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Houzz Tour: A Transformed Walk-Up With a Social Media Following
Digital marketing maven Pat Law, with designer Abigael Tay, talk through the renovation of her apartment
Chiquit Brammall
11 June 2016
Design journalist and freelance editor. Dollhouse architect. Serial renter.
Pat Law, the founder of social influence marketing agency Goodstuph, may have bought her apartment on a whim – seeing it only from photos at a bank auction – but her design aesthetic had been brewing a long time before that. A keen collector of vintage and found objects (she also runs online shop The Damn Good Shop where many of these are sold), Law leaned towards “Industrial Vintage – raw, cold canvas peppered with gentle reminders of my childhood”. After the renovation, her ‘industrial vintage’ had a twist of contemporary Japanese finesse.
Photos by BryanV Photography
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Digital marketing expert Pat Law and her two chihuahuas, Rebel and Tails
Location: Walk-up apartment in East Coast
Size: Approximately 96 square metres (1,033 square feet)
Project duration: 5 months
Buying her walk-up was serendipitous (she went out to lunch, popped into a mid-day bank auction, and walked back to the office a new homeowner of a run-down ‘four-bedroom’ apartment) but Law didn’t expect that a twist in her design aesthetic would be too.
She says: “During that period, I had just returned from my inaugural trip to Japan and I have to say, the heavy application of wood in Japanese design influenced me a great deal. I remembered how at peace I was in the country, or perhaps it was just the fresh sashimi … My taste had evolved.”
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Digital marketing expert Pat Law and her two chihuahuas, Rebel and Tails
Location: Walk-up apartment in East Coast
Size: Approximately 96 square metres (1,033 square feet)
Project duration: 5 months
Buying her walk-up was serendipitous (she went out to lunch, popped into a mid-day bank auction, and walked back to the office a new homeowner of a run-down ‘four-bedroom’ apartment) but Law didn’t expect that a twist in her design aesthetic would be too.
She says: “During that period, I had just returned from my inaugural trip to Japan and I have to say, the heavy application of wood in Japanese design influenced me a great deal. I remembered how at peace I was in the country, or perhaps it was just the fresh sashimi … My taste had evolved.”
Law assembled a digital mood board to show her designer, Abigael Tay of Obllique.
Tay narrates the design brief: “’Remove the rooms, take out all the ugly things, I want my house to look like that (the mood board) and I want a bar.’ The bar didn’t materialise but we did give her a kitchen that made up for it.”
Tay narrates the design brief: “’Remove the rooms, take out all the ugly things, I want my house to look like that (the mood board) and I want a bar.’ The bar didn’t materialise but we did give her a kitchen that made up for it.”
‘Remove the rooms’ being step one, Tay says: “The walls didn’t terminate at sensible places and one of the rooms had two floor levels – the result of a haphazard job in patching up an area they had hacked. The previous renovation probably subdivided the rooms so that they can be rented out. Once we looked beyond those blemishes, we had a pretty neat place to work with.”
Tay’s new layout provided a generous living and dining space with an open-concept kitchen.
“Pat lives by herself, so there is no need for any rooms other than the bath, bedroom and walk-in wardrobe. While the configuration is very open, there are defined spaces to entertain, cook and be comfortable in. Pat is not a hoarder but we still factored in storage spaces in the kitchen, bay window and walk-in wardrobe to hide clutter and preserve the orderliness of the open space,” says Tay.
“Pat lives by herself, so there is no need for any rooms other than the bath, bedroom and walk-in wardrobe. While the configuration is very open, there are defined spaces to entertain, cook and be comfortable in. Pat is not a hoarder but we still factored in storage spaces in the kitchen, bay window and walk-in wardrobe to hide clutter and preserve the orderliness of the open space,” says Tay.
After reconfiguring the apartment, the designer set out to “make my house look like that” – fulfil the contemporary Japanese style blended with industrial elements.
Law says: “I think I was pretty clear in the general look and feel I wanted for my home but I needed Abigael’s expertise in bringing me back down to earth, and expanding the thought further. There’s a big difference between saying ‘Hello, I want concrete walls’ and actually having the concrete slabs I have that don’t look like they came from a royalty-free image.”
The new floor is concrete with a matt sealant; the pale wood surfaces on the kitchen and bay window are laminate-clad. White solid surfacing on the kitchen worktops further enhances that light, bright contemporary Japanese feel.
Law says: “I think I was pretty clear in the general look and feel I wanted for my home but I needed Abigael’s expertise in bringing me back down to earth, and expanding the thought further. There’s a big difference between saying ‘Hello, I want concrete walls’ and actually having the concrete slabs I have that don’t look like they came from a royalty-free image.”
The new floor is concrete with a matt sealant; the pale wood surfaces on the kitchen and bay window are laminate-clad. White solid surfacing on the kitchen worktops further enhances that light, bright contemporary Japanese feel.
Two types of feature walls in the living area illustrate the blended style that Law specified.
Says Tay: “The Tadao Ando-inspired walls are Pat’s obsession. I was happy to just have groove lines on the concrete walls to break the monotony but … ‘Must have holes!’.”
The other type of feature wall, which allows the owner to redecorate using her personal accessories, is a pegboard wall. Crafted with veneer that matches the pale wood tones of the laminate, it “belies the amount of work that went behind it,” Tay says.
