Overhauled 1-Bedder Condo is Now a Teacher’s Charming Retro ‘Studio’

A home any bookworm would love.

If you had your home all to yourself, how would you reimagine it? For this homeowner, it involved turning his 1-bedroom resale condo in Hougang into an inviting retro ‘studio’.

To turn his vision into reality, he reached out to the team at Salt Studio.

“In short, we overhauled the entire house,” the team shares. “From the flooring to the kitchen cabinets, everything had to go.”

Keep reading to find out how the renovation went – and to take a look at the impressive result!

About the homeowner and his home

Salt Studio (S): The owner is a history teacher, and he really enjoys reading. Because he has a big collection of books, one of his main requirements was having a proper space to store them.

He was also inspired by the retro feel that mid-century modern interiors have, so he wanted a similar look in his home, with warm tones for a cosy atmosphere.

On creating the ‘studio’ space

S: To achieve the look and reconfigure the space to suit the owner’s needs, we essentially had to hack everything away.

The unit originally had one bedroom, separate from the living room. However, since the owner is living alone, he wanted to hack the walls to form a large, seamless space – sort of like a studio apartment.

S: Since he has a big balcony, he also decided to shift the dining area there – we installed Ziptrak outdoor blinds there so that it can be covered when necessary.

This way, we could hack away the original built-in dining area and free up the hallway space.

About the resting and living areas

S: Given the layout, the resting area was pretty much the only area where we could build the large bookshelves.

When you enter the unit, the kitchen occupies the space on the right. Along the narrow corridor leading to the living area, there are windows so there was no space to install big bookshelves there.

S: Looking at the bookshelves, you’ll see rectangular ‘gaps’ of space. These are actually the doors concealing the entrances to the bathroom and the household shelter.

We used the same wood laminates from Admira for this camouflaging effect so that it looks seamless. Building the shelves all the way up also creates the effect of a bigger space.

If you’re wondering where the wardrobe is, we built it inside the shelter. You could say it’s a walk-in wardrobe of sorts.

S: The owner saw a half-wall shiplap design online that he liked so we recreated the look behind the bed and it runs around the whole room.

It adds character to the space, and also complements the rest of the neutral colours we used, like the wood-look floor tiles.

Previously, there was parquet flooring here but we replaced it with these tiles that continue all the way to the kitchen. They match the theme and are easy to maintain at the same time.

S: Since we didn’t want a bulky TV console to block the space, the living room section is simple with loose, freestanding furniture.

On redoing the kitchen

S: We tore out all the old cabinets and redid them, using Silestone for the countertop because it was the material that best complemented the wood tones we used in the kitchen.

“We left the right upper cabinets open because they’re positioned over the household shelter’s ventilation opening which we can’t cover since the other one in the living area was already closed off,” shares Salt Studio. “The open cabinets function as both display and storage shelves.”

S: One challenge we encountered here was the detailing of the cabinets. If you look closely, you can see that the doors have thin protruding horizontal handles instead of the typical knobs.

We wanted to indent the doors further in so that the handles are more obvious; the further in the indent is though, the more difficult it is to build the cabinets since they’re different from the standard size.

This took us a longer time off-site during the fabrication stage, but the final result turned out as we wanted and adds depth to the kitchen.

About the bathroom

S: When you enter the bathroom, you’ll realise that it looks rather different from the warm, woody look in the rest of the house.

The owner wanted a more luxurious vibe here, so we included a number of art deco-like features like marble-look wall tiles and bold, metallic finishes.

One feature that stands out is the small graphic tiles we used as accents in the dry area. These actually took more than two months to arrive because we could only get them from a third-party supplier – it ended up delaying the renovation but fortunately, the owner was not in a rush to move in.

S: We went tile shopping with the owner and settled on these 900 cm by 900 cm tiles for the floor. The dark look creates a stark contrast with the light-coloured wall tiles, and the accent tiles tie it all together.

If you haven’t noticed, you can see that the tiles in the dry area don’t go all the way up to the ceiling – this is to visually ‘free’ up the ceiling area so that the bathroom doesn’t feel too crowded.

To sum up

S: One thing that makes this project special is that it’s just one big room after the renovation, much like a studio apartment. I would say that it’s rather uncommon among homeowners here to completely hack away the bedroom.

The process itself was smooth since we maintained regular communication with the owner, and made sure to update him on delays like the issue with the tiles. Besides sharing what he had in mind, he was also open to the different suggestions we made, so we could come to a decision together.

When we visited the homeowner for the post-renovation photoshoot, we were glad to hear that he was enjoying the space and that he was happy with the final result.

Like what you see?

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