April 15, 2020
Having the right brights can do wonders for a home.
It’s no exaggeration to say that picking the right colours (or the wrong ones) will make or break a home – they have the power to change its look, its theme and its vibe. And for these reasons, local couple Sachin and Sindhu were extra-careful about picking out the cheery paint hues of their first home, which they share with their 4-year old son.
“We wanted it (our home) to be airy, comfortable, relaxed,” says Sachin, who works in the tech industry. “Generally, we’re fun-loving people, so we wanted the colours around the house to really reflect that aspect of us.”
With help from Mr Shopper Studio, Sachin and Sindhu also managed to optimise the entire layout of their home, and outfit it with the right storage solutions necessary to create a neater, friendlier space. Keep scrolling to tour the entire apartment!
Sachin (SA): We were from India originally, but have lived in other countries including the U.S., U.K. and South Korea. We've been in Singapore for 6-plus years, and we love it so much that we decided to make it our home! And our son was also born here.
The living room before (top) and after (bottom) the renovation.
Sindhu (SI): We used to live in Tiong Bahru in a rented condo unit for the last four years. So, this is the first house that we own in Singapore.
SA: On top of making it practical, what really mattered to us was making sure anyone who visited our home would feel welcome. With that in mind, we told Mr Shopper Studio that we wanted to have a casual European, Scandinavian-esque theme, instead of a modern-luxe look, which is not really us.
For the colours, white was definitely on our minds, but on its own, it can look too prim and proper, so we asked Mr Shopper Studio to include pops of pastel yellow and turquoise here and there. Pretty much everything in the living room – from the cushions to the accessories and the accent wall – are a play on these three colours.
The living room was also revamped to include various smart home features, like voice control for the aircons and TV. “We realised it’s more affordable to DIY the smart switches ourselves too,” says Sachin. “And this way, we can also try different components one at a time to find the right ones we need.”
SI: I think our choice of furnishings matches what we’re looking for too; they are simple, neat and not too bulky.
Although we’re practical people and we like our things to be functional, we also like them to look good. That’s where I think Mr Shopper Studio did an amazing job because they suggested specific pieces that were totally what we were aiming for, like our HipVan couch and even our custom-made carpet.
SA: The kitchen was one of the major renovations that completely changed the look of our home; it was closed when we first got the keys, and it was fairly small. But even so, we were unsure about having an open kitchen until we visited one of our friend’s home who had recently done his home and realised that it would fit well with our theme of ‘openness’.
In the end, we had the walls torn down and installed a breakfast counter right outside (the kitchen) where we can have bar stools, cabinets and a workspace.
SI: On the inside, we were able to optimise the counter configurations a bit better with the new layout. Currently, we have the cooking area right beside the entrance and some open shelves on the side where we can store any appliances and tools that we use frequently.
Another thing that I’ve always wanted were Moroccan tiles, so we opted for those as the backsplash; they look really nice and provide a good contrast to the white-and-green carpentry.
SA: We have this chill corner here so that we don’t necessarily have to be in front of the TV whenever we want to enjoy some family time or have guests over. I think it adds a casual touch to our home, especially with the divan and carpet. There’s also a small window at the side that our son enjoys looking out of and watch the world go by.
SA: Our master bedroom isn’t really a very big room – it’s more of a compact, medium-sized one and on one side, we chose to have a long wardrobe cabinet that we share. In front of the bed, we have a vanity. And although it’s pretty shallow, there’s also a cabinet that’s just nice for storing our trinkets and some jewellery.
The colour combination here is a little different because we wanted to change things up a bit; it’s sort of an off-white palette with washes of light blue. There’s a relaxing vibe to it, which reminds us very much of our time in Santorini.
SI: For our son’s bedroom, we just wanted a fun and playful space for him. Mr Shopper Studio was able to provide us with most of the design elements to accomplish that – it’s not cluttered with cartoons like most kids’ rooms, yet it still looks playful enough.
So, the grey, yellow and blue zig-zag lines on the walls actually go around the whole room, and if you look carefully, you’ll see that the cabinets are also designed similarly to blend in with the walls.
SA: Again, the master bathroom has the same white-and-blue colour scheme as the bedroom. The flooring was also inspired by our time in Europe; some of the bathrooms in the places that we stayed at had these white-black diamond and hexagon mosaic patterns, so we decided to have them in ours too.
Oh yes, and the bathroom looks completely different from before. It was mostly brown, and had a shower area plus a bathtub, which we removed to create more space. We then asked to shift the shower to where the bathtub originally was, and added a long vanity with cabinet to give us more storage space.
SI: We wanted the same flooring for both the master and the common bathroom. And since we weren’t going to be using it that often, we wanted it to have a more neutral look so that it appears clean and refreshing for our guests when you turn on the lights.
SI: For our first house, I think it was a fantastic renovation experience and we’d highly recommend Mr Shopper Studio because of that. Throughout the journey, they were very responsive and helpful. We liked that they were the first company on Qanvast to provide us with a questionnaire to help us discover more about our own design tastes.
SA: Also, they weren’t compromising on their workmanship and managed to finish the job on time before our lease was up. Overall, it was a well-managed project – we didn’t even have to visit the site and it turned out just like what we wanted!
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