“The easy part was to get a pleasing distribution of holes, with holes that looked proportionate and yet of a standard dowel size, so that we can easily find it if we need to. After that we had to test the thickness of the wall in order to get the right fulcrum. Several carpenters told us to give up and just buy something from the hardware store … but I’m happy we custom-made it,” says Tay.
Says Law: “The request for the pegboard walls stemmed from my knowing that at some point, there will be art pieces and vintage items I’d like to display. Plus I get bored easily so having a modular system where I can move shelves about was useful.”
Says Tay: “The Tadao Ando-inspired walls are Pat’s obsession. I was happy to just have groove lines on the concrete walls to break the monotony but … ‘Must have holes!’.”
The other type of feature wall, which allows the owner to redecorate using her personal accessories, is a pegboard wall. Crafted with veneer that matches the pale wood tones of the laminate, it “belies the amount of work that went behind it,” Tay says.
“The easy part was to get a pleasing distribution of holes, with holes that looked proportionate and yet of a standard dowel size, so that we can easily find it if we need to. After that we had to test the thickness of the wall in order to get the right fulcrum. Several carpenters told us to give up and just buy something from the hardware store … but I’m happy we custom-made it,” says Tay.
Says Law: “The request for the pegboard walls stemmed from my knowing that at some point, there will be art pieces and vintage items I’d like to display. Plus I get bored easily so having a modular system where I can move shelves about was useful.”
Completing the house are furnishings from local design brands Castlery, Grafunkt and Foundry, and Dutch studio Waarmakers. The finishing touch of course, are Law’s quirky collection of vintage curios.
“One of my best loots is probably the Soviet military telephone made of bakelite,” Law says. “There’s no dial because it links only to one number – the President or something.”
“One of my best loots is probably the Soviet military telephone made of bakelite,” Law says. “There’s no dial because it links only to one number – the President or something.”
Law’s also proud of her dining table. “I wanted one of a lower height to fit my vertically challenged physique, which was near impossible [to find] in Singapore. Took me a while but I finally found a set from MUJI. It’s about 10 centimetres shorter than the usual,” she says.
While the dining table sees a lot of use as a work desk for Law, it also gets plenty of mileage when used as an actual dining table. Law entertains often, playing sous chef to her partner in the open-concept kitchen as they host friends for weekend get-togethers.
While the dining table sees a lot of use as a work desk for Law, it also gets plenty of mileage when used as an actual dining table. Law entertains often, playing sous chef to her partner in the open-concept kitchen as they host friends for weekend get-togethers.
In the bedroom, there’s more of Law’s beloved Tadao Ando-inspired walls. Wood furniture keep the ambience warm, and quirky Good Morning sheets add a local flair.
The odd-shaped room adjacent to the bedroom was turned into Law’s walk-in wardrobe, complete with pegboard walls she can use to display her accessories.
“It’s important to create a nice background that looks like a minimalist boutique for Pat’s OOTDs (outfit of the day),” jokes Tay.
A low shelf beneath the clothes racks provides additional space for folded clothes, so everything is visible.
Continuing the industrial style in the bathroom, Tay used black homogenous tiles, concrete walls and sink treated with a matt sealant, and towel rails clad in the same wood-look laminate.
Concrete taps and a brass spout from Wood Melbourne complete the raw, edgy look.
The renovation took five months, with a cost of $100,000 – and it wasn’t all smooth sailing. “The first contractor absconded with Pat’s money two months into the renovation,” Tay says. Law accounts for about $40,000 lost due to the missing contractor.
“The next three months were spent picking up where the former contractor left off, with Christmas and Lunar New Year breaks in between,” says Tay. “I’d like to credit our lifesaving contractor, Skeel Solutions.”
In the end, Law’s quite happy with the results. She says: “I lucked out with Abigael, to be honest. I think, when it comes to picking an interior design firm for one’s home, it’s extremely important to know thyself. Don’t buy a guard dog and then bark yourself, as I’d say.”
Proving her point (and social media prowess), Law’s post of her home continues to rack up followers. “I’m stoked specifically because of the recognition Abigael and her team at Obllique are getting. For all her awesomeness, she remains so down-to-earth and humble. I’m not sure what she plans to do with her 9,200 fans but I’m guessing she’d need to start putting up hipster photos soon,” Law says.
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“The next three months were spent picking up where the former contractor left off, with Christmas and Lunar New Year breaks in between,” says Tay. “I’d like to credit our lifesaving contractor, Skeel Solutions.”
In the end, Law’s quite happy with the results. She says: “I lucked out with Abigael, to be honest. I think, when it comes to picking an interior design firm for one’s home, it’s extremely important to know thyself. Don’t buy a guard dog and then bark yourself, as I’d say.”
Proving her point (and social media prowess), Law’s post of her home continues to rack up followers. “I’m stoked specifically because of the recognition Abigael and her team at Obllique are getting. For all her awesomeness, she remains so down-to-earth and humble. I’m not sure what she plans to do with her 9,200 fans but I’m guessing she’d need to start putting up hipster photos soon,” Law says.
See more of this project
TELL US
What do you like about this home? Let us know in the Comments section.
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