Houzz Tour: This Bachelor Flat's Owner Wanted it All and Got it
Every square inch was carefully designed and every surface was tended to with purposeful material choice
Siow Yuen Wong
10 April 2019
Houzz Contributor. Torn between my love for peering into people’s homes and writing, I picked both. I have been involved with both, working for several magazines over the last 21 years. Why choose?
Houzz Contributor. Torn between my love for peering into people’s homes and writing,... More
The homeowner presented the team at Fineline Design with an ambitious wish list – open space for regular entertaining, wine storage, generous walk-in wardrobe and a built-in jacuzzi in the master en suite. The designers pulled it off with aplomb, delivering a home that satisfies the space requirements as well as style aesthetics.
House At A Glance
Who Lives Here: A bachelor
Location: Serangoon North
Type of Property: 4-room HDB flat
Size: 1,119 square feet (104 square metres)
“The main challenge was the odd and irregularly-shape layout,” reveal the team at Fineline Design.
That only meant many of the walls had to be removed and a major overhaul of spaces ensued. The old master bedroom is now the walk-in wardrobe and en suite vanity and the storeroom and second bedroom were merged to form the new master bedroom.
The designer’s confident mix of materials, pattern and colours is demonstrated in the living room: linear TV wall, photo mural, plaid banquette, patterned tiles and brick.
This entertaining space has a large open plan for dining, coffee, wine drinking and lounging in front of the TV screen.
Who Lives Here: A bachelor
Location: Serangoon North
Type of Property: 4-room HDB flat
Size: 1,119 square feet (104 square metres)
“The main challenge was the odd and irregularly-shape layout,” reveal the team at Fineline Design.
That only meant many of the walls had to be removed and a major overhaul of spaces ensued. The old master bedroom is now the walk-in wardrobe and en suite vanity and the storeroom and second bedroom were merged to form the new master bedroom.
The designer’s confident mix of materials, pattern and colours is demonstrated in the living room: linear TV wall, photo mural, plaid banquette, patterned tiles and brick.
This entertaining space has a large open plan for dining, coffee, wine drinking and lounging in front of the TV screen.
Another concern of the homeowner was that there should be no wasted space, hence a kink of a passage leading to the bedrooms was converted into a storeroom. “It is hidden by a mirrored door that merges seamlessly with the new common room’s entrance. This full-length mirror helps to lengthen the visual line and makes the size of the living room seem doubled,” the team explain.
This Parisian street scene and the mural of the Eiffel Tower at the living room provide ‘views’ to an otherwise shuttered home. All the black-and-white blinds are lowered for privacy as the windows open into the HDB’s common corridor.
The change in flooring is used to clever effect. The grey tiles and bank of shoe cabinets mark out the foyer while the patterned tile creates a wide ‘corridor’ in the open-plan space.
To minimise the heft of a floor-to-ceiling liquor display, the designers designed a see-through cabinet that doubles as a divider.
To minimise the heft of a floor-to-ceiling liquor display, the designers designed a see-through cabinet that doubles as a divider.
Besides the casual bistro-style dining behind the liquor cabinet, there is a more formal spot in the kitchen. The table abuts the Caesarstone-topped peninsula.
There was no doorway to the service yard before but now there is. This separation allowed the designers to use a change of tile type and colour from small black squares in the kitchen to white subway tiles here and in the bathroom.
The entrance to the en suite is situated behind the frosted divider.
“The way we structured the new layout of the walk-in wardrobe successfully combated the oddly-shape layout,” say the design team.
The only way to get a jacuzzi to fit into the en suite was to move the vanity out of the room and to steal some space from the kitchen.
Moving the vanity area into the bedroom gave the designers room to install a wide top-mounted sink as well as have a large window. Though this space looks out to the common corridor, wooden blinds ensure privacy.
Dark timber and moody grey walls give the bedroom a dramatic, undeniably masculine feel.
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See more of this home
TELL US
What do you think is this home’s most striking feature? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, bookmark the story, and join in the conversation.
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Excellent Studio/1BHK Apartment layout.
For a small living space, wonder why the need for multiple table spaces and chairs...formal dining with the kitchen, another with the bar, 3rd round table....