Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: 1970s Flat is Transformed into a Tropical Oasis
Inspired by a holiday in Bali, the homeowners commissioned a contemporary resort-like design for their apartment
Ewan Wong, design director of The Design Abode, describes the owners of this flat as a tropical vacation-loving couple who enjoy the outdoors. “A stay at The Bale in Bali ignited their appreciation for contemporary spaces in a tropical context. That formed the basis of the brief: a contemporary resort-like home they could retreat to daily,” he says.
“The owners had a good sense of what they wanted functionally and aesthetically. They even drafted a plan of their own. But we took it further to remodel the spaces and reinforce tropical design principles,” Wong says.
Dining table: Ethnicraft; Chairs: Grafunkt
Dining table: Ethnicraft; Chairs: Grafunkt
To start with, walls were removed, creating a smoother flow from the foyer past the kitchen and towards both dining and living spaces. The design team also reconfigured the kitchen so that it features an open-concept, eat-in element.
A nature-inspired palette using teakwood furniture and woodgrain laminates from Admira is contrasted with painted fairfaced cement block walls and cement-look homogeneous floor tiles for easy maintenance.
Box frames with a woodgrain finish appear in the form of the eat-in nook, built-in dining bench and balcony – and give that sleek, contemporary flourish to the home.
Box frames with a woodgrain finish appear in the form of the eat-in nook, built-in dining bench and balcony – and give that sleek, contemporary flourish to the home.
Wong removed the kitchen walls to create cross-ventilation from the living room to the kitchen at the rear of the flat. Mindful of the culinary habits of the owners, he included sliding doors that divide the cooking zone. “Sliding doors give the option of enclosing the cooking zone to suit the Asian lifestyle, while allowing it to open up for the rest of time,” Wong says.
Wong shares that almost all the homeowners – including the previous owners of this apartment – in this HDB estate have opted to enclose their balconies to enlarge the living rooms, but his clients were different. He reinstated the balcony, maintaining a seamless indoor-outdoor feel with the living room.
Living room furniture: Ethnicraft; Fan: KDK
Living room furniture: Ethnicraft; Fan: KDK
Folding doors open to a generous planter box and composite timber decking framing the balcony. “This makes a good buffer and allows the living (room) to be open even during rainy weather,” Wong says.
Composite timber decking: Nam Soon Timber
Composite timber decking: Nam Soon Timber
The master bedroom was enlarged by reclaiming floor area from the dining space. This allowed the designers to create a small foyer for the bedroom, with a walk-in closet and vanity placed within a section of the original bedroom area, and more space in the bathroom for a larger shower cubicle.
Bringing the contemporary tropical look into the master bedroom, the designers used woodgrain vinyl planks from Floorialuxe for the floor and bamboo chicks as a porous partition between sleep space and walk-in wardrobe. “This allows for cross ventilation through the closet and bathroom,” Wong says.
Bed: Ethnicraft
Bed: Ethnicraft
The vanity, now located within the walk-in wardrobe, is custom-designed and crafted out of mild steel with a cast cement countertop.
Bathroom floor and walls are clad in stone-look homogeneous tiles to maintain the nature-inspired, tropical resort theme even in this space.
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Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple in their 30s, both working for multi-national companies
Where is it: New Upper Changi Road
Size: 115 square metres (1,238 square feet), three bedrooms
Project duration: 5 months
Wong, who has a background in tropical architecture, worked with project designer Min Min Choo to transform the dated five-room flat – it was built in the late 1970s – into that bright and airy, “contemporary resort-like home”.