$45,000 Mid-Century Peranakan Renovation for Interracial Couple Nurul & Chen's 4-Room HDB BTO
Newlywed homeowners Nurul & Chen recount their first meeting and how their relationship began with a curry puff and resulted in the very Singaporean "Want to apply for BTO?".
Embark on a captivating journey with My First Home, an exclusive series presented by Home & Decor, where dreams of homeownership come to life. Tune in for a glimpse into the HDB home design evolution and witness dream home transformations.
Home Tours & Personal Tales
My First Home unfolds the diverse and inspiring stories of individuals from various walks of life as they take on the adventure of creating their first homes. From the excitement of newlyweds setting up their brand new BTO nest, to the ambitions of young singles in a 2-room flexi floor plan, and the unity of families in resale HDB units, 'My First Home' is a celebration of resilience, creativity, and Singapore's iconic 'Can-Do' spirit to make the best of every space and situation.
Solutions to HDB Design Challenges
Each episode showcases the renovation and emotional challenges encountered by the owners, from working out room layouts to fit specific needs, to injecting flair and style into a standard-issue HDB flat, and the ingenious solutions found, proving that with determination, the dream of the perfect home is within reach for everyone.
Get inspired by the community spirit and the enriching living environment of the heartland estates, and begin the journey to making your first home a reality. Watch Home & Decor Singapore's My First Home now and let your home-making journey begin.
My First Home is available on www.homeanddecor.com.sg as well as Home & Decor's social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok).
Episode 1: Part 1
Episode 1: Part 2
Episode 1: "Want to BTO?"
Couple met on Tinder
Nurul: We first met on Tinder, actually. But I wasn’t the one who swiped right on him. My friend, in a way, helped me to swipe right like as a joke but… Okay, (he) turned out to be handsome and nice, so (it’s) okay.
Chen: Eventually, when we are about to get married, then we just asked each other, you know, like, “Want to BTO or not?”
Nurul: And I said yes! So… There we go! Before we BTO (Build-To-Order) for our home, we actually met on Tinder two years before that.
Chen: So our first meet up was at Terminal 2 Transit because we were both working at the airport. Then she bought me a curry puff. Then after she passed it to me and then she just ran away. Just had one glance (of her), then after that she just ran off. And I was also like, I didn’t know how to react to that.
Nurul: Sorry.
Chen: Then after that, I just texted her and said, “What happened?” People would think that she’s very shy, very soft-spoken. But when you get along with her, you’ll realize that she’s really funny. She shares the same sense of humour with me. So we have little jokes that I don’t think a lot of people would understand. So it’s just between the both of us that we find it very funny.
Chen: I wanted to marry Nurul because I felt like the time was right. She’s the right person, I feel, because
I can totally be myself when I’m around around her. She’s the… I think probably the only person who
can make me feel this way.
Chinese Malay Interracial Couple
Nurul: Aww. When we first started dating, I mean, of course he is Chinese and of course, I also had my doubts at that time. But getting to know him and everything, I found that he is very close to his family. So that was what I felt was important. Like, I saw a family man in him. So I thought, “Okay this was the one.”
Yeah.
Chen: All along, my social circle, my friends are all Malay-Muslims. So in a way, my parents kind of saw it coming that I will eventually marry a Malay girl. When the dating got to the part that we need to discuss about getting married, then my dad was more chill. He didn’t really have much questions. He (said), “Anything just okay. You happy can already.” But my mum is more of the vocal one in the family, so obviously she’d got things to say.
Husband converted to Islam
My mum is a housewife ever since I was young. So she’s been cooking for… I don’t know how many years. So the moment that I needed to convert, we need to eat a certain way. So she had questions like she couldn’t cook for us anymore. Couldn’t cook for me anymore when I come over to her place. It took time to address all her questions to make sure that she’s comfortable of me converting to another religion.
