March 8, 2023
It's hard to believe that this home is just 69 sqm in size!
Homes in Singapore are known for their small sizes and cookie-cutter layouts. But take a look at this home in Serangoon, and we guarantee that those are not the words that come to mind.
“This is actually a 3-room corner unit,” says homeowner Daphne. “A lot of my friends get very surprised when they enter the house, because the space looks big for its size. I think it’s because the rectangular layout makes the house look long.”
View this project by Free Space Intent
In addition, Daphne also wanted her home to sport a bright, vibrant colour theme – which, to her, creates a sense of cheer.
Keep scrolling to see how she – with the help of Brandon from Free Space Intent – transformed the space!
Daphne (D): As this home solely belongs to me, I didn’t see the need to have so many different rooms. That gave me the flexibility to play around with the layout. For instance, I hacked one of the junior bedrooms to open up the living room, and also combined the bathrooms to create a bigger space.
Daphne’s home, pre-renovation
But actually, the unique layout wasn’t the thing that drew me to this house. A lot of the 3-room units in the area were corridor units – and while I honestly didn’t mind one, this rare corner unit just so happened to be put up for sale in the middle of my search.
That, coupled with the fact that it’s on a high floor and just a stone’s throw away from the MRT station, made it clear that this was the perfect choice for a home.
Daphne’s home, post-renovation
Also, I’m someone who loves pastel colours – to me, it gives me this calm feeling as well as a positive vibe. So, naturally, I wanted my house to be colourful as well.
But at the same time, I knew that having too many colours can be overly-stimulating, which would be counterproductive if the goal was to be able to relax at home. Finding a balance was thus something I worked on together with my designer.
D: During my search for an ID, I was looking for a firm who was comfortable doing something different – not the usual white-and-wood Scandinavian houses you see online.
In total, I think I shortlisted and met up with 4 different IDs. Personally, I was so tempted to go with the first ID I met just because the thought of meeting so many [IDs] was quite overwhelming.
But after talking to the second ID, I realised why it’s important to speak with more than one [ID], because they have different approaches to what you want. Some of the IDs I met came up with designs that I didn’t really like, while others were too eager to do whatever I wanted – which wasn’t ideal since I don’t have the professional know-how.
I eventually met Brandon from Free Space Intent, who was not only good at doing colourful designs I liked, but also pointed out ideas that wouldn’t be as feasible for the house.
While I had an initial idea of what I wanted, he was able to advise me on the best course of action, so he was the one to help pull the whole design together.
D: My favourite part of the house is actually the TV feature area. If you look carefully, it’s made of denim-print ceramic tiles, which I really like because denim is timeless.
When we were shopping for tiles, these caught my eye and I asked my ID if we could include them in the house. Initially, he said that they wouldn’t really match the overall aesthetic, but that he’d still try to think of ways to make it work.
The next time I met him, I was pleasantly surprised that he managed to work the tiles into the 3D drawing so nicely. I think even he was surprised to see how good the tiles look in the overall space!
There’s also the floor in my study corner, which is at the back of the living room. I got the inspiration for this from one of Free Space Intent’s other projects, so I asked Brandon if he could do something similar with my study area.
I had two reasons for this. The design aspect was definitely one reason, but the other is because I didn’t want my roller chair to leave scratches on my laminate flooring. Tiles don’t get scratches as easily, so I got Brandon to install these colourful tiles around my study corner.
My study area is also where you’ll find the bulk of my storage. I’ve lived in homes without a storeroom my whole life, so I knew this was important. At the same time, I didn’t want too much storage, since I don’t have a lot of things and it’ll end up looking cluttered.
My initial idea was to have the whole area covered up to avoid collecting dust, but Brandon said that it wouldn’t look nice as it’d look very flat and boring. After some back-and-forth, we decided to have some open shelving.
If you look closely, you’ll realise that these open shelves have pastel shades similar to the floor tiles in my study corner, which I thought was a very nice detail that Brandon included.
D: I intended to create an open concept kitchen, but I didn’t want the air-conditioning from the living room to seep into the area.
That’s why we chose to include a sliding glass door, which helps to separate the spaces while helping to maintain the spacious look. It’s only closed when I have guests over – other than that, it’s always left open.
My cooking habits weren’t really a huge consideration here. While I do cook, I don’t usually cook things that involve a lot of oil. So, to me, I didn’t see the need to close off the kitchen – or to have a hood over the stove, for that matter.
So, Brandon removed the hood from his initial design, and mentioned that the backsplash can be used as a feature area instead. And as I didn’t need much storage here, we stayed away from heavy top-hung cabinets to avoid cluttering the kitchen.
D: I think the bathroom was the place that gave us the most headaches. As this house is quite old, the layout was a bit strange, where there’s no door linking the master bedroom to either one of the bathrooms.
Also, both the bathrooms were quite small, which made it difficult to include a sink/vanity area. So, Brandon proposed a few layout configurations for the bathroom, and in the end, this was the only design that was approved by HDB. Most of his other designs involved shifting the wet area, which I believe is not allowed.
So, we ended up merging both bathrooms and using some of the original kitchen space to fit in the vanity. We also included two entrances – one from my bedroom and one from the kitchen – so that it’s more accessible.
D: As the other areas already involved rather extensive renovation works, I wanted to keep my bedroom simple.
Part of the reason why I chose Free Space Intent to renovate my home was because they were really good at injecting colour without looking childish. So, I told Brandon that I wanted some colour in my bedroom, just in a way that suits me.
He’s the one who suggested painted triangles for the wall – which, if you realise, again are in the same colours as the tiles on my study room floor for a cohesive look across the different rooms.
D: Living here has been great! The friends I’ve hosted have said that this house represents me perfectly (laughs). They’ve also mentioned that they feel happy when they’re here, which was exactly what I wanted from the start.
And even though I didn’t envision this house to be popular with kids, my friends’ children love running around the place – they find it fun to run through the bathroom from the kitchen and end up in my living room.
Working with Brandon has been a joy as well. He was professional, practical, and was able to go along with any spontaneous ideas I had. His detail-oriented approach was really commendable – he helped me pick out furniture, and even went so far as to include the artwork I had within his 3D drawings.
With him, the design kind of fell into place as we went along. And even though the end result was different from my initial plan, I think it turned out even better than expected!
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