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Houzz Tour: A Bachelorette Pad Bursts With Vibrant Street Style
Street life, pop art and toy collections inspire the uniquely creative design of this condo
Having worked on the owner’s public housing (HDB) flat in 2012, designer Stanley Tham of KNQ Associates was familiar with her lifestyle requirements, design preferences and, most importantly, personal collections. “She entrusted the entire design to me this time, only asking that I give her plenty of space to hang her art collection. It should also suit her lifestyle – she’s a very busy professional – which means the house has to be easy to maintain and cosy,” Tham says.
The centrepiece anchoring the street-inspired design of the open-plan living and dining space is the TV feature wall, clad in metal hoarding sheets that were cut to size on site. “I picked a blue tone for this material as the owner loves blue,” Tham says. For contrast, the designer placed yellow – the owner’s other favourite colour – accents in the form of throw cushions, the print on the area rug and the head of the Bearbrick figurine.
Furniture: Next Phase, BoConcept, Comfort Design
Furniture: Next Phase, BoConcept, Comfort Design
A curved ceiling feature helps to enhance the street theme, according to Tham.
The dining area is framed by a weathered, whitewashed craft brick wall seemingly rising from the built-in dining bench clad in cement-look laminate. “I spent some time painting over the originally red-brown craft brick tiles to create that weathered effect, revealing spots of reds through the white,” Tham says.
A curated selection of the owner’s Kaws and Bearbrick collection is framed in open display shelves on the wall.
A curated selection of the owner’s Kaws and Bearbrick collection is framed in open display shelves on the wall.
At the balcony, Tham overlaid the existing floor with textured tiles to “remind one of cobbled pavements, which one sees a lot on the streets”.
Tham didn’t alter the condo’s layout – the only demolition work was to create a window through the kitchen and living room wall “to allow more light into the corner of the kitchen,” he says. Most of the renovation work was infusing the house with a street life feel – surfaces such as the metal hoarding, cement screed and weathered brick in the living-dining area. In the kitchen, ‘shipping pallets’ on the wall recreate that gritty street concept, while patterned tiles on the backsplash add an arty element.
For the master bedroom, Tham used wood-look tiles printed with various ‘road-markings’ juxtaposed against a green shag rug for the headboard. “This creates the outdoor look which ties in with the whole ‘street life’ concept I have in mind,” he says.
In keeping with the owner’s low-maintenance requirements, wood-grain-effect homogeneous tiles replaced the original laminate floor boards in the bedrooms.
In keeping with the owner’s low-maintenance requirements, wood-grain-effect homogeneous tiles replaced the original laminate floor boards in the bedrooms.
The guest bedroom is a compact, Mondrian-inspired escape. A platform bed provides much-needed extra storage here.
“The Mondrian look was created by using Lego base plates with white gloss laminate for the TV feature and storage unit,” Tham says.
Tham dressed up the bathrooms with customised vinyl film and Fornasetti ceramics from GF+A Global. “The owner loved Fornasetti’s images after I showed her some samples,” he says.
The third bedroom was turned into a small work room. The nod to street culture here is the use of denim upholstery, says Tham. For a cohesive look with other parts of the house, the overhead cabinets are clad in a monochromatic ode to the Mondrian bedroom, and the walls are painted a faded brick-brown that ties in with the brick wall in the living-dining area.
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Who lives here: A bachelorette
Location: Bartley Residences
Size: 85 square metres (915 square feet)
Project duration: 2 months
Inspired by the owner’s eclectic collection of contemporary art – street artists Dran, Miss Bugs, Eelus, Ernest Zacharevic, and pop artists Pahnl and Peter Blake – Tham conceptualised a street-inspired, urban look for the new, three-bedroom condo.
Coming in from the foyer, three Eelus prints greet guests from a hand-screeded cement and epoxy-coated wall. A love seat makes the most of the compact living area, which is demarcated by a cheery area rug.
Screen prints (from left) by Eelus: After the Rain, Not Everything is so Black and White, Where They’ll Never Find Us