Family adapted to changes
Nurul: She was able to make these little changes in the way she makes her food, in a bit of (her) lifestyle, also. It shows that she accepts me for who I am and also she loves me as her daughter, so yeah, it’s very touching. It’s very nice of her. Luckily, my mum was okay about him. It’s just that she also had her concerns and everything. But we managed to sort that out. I just thought it was the right time because we were going to eventually get married. Yeah, so we just thought, “Okay, just go and get the BTO.”
While we were designing this house, of course our parents had a lot of things to say. But eventually, I managed to convince them on why I wanted it to be this way and that way. My mum had a lot of things to say when we were designing the house but when she finally saw the outcome, she said when she comes over, it’s like a staycation.
4-Room HDB BTO
Chen: This is our 4-room HDB BTO apartment. The size is 1,001 sq ft. And there is no hacking, so we got the house as it is.
Nurul: While designing this house, it was mostly me who made the decisions. He was just my… advisor. I know I wanted our home to not only be nicely designed, I wanted it to be something which shows our personalities also, at the same time.
Mid-Century Modern Interior Design
For our home, I wanted a Mid-Century Modern theme. I felt like it was important to have both our cultures in this house because Number One, I thought it would be interesting. Chinese and Malay cultures together, it would (definitely) be something nice, right? Yeah, we’re a bit rojak (mixed), I guess so I think Mid-Century Modern would be the best theme for our home because you can pretty much use any kinds of decor, any kind of colours even. So this is our living room, Mid-Century Modern themed. This is our bookshelf which pretty much has most of my books.
Over here, we have the feature wall of our favourite things, mostly. Okay, so we start from here. This is a poster of Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ album, right?
Chen: Yes.
Nurul: Yeah, so that’s his favourite band. And then, we have The Office which is one of our favourite comedies of all time. And Peaky Blinders as well. And Anfield obviously that is his favourite football team, Liverpool.
Chen: Then there’s also the Happy Place and The Couch Club which…
Nurul: Is just a little bit of colour to the whole wall. While we were still dating, we spent most of our time
at Teo Heng singing, although we cannot sing at all. You know, when we got our BTO (unit), we instantly knew that the first thing (we) wanted to get for the home was a karaoke set. So actually, we got the popsicle karaoke set even before we got the keys.
Chen: We believe we are very good singers. But when our friends come over and hear us sing, I think they are just being nice to say that we sing nice but we are actually very bad singers.
Kopitiam-style Dining Room
Nurul: The heart of the home is our dining area. From the dining area, you get to see different aspects of the house. And also, we have this signboard at the back. When we go to coffee shops, you know some of them, they have this sign. Then I was like, “I think this would be a nice addition to our dining area, makes it look complete. I wanted it to be a kopitiam theme. Both of our families actually like to to come together here, to have our meals. I think it’s very heartwarming that our parents appreciate this area very much.
Actually, not (just) our parents, our friends, also, when they come over where you just come together, you just sit here and just chit chat like a normal kopitiam!
At my mum’s place, we also had wooden furniture. My mum loves wooden furniture. For myself, I think it got to me as well. So that’s why I wanted wooden furniture for our home as well. That’s how I know I wanted Mid-Century Modern because of all the wooden elements that I want in the home.
Chen: The plaque, it came from the Chinese idiom, “饮水思源” which means to remember your roots, where you came from. So it’s also a way to assure my parents that even if I have a change of faith, me converting into Islam, and showing them that I’ll always remember them and I’ll be grateful for them, yeah.
Peranakan-style Kitchen
Nurul: Our kitchen, as you can see, it’s a very Peranakan style. For the Colonial style cabinets, that was my (interior designer) ID’s idea, actually. She was the one with the idea to put rattan laminates which I thought was really a nice touch to the whole dining area and kitchen area. But for the backsplash, that was my idea because I didn’t want something plain. I wanted the backsplash to be a bit more lively. I mean, with the prints and everything, it adds on to the Peranakan look. It’s actually very easy to clean but this one, (you) must ask Chen because he does most of the cooking and cleaning so…
Chen: Yeah, so for the kitchen area, I do most of the cooking. I think my signature dish would be carrot cake. I think she compliments
Nurul: Carrot cakes!
