SINGAPORE - More than a decade ago, husband and wife Soh Kok Leong and Wong Foong Hwee hired interior designer Kelvin Teo - the founder of Space Sense Studio, who had worked on the couple's previous home - to design their Housing Board maisonette in Bukit Merah.
Working in the creative industry as a director and a cameraman, respectively, Ms Wong and Mr Soh, both in their 50s, wanted their maisonette to be bold and unique.
In April 2021, they moved into the new home, a 1,400 sq ft, five-room resale HDB unit. The finished flat, which cost $150,000 to renovate, blends their existing furniture with new industrial and automotive-inspired additions, many of which were custom-made.
The steel front door is finished in matt black paint, with dark timber-look tiles, a black ceiling and black walls. More black storage by the door creates an angle, while a white shoe rack stands out on the other side.
The adjoining living room, with its grey surfaces, is spacious. The original flooring was not hacked but layered with concrete-look vinyl. One former bedroom was removed to create a dry kitchen and a dining area that flows into the living room.
The owners cook often, so the wet kitchen, with its white cabinetry and wall tiles, is a major focal point. It is contained within a caravan food truck "parked" next to the dining area, which opens up to form a breakfast counter big enough for two. Clad in aluminium panels with rivets along each panel's seams, the caravan is the centrepiece of the room and customised to fit the home. Ms Wong even bought a real car wheel to make it look more realistic.
The dry kitchen has the same white cabinets, and a square island with a concrete-look countertop which features drawers and storage at its base.
The dining set includes Eames Wire side chairs and a Blu Dot Real Good Chair from the couple's previous home. The living room also features deliberately mismatched retro furniture, including the Herman Miller Eames Moulded Shell Rocking Chair and Knoll Barcelona chair.
A garage theme can appear harsh and cold, but this was tempered by accent colours and soft curves. Pops of orange - Ms Wong's favourite colour - lend freshness to the monochromatic palette. The kitchen, for instance, was designed around her vintage-inspired orange stove. This also inspired details like the accent stripes of the caravan, the sunset-coloured Le Creuset crockery and the custom trim of the hood.
The door of the master bedroom is a custom aluminium flight wing with rivet studs, rounded corners and stripes of colour. The room's original parquet flooring was retained. The custom bed has a curved headboard and a cantilevered base that fits a robot vacuum cleaner underneath.
The centrepiece of the bedroom is the curved door to the spacious bathroom, which has been enlarged to accommodate a bathtub. The door is an acrylic sheet bent to a curve by a local fabricator in Ang Mo Kio.
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MCI (P) 031/10/2021, MCI (P) 032/10/2021. Published by SPH Media Limited, Co. Regn. No. 202120748H. Copyright © 2021 SPH Media Limited. All rights reserved.