###At A Glance:
Home to: LC and her mother
Location: Tampines
Size: 103 sqm / 1108 sqft
Cost of Renovation: $38,000
Cost of Furnishing: $15,000
Interior Design Firm: Liid Studio
Interior Designer: Hwee Li
Some things are better old school, which certainly applies to this homeowner. Not simply swayed by the trend, Lulu has always had a liking towards the vintage style as she grew up in a home adorned with plenty of old school elements.
Drawn towards the vintage charm, LC has managed to effortlessly blend in the newly-bought furniture of her home together with the more antique pieces passed down from her parents’ era. If it ain’t broke, why fix it, eh?
Qanvast: Your place is a very unique blend of old school mixed with modern style. Is there a particular style that you were going after for your home?
L Cheah (LC): have always been drawn towards vintage things and surprisingly enough, it is making a comeback and is now a trend to incorporate vintage elements into all sort of things.
These small wooden desk and chair that I have in my home now actually belong to my parents, and the furniture were brought all the way here from Penang. According to them, the desk and chair are over 70 years old now and they have been around from as early as before the World War 2! [laughs] The chair is like a memento of my late father who enjoyed sitting on it while watching TV.
Qanvast: Where did you find inspirations for your home?
LC: Occasionally, I would browse Qanvast to have a look at the overall feel and designs of the homes. When I see something that I like, I would use the “Save to Board” feature so that I could refer back to the designs later on. I actually use Pinterest a lot as well and it was where I got most of my ideas and inspirations from.
Qanvast: How did you end up choosing Liid Studio among a few interior design firms that you have shortlisted?
LC: I spoke to a few designers and Hwee Li was probably the one who could give me the best ideas. The other designers either could not provide me the designs that I was after, or simply did not seem to have adequate experience in handling a resale unit like mine.
From the very first meeting with Hwee Li at her office, I was impressed with how she really listened and how she was very receptive towards my ideas. Unlike the other IDs whom I have spoken to, Hwee Li stood out as she took an extra step to sketch out the designs and it certainly helped me picture how my new home would look like.
Qanvast: Throughout the renovation process, how was it like working with Hwee Li? What was it that she has done in particular, that stood out to you?
LC: The key thing I find in a good interior designer is to the ability to listen and understand what the clients want, which was what Hwee Li was capable of doing. I was pleasantly surprised at how she actually remembered me telling her that I do spend a lot of time reading and she came up with a proposal to build a side table near my bed, even though it was not part of the initial brief.
One other thing I liked was how she built a feature wall that could hide the sliding door of my kitchen. I thought the design added more character to my whole place. As for my room, I wanted to build a door between my mom’s and my own room so that we could share the bathroom and Hwee Li immediately drew up the plan and had ideas of hacking down the walls as soon as I proposed my idea to her.
Qanvast: There are a lot of wood elements in your home. Where did you get most of your furniture from?
LC: Instead of buying new furniture with vintage designs to it, I like buying restored pieces of furniture that are both durable and had some history to it. I found this lady who specialises in restoring antique furniture and I got my cabinet restored from her.
Qanvast: When you design your house, did you put your dogs into consideration?
LC: Yes, I got a dog door for my bedroom so that my dogs could roam freely in my house. Previously in my old place, my dogs would constantly scratch the door so I thought that having a dog door could be a solution and it proves to be a lot better. I found this door myself and Hwee Li once again, was very accommodative and had no problems with me wanting the dog door.
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Share with us your memories of these vintage pieces. We heard the LC mama is still using the Singer sewing machine to alter her clothes!