Chen: I think she compliments my carrot cake a lot.
Nurul: Yes, I love it. I can eat it everyday!
Chen: So as you all can see, from the living room all the way until the kitchen, there is a lot of green around. Like the furniture and even the walls. But then, actually Nurul’s favourite colour is not green. Her colour is actually pink, as you can see from the mug. Yeah.
His & Hers Bathroom
Nurul: For most HDB homes, they usually have like, you know, a common bathroom for guests and a master bathroom for the couple, right? But for our case, we have His and My toilet. So… My toilet is all pink. But at the same time, I didn’t want it to be too pink. All we did was this full wall of pink tiles which nicely blended with the terrazzo tiles. And then, we also matched it with this pink sink and this wooden look tiles.
At the same time, we have this cute mirror, the seashell mirror which my ID (interior designer) helped to source as well to match with the whole look! Yeah, so this is my toilet!
Wife's pink bathroom
Chen: She told me that she wanted a pink toilet. Then I was a bit like, “Huh, why? Why you want that?” But then after that, I saw the ID who came up with the 3D drawings which was actually quite nice. It’s not too overwhelming. But I don’t use this toilet because it’s all pink. So I have my own toilet.
Husband's green bathroom
Come, I’ll show you all. So this is my fully green master bedroom toilet. Then as you can see, the tiles are the same as the pink toilet. It’s the kind of subway tiles. Some of my friends also mentioned that (there’s) this bamboo feeling. This is our master bedroom. So as you all can see, over here we have our posters, similar to the ones in the living room. The one on the left is Backstreet Boys, one of the songs that we used for our wedding walk-ins.
Nurul: My favourite band.
Both: Yeah!
And then, we have Ed Sheeran, another song by Ed Sheeran that we keep playing on loop during our honeymoon.
Both: Yeah.
Chen: Then, here is this burnt orange colour because we felt like, you know,when we are sleeping, we need something more warm, something more…
Nurul: Cosy.
Chen: Cosy, more soothing, yeah.
Nurul: Cosy.
$45,000 Renovation Budget
Chen: So at night when we are winding down, then we will (switch) on this TV which can be shifted around. It’s very useful in a way that, you know, sometimes at night or on weekends when I have my football then Nurul has her show to watch, we’d park this moving TV beside our (main) TV. And we can have two screens at the same time. We can watch my football and she can watch her favourite show as well. Renovation, total for the house was S$45,000 which was kept within our budget.
Nurul: Because we played around a bit with the colours of the walls. You know, we even used loose furnishings and also some decor elements which can be kept easily within budget like for example, our photo frames and the posters. And I’m very proud of what we have done. We managed to keep within the budget.
Chen: So when we were renovating this home, I mean, there wasn’t much like disagreements or arguments. The whole process was very smooth as Nurul was very thoughtful. She included me in every decision-making. So I’m very thankful for Nurul.
Home is where you are
Nurul: You’re welcome. After everything is done, I think it turned out pretty well. I especially like this area, this was, I think, the highlight of our home, actually. Whenever I come home to Chen, to this home that I proudly designed, I feel very thankful everyday. And ultimately, you know, Chen is my home. So wherever he is, I am home.
Credits
Interior Design: Ovon Design
Supervising Director: Raymond Goh/ SPH Media
Producer: Young Lim/ Home & Decor
Research Consultant: Nonie Chen/ Home & Decor
Research & Storyboard: Justin Foo/ FTTG Media
Video Editing: Ang Elly Sofiah/ FTTG Media
Videographer: Lionel Yu/ FTTG Media
Website Editing: Tan Guan Lin/ Home & Decor
Coordinator: Carmen Wong/ SPH Media
Web Optimisation: Prashanti Mohanan & John Tan/ SPH Media