Home Tour: $550,000 Renovation 40s APAC director couple’s resort-like 3-bedroom freehold apartment in Novena
By listening to what the clients want, ensuring that every detail is thoroughly thought through, and balancing budget with quality aesthetics, the interior designer has given the clients a timeless home that will grow with the family.
By Lynn Tan -
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Before embarking on the design and renovation of their newly-acquired apartment, Leon and Ping, APAC Head of Construction and APAC HR Senior Director respectively, carefully considered what they wanted for their new home, which they share with their 19-year-old daughter, Aimee, 18-year-old son, Keiran, and helper.
One of their top priorities was to ensure that the home is bright and airy and has good cross-ventilation throughout. As the couple frequently travel between Singapore and Australia, they wanted a resort feel for their home. The task of designing for the family was entrusted to interior designer Jane Febrina, Head Designer at Collective Designs.
“Even though the apartment is over 40 years old, was dark and in its original condition, with spacious bedrooms but unfortunately tiny bathrooms, I could see the potential as it is a sizeable unit,” she comments.
Who Lives Here: A couple in their late 40s, their two teenage children and a helper
Home: A 3-bedroom apartment in Novena
Size: 2,298 sqf
Interior designer: Jane Febrina, Head Designer at Collective Designs
Hotel-like living room design
The hotel lobby experience that the homeowners were after begins from the moment you cross the threshold. The existing double-leafed doors have been replaced with a new, 1.4-metre wide, single-leafed door that offers a grand and welcoming gesture.
In the living room, a bespoke round rug designed by Collective Designs forms a datum around which the clients’ existing collection of furniture and their baby grand piano and cello are arranged. It was important to the couple that everyone can socialise facing one another, instead of looking in different directions.
Dining room in a 3-bedroom private apartment in Novena.
Dining room design
The dining area underwent extensive reconfiguration, which made it possible to introduce a new dry kitchen and bar to complement the dining experience. As part of the reconfiguration, interior designer Jane incorporated a new wine cellar beside the dining area. With over 500 bottles of wine in their collection, it deserves special attention.
Home wine cellar
“The door to the wine cellar is finished in the same material as the dining room walls and the door frame is only on the inside. From the dining room, you only see a deliberate black gap that makes the door appear drawn-on, which adds a quirky touch,” she explains.
Master bedroom design
With a capacious master bedroom, space is not a constraint, so interior designer Jane focused her attention on making the room feel intimate and luxurious. A custom-designed headboard with a curved profile is meant to evoke a cosy and cocooning ambience. A walk-in wardrobe lies behind a concealed door from the sleeping area and leads into the attached master bathroom, which saw a major transformation.
Master bathroom design
One of the items on the couple’s wish list was to have a bathtub, but the small footprint of the existing master bathroom did not allow for this. With some reconfiguration, Jane managed to double the floor area and carve out a wet zone comprising a full-sized bathtub and shower compartment within a glass enclosure, and a dry zone with the vanity, wash basins and WC, which exemplify the resort style that Leon and Ping wanted.
However, achieving this was not without its challenges. interior designer Jane recalls: “One constraint was the sewage pipe and whether we could modify the outflow joint to the opposite direction, so that we can relocate the existing WC further away in order to create space for the new bathtub.”
In the living room of this 3-bedroom private apartment in Novena, a bespoke round rug designed by Collective Designs forms a datum around which the clients’ existing collection of furniture and their baby grand piano and cello are arranged.
Ceiling structural beam
Another tricky aspect of the project was the ceiling. The clients expressed their desire to maximise the floor-to-ceiling height within the living and dining rooms. Prior to the commencement of the works on site, there was no way of ascertaining the actual ceiling height of the apartment.
When the contractor started hacking, it was discovered that there was a structural beam between the proposed wet and dry kitchen. In order to mitigate the resultant difference in ceiling height, interior designer Jane promptly redesigned the ceiling, incorporating cascading levels that not only accommodate the structural beam, but also echo the difference in floor level between the living and dining rooms.
A cascading false ceiling follows the sunken living room's downward steps in this 3-bedroom private apartment in Novena.
$550,000 Renovation
The project took nine months from start to finish, including initial discussions and the design process, and the family moved into their new home in July 2023. The complete overhaul, which involved demolition of walls, hacking of the ceiling, overlaying the existing flooring and reconfiguring spaces, cost about $550,000.
For Leon and Ping, Collective Designs has managed to realise an “utterly perfect” design proposal and turned their wish list into reality. “They have made it possible to achieve both tranquillity and a forever home,” says the couple.