Despite multiple flat delays (and changing needs), this thoughtfully-designed family home was worth the long wait.
Sometimes, plans don’t always go the way you want them to… but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the best of the situation. No one understands this better than homeowner Vanessa, whose life and renovation plans were completely upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We applied for our BTO in 2017 and planned to have our wedding in 2020,” she shared. “But then the pandemic happened and we had to wait seven years to collect our keys! We ended up having to postpone our wedding too, so we only managed to get married after moving into our home.”
In the years while waiting for their home, Vanessa and her husband had gotten married, moved in with their parents, and welcomed their young son. These experiences played a huge role in shaping their renovation plans as their key collection neared.
“Staying at both my in-laws’ place, my family home and even helping my parents out with their own renovation gave us a deeper understanding of what we wanted for our own home. It also taught us more about the whole renovation process and the importance of investing in quality materials that’ll last us,” she said.
On the upside, the delays gave Vanessa and her husband ample time to design their 4-room BTO right down to the smallest details.
From taking a radical approach to their layout to incorporating clever design features, follow us as we tour Vanessa’s cosy family home brought to life with the help of their designer, KK, from Lite Design Co.
About the homeowners and their home
Vanessa (V): After staying at both my in-laws’ place and my family home, we had a clear idea of what we wanted for our own space. Since we only got the keys after our son was born, it also shaped our needs and design choices.
For one, we knew we had to make it kid-friendly without sharp edges. We also needed lots of room in the communal areas for him to run about, and for family and friends to gather.
Helping my parents out with their own renovation was eye-opening too and we became firm believers of investing in high-quality materials.
I tend to be quite rough when cleaning, so I wanted something durable that could withstand wear in the long run. That’s why we spent a lot of time looking into furniture, colours and materials.
A couple of must-haves for me was a clean and well-lit interior with lots of storage for all my son’s toys and clothes. I also prepare a lot of home-cooked meals for my family, so the kitchen was an area I focused on.
Meanwhile, my husband wanted to incorporate smart home elements like smart lights and curtain tracks. I wasn’t too big on it at the start, but it has certainly made life easier since we don’t have to always move around to turn them on/off or to draw the curtains.
Just a simple swipe on our phones does the trick!
Pre-renovation (left) and post-renovation (right) floorplan
V: Of all the layout changes we made, the biggest transformation happened here in the living/dining area. Our family visits us weekly, so we wanted a versatile space that could be easily rearranged to fit everyone comfortably.
Since we knew we’d spend most of our time here with family and friends, we didn’t need two big bedrooms. Instead, we combined two junior bedrooms to create a much larger communal space at the heart of our home for everyone to hang out.
As for the original living/dining area, we divided it into two smaller rooms: one is our son’s bedroom while the other is a spare room.
With this layout, the wall of the space room facing the entrance keeps our living room out of sight, which is great for privacy. It also doubles as our built-in shoe cabinet, with a couple of open nooks that we use for both storage and display.
There’s also a master switch here to turn off all the lights in one go. Thanks to that, we don’t even need to check if we turned everything off before heading out.
We were pretty open to the idea when KK first proposed this layout inspired by ancient Chinese courtyards which feature a large central living area.
I still had some reservations because we hadn’t seen such extensive layout changes to a 4-room flat before.
But after living here for half a year, we love it. It makes a lot more sense for the flow of our space too.
Besides the layout, the soft wood look that runs throughout our home was inspired by those Japanese minimalist designs. It’s something we really wanted to incorporate to make our space feel bright and cosy.
“Our ID, KK, hand moulded all the aircon piping here to cover it up,” said Vanessa, highlighting that it’s a one-of-a-kind design.
For storage, the left side of our communal space is a mix of storage and doors to the concealed household shelter and the common bathroom.
You might not have noticed them yet, but if you look above those, you’ll spot some white cabinets. We basically used all our vertical space for more storage.
Even our dining bench has built-in storage – if you have kids, you’ll know that storage is something you can never get enough of.
We opted out of the Optional Component Scheme because we wanted to install our own large-format tiles.
Not only is the material easy to maintain and hardy enough to handle our son’s daily playtime, but the tiles also give the space a grand and extra-spacious look.
About the semi-open kitchen
The kitchen entrance can be closed off with a glass sliding door.
V: My husband and I are quite tall, so washing the dishes and food prep was quite tiring because the standard counters at our parents’ homes were quite low for us.
That’s why we asked for counters that are higher than the usual ones – it’s much more comfortable now when we’re cooking.
There’s a lot of storage here too because I do quite a bit of heavy cooking. Besides that, the cabinet toe kicks (the gap between the floor and the bottom of the cabinet), are also fairly high.
It was something we specifically asked for because I need to clean the kitchen often after cooking. This gap gives us sufficient space to wash the kitchen with our hose while we're cleaning.
On doing up the master bedroom and hotel-like ensuite bathroom
V: With our reconfigured layout, we could take up a little of the corridor/walkway space to extend the master bedroom entrance. Using the extra space, we did up a cabinet with a mix of open and closed compartments.
I have this not-so-great habit of leaving my cash in random spots around the house. My husband always complains about it, so my ID suggested this slot (circled in green) where I can drop any cash and angbaos into it discreetly.
They land directly in the locked drawer, which is a pretty neat idea!
The bedroom’s colour scheme is the same as the rest of the house for a seamless look and we love the smaller details like our bedhead feature (not pictured) and the suspended ledge that is also our TV stand.
Accent lighting – like the one you can see at the shelves – was something we discussed with KK.
My mom’s place has those harsh, old-school white downlights. We didn’t like that, so we paid a lot of attention to the lighting. It really makes a difference in the mood.
For our bathroom, we opted for a sliding door.
We’re both light sleepers, so this kind of door isn’t just aesthetic, but it’s also very quiet when we open and close it – unlike those metal bi-fold doors that can get loud and squeaky. It has a soft-closing mechanism too.
Plus, this frosted glass design lets light into the bathroom while still ensuring our privacy.
One of the biggest surprises in our home is this partition wall separating the toilet from the shower area, which was my husband’s idea.
He thought it would give us this semblance of semi-privacy while we’re both using the toilet. In fact, we haven’t seen such a unique design in an HDB bathroom so far.
We got it done up with glossy tiles, subtle curves and a wall sconce to recreate a hotel vibe.
KK had to take a lot of measurements because we needed to make sure we had enough space for our toilet bowl, the vanity, and our shower.
On the living room-turned-spare room and the common bathroom
V: Meanwhile, our spare room is my sewing room at the moment. It has indoor windows because we built this room up in the living space and there aren’t any windows overlooking the outside for this one.
If any guests need to stay over, they can still get natural light from the living area. And for privacy, we installed blinds that we can roll down anytime.
As for the common bathroom, we extended it a little, which gave us room for a built-in storage cabinet right at the entrance.
We use soft tones like the rest of the house, with soft underlighting to set the mood. We also wanted to make the most of the space, so we asked KK for a pentagonal shower enclosure.
This way, it cuts off the corners of a typical square shape and frees up dead space.
To sum up
V: We’re glad we didn’t scrimp on certain aspects of the renovation. Investing in better materials like countertops and tiles was one of them, which is something we communicated clearly with KK.
It’s fun because we’ve finally got our own place and it’s my safe space. It gets messy, but that’s all part of our son growing up. We love it.