitions helps to divide up the long space into two main areas, the living area and dry kitchen.
This also helps to ensure that natural light and airflow are optimised, and that the living room is still bright in the daytime.
Monochrome Interior Design
To help the spaces flow into each other without jarring the eye, the design team used a gradient approach for the colour.
The dark tones of the living room gradually become lighter here in the dry kitchen, while retaining the same monochrome palette and polished surfaces.
Dining Pendant Lights
It's a similar approach for the dining room. Here, the pendant lighting makes an architectural statement with their sculptural form.
Dark Bedroom Design
Upstairs, the master bedroom has a similar dark palette. Here, the bedhead panelling is angled as a design statement.
Bedroom Decor
Another one of the three bedrooms on the upper level. Touches like the leather office chair and cowhide rug echo the design elements of the living room downstairs.
Bathroom with walk in wardrobe
The homeowners wanted a walk-in wardrobe, but the original layout was not ideal as the space between the ensuite bathroom and the bedroom was very tight.
To resolve this, the design team took down the adjacent walls to create an open-concept bathroom.
This made way for a walk-in wardrobe that is separated from the bathroom by a panel of black glass.
The dark palette of the wardrobe contrasts with the sleek white countertop of the washbasin area, once again bringing in the gradient approach that was used on the floor below.
This article was first published in December 2020.