This 5-Room Choa Chu Kang Resale HDB is Modelled After a Quaint Airbnb

What personality looks like – in a home.

A pre-wedding trip to Europe in 2019 led a couple to a quaint Airbnb in Vienna. Though their stay was a mere three days, it was all the time they needed to find inspiration for their first home a few years later – a 5-room resale flat in Choa Chu Kang.

“We liked a lot of the features in the Airbnb, from the French doors to the deeper accent colours and vintage detailing,” shares Kewee about his time there with his wife.

Wanting their home to resemble the same Airbnb they stayed in, the couple connected with Vic, an interior designer from Forefront Interior, to turn their dream into reality.

With vintage details, soothing colours and an eye-catching island-cum-dining table, the home is now a cosy abode for the couple and their newborn baby. Here’s how they embarked on their renovation journey.

About the homeowners and their home

Kewee (K): My wife and I are both from Malaysia – we rented a room here for a couple of years before getting this house. This was the 13th flat that we visited and we chose it because the layout is squarish, without any odd angles.

It’s also spacious, since it’s a 123 sqm 5-room flat.

While it’s far from the central areas, all the amenities we need are also within walking distance so we’re fine with it.

Throughout the home, we styled it like the Airbnb with a lot of vintage, Victorian-style colours and furniture.

K: Other than recreating the Airbnb look, one of our main requirements was to make the home as comfy as possible since we usually stay in all day when we’re not working.

My wife is a baker, so we also needed storage space for a lot of tools and equipment she owns.

For inspiration, we browsed different home looks on Qanvast, especially the ones with colours similar to the one we had in mind. After that, we met up with firms that were recommended to us based on our requirements.

K: Vic was from one of the firms that reached out to us. What stood out to us was how he took the time to get to know us and then came up with proposals and mock-ups for the subsequent meetings.

We were impressed by the amount of detail and thought he put into them. Since it was close to what we wanted, we decided to go ahead with Vic.

On creating the foyer

K: More than 50% of this home’s look was inspired by the Airbnb (laughs). That includes this foyer – we really liked the idea of having an entryway leading to the main space. Plus, it’s convenient to put on or remove shoes.

To make it, we downsized the original storeroom for a longer corridor and added French doors to separate it from the rest of the home.

K: My wife also likes tiles with patterns, like the vintage and Peranakan kinds, so we used those for the whole entryway flooring.

Our friends say it feels like they’re entering a cafe when they move from the foyer to the living room.

About the living area

K: In the flat, there were actually five rooms: it’s not shown in this pre-reno floorplan, but the previous owner made an additional small room in the living/dining area that she rented out.

To make the whole area more spacious, we hacked a lot of things. We tore down the small room in the living area and converted the study into the living/entertainment area.

We also made the living area a bit bigger and reduced the size of the adjacent bedroom; we use it as a study now.

K: If you look at the floorplan, you can see that the horizontal living/dining area aligns almost perfectly in one line with the new living area. This is thanks to extending the kitchen entrance slightly and the built-in dry pantry.

These were the kind of details Vic advised us on, so that we’d have a clean line of sight across the horizontal stretch.

K: My wife and I usually hang out to have meals and chat at this 3.2m island with a dining table. It was always a dream of ours to have an island. We initially only planned for a 2m one but Vic suggested making the most of the space and lengthening it.

The island has a sintered stone top. We went for one with a matte finish since it’s easier to maintain than a glossy one.

K: For the dining section, we sourced this loose piece with a curved end from a furniture shop. They customised the width of the straight side to fit the island. This way, there’s a seamless connection from the island.

We also chose some rattan furniture like the chairs and the divider on the living side because it was a trending material and we liked the look.

The walls look like they’re painted white but it’s actually a more cream tone, which is easier to maintain over the years.

K: We also have a dry pantry here so that my wife can easily set up her appliances and bake. There’s a lot of storage space for her equipment as well.

With our baby, we don’t have so much time now so we use it more for preparing baby formulas.

Even the island is like a spot for us to bartend for our baby now (laughs). We do invite friends and family over every few weeks though, so it’s a great space to host.

We work here too sometimes, so you could say it’s a multipurpose space.

On changing up the living area

K: We really loved everything about the Airbnb in Vienna, including the deep green colour they used. So, we chose similar shades for our home with Vic’s help.

The first shade of green we used here ended up looking too light unfortunately, so we redid the paint with a darker shade.

K: Sticking to the vintage and Victorian style, we chose to have wainscoting for the wall. This provides a nice ‘frame’ for us to put up photos from our pre-wedding photoshoot.

I also do photography as a hobby, so I hung some of the pictures I’ve taken up here as well.

Plus, the space is really cosy, so we usually end up spending a lot of time hanging out here.

On renovating the kitchen and common bathroom

K: My wife and I cook often, so we decided on a closed kitchen since it will prevent the cooking fumes from spreading around the house.

We used French doors for the kitchen too: thanks to the glass panes, light passes through, keeping the space bright.

You can see that we used shaker cabinets for the lower cabinets in this pastel shade of blue. At first, I wasn’t sure if the colour would be timeless but after staying here a while, I think it works well.

K: We went to Hafary to select tiles, including for the backsplash – we eventually settled on these textured tiles my wife likes.

Vic told us that we can choose from a variety of colours for the grout lines. We didn’t know about this, so we appreciate that he always shared such things with us.

As for the flooring, we did a wood-look tile overlay for a seamless look from the living area which has vinyl flooring.

About the common bathroom

K: The common bathroom happens to be in the kitchen and we wanted to do something different from the rest of the home.

Eventually, after browsing some looks online, we thought of a black-and-white scheme; it’s easier to maintain too.

On renovating the master bedroom and ensuite bathroom

K: In the original layout of the master bedroom, the bathroom door was right at the entrance.

This way, we wouldn’t have been able to do a shower area with a glass screen due to the arrangement of the space.

Because of that, we did a partition to cover up the original entrance and built an entrance from the side of the wall facing the bed.

K: At the time we were renovating, the shiplap look was trending and we thought it would suit our theme well. That’s why the bed is against an accent wall done up with light green planks.

K: For the master bathroom, we have a two-toned design with light herringbone tiles and patterned tiles that my wife loves.

The hardware we used was all brushed gold, and the types of furniture we chose – like the mirror – have vintage detailing for the old-fashioned look.

To sum up

K: Since we also engaged other vendors, coordinating the timings and works was very challenging during the renovation process. We also faced a personal situation that required us to move in as soon as possible.

Another thing is that we wanted to overlay vinyl in the bedrooms, but there was an unexpected issue with the floor level being higher in the bedrooms compared to the communal areas. This meant we had to hack the existing tiles in those spaces first. Luckily, this didn’t cause a major delay.

K: We really appreciate Vic’s open communication and efforts to coordinate everything.

This helped us to finish the renovation within the original timeline so that we could move in without any problems.

He also advised us on a lot of small but important details we would have missed out on our own.

Our home is warm, cosy and captures the atmosphere and look of the Airbnb we were inspired by. We’re very happy with the outcome and though it’s been over a year, the home still feels as new as the day we moved in – it’s everything we dreamed of.

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