Woodleigh 5-Room BTO Boasts Stunning City Views and a Soothing Look

Warm and welcoming.

Renovating a home as a couple has its perks and challenges – on one hand, you have another person to bounce ideas off, and on the other, they may have design preferences that are different from your own.

This is something Agnes and Kelvin are all too familiar with, as they each had their own ideas. But rather than letting these differences get in the way, they chose to meet in the middle, turning their Woodleigh 5-room BTO flat into a warm, characterful space.

Blending Kelvin’s love for dark, moody colours with Agnes’s preference for brighter, airier spaces, the couple landed on a soft wabi-sabi theme filled with wood elements and different textures.

With the help of Charlotte’s Carpentry, they were able to bring this vision to life, as you’ll see below!

Renovating the living and dining room

Stepping into the home, you’re immediately greeted by an inviting, soothing space. Agnes’s preference for a lighter colour palette, paired with darker, deeper wood laminates chosen by Kelvin, introduces striking contrasts for a visually-arresting space.

The first thing you’ll likely notice is the bay window area, which frames a sweeping city view that includes Marina Bay Sands. Needless to say, it’s one of their favourite spots in the house, which they use as a nook for reading or unwinding after a long day at work.

It also doubles up as extra seating. As people who frequently host, Agnes and Kelvin specifically designed the living room with multiple seating areas. “It’s a place for everybody – our guests can sit anywhere, wherever they like,” Kelvin says.

Adding character (and organic wabi sabi elements) to the home is the darker, textured TV feature wall, as well as a solid suar wood table sourced from Johor Bahru, both of which incorporate a cosy, natural touch.

Renovating the kitchen

Designed with both cooking and socialising in mind, the couple’s open-concept kitchen flows seamlessly from the living room, allowing the couple to host while ensuring easy access to their preparation area.

The star of the space? The kitchen island, which is a multifunctional feature that acts as the couple’s food prep station, casual dining area, and a mini workspace. It features a cream sintered stone countertop, inspired by a similar one they saw in a showroom.

“When we touched the island, we were intrigued – not just by the colour, but by the feel as well,” Agnes says. “Both of us fell in love with it and knew we had to have it.”

Another feature we love: the service yard – an often overlooked space in many homes – was given an old-school twist with breezeblock dividers that draw in extra light to elevate the airy feel.

Renovating the master bedroom

For the master bedroom, the main priority is to create sufficient wardrobe space for the couple’s clothes. “Initially, we wanted the galley-style walk-in wardrobe,” Agnes says, “but after some thinking, we realised it would block the view outside.”

“So, we ended up with an L-shaped wardrobe instead. There’s less wardrobe space, but it still works.”

One feature that stood out to us was the different storage compartments around the vanity. Aside from the recessed niches on the side that house the couple’s perfumes and Agnes’s make-up products, there’s also a hidden cabinet behind the mirror that has extra space for their skincare products.

And the drawer next to the vanity? It has a socket incorporated into the drawer wall – a feature that allows Agnes to simply hide her hairdryer and curler without needing to unplug and store them elsewhere.

Renovating the toilets

With two bathrooms, Agnes and Kelvin took the opportunity to design one each to show off their individual tastes.

Agnes took the master bathroom and gave it a cheerful, refreshing look, with a half-wall design created using light green subway tiles and terrazzo-inspired ones. In contrast, Kelvin transformed the common toilet into a darker, moodier space, with a stone sink and eclipse mirror giving the space character without overcomplicating it.

And, if you didn’t realise, the original BTO toilet doors were replaced with panelled French doors – a feature that looks right at home within the organic wabi sabi theme they went for.

To sum up

Renovating a home – especially as a couple – involves a lot of give and take. While Agnes got the bright, warm home she’s always wanted, Kelvin also played a part in the material selection process, choosing the design for the different tiles and laminates.

In the end, the result is a soothing, inviting abode that the couple loves coming home to everyday – a testament to a successful renovation!

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