You’ll be surprised by the amount of work put into this gorgeous home!
Every homeowner has an idea of what their dream home looks like. But while most of them are content leaving things to their interior designers, or keeping things simple, couple JJ and Emily (@east.side.loft) were determined to do whatever it takes to bring their dream home to life – even if it meant managing parts of the renovation themselves.
“We were really keen to design our home following the California casual style, which is a mix of Mediterranean, Bohemian, mid-modern, and coastal styles,” says Emily. “But we realised that a lot of local designers aren’t familiar with this style, so we decided to just handle the renovation ourselves.”
In contrast to the home’s soothing and relaxing look, the renovation process was anything but. While they did have a contractor helping them out, the couple found themselves being extra hands-on with the work – like waterproofing their tiles themselves, and hiring a crane to install their full-length windows.
Keep scrolling to read about this effortful renovation project!
About the homeowners and their home
The floorplan of JJ and Emily’s home, pre-renovation
JJ: At the start of our search, we weren’t exactly sure what type of HDB flat to get – we were torn between getting one with resale potential or one that suited our living needs.. Eventually, we found ourselves gravitating towards resale executive maisonettes, because they’re bigger and allowed us to have separate zones for socialising and resting compared to other HDB flats.
The floorplan of JJ and Emily’s home, post-renovation | Source: Palm Wood
Emily (E): When we were searching for a place to live, we were mainly looking to stay near either of our parents. JJ’s parents live in Ang Mo Kio, where maisonettes are few and thus very expensive. So, we chose to stay in Tampines, where housing is much more affordable.
We found this corner unit, which happened to be just a 5 minute walk away from my parents’ house and also made us eligible for the proximity grant. The unit was also not recently renovated and thus was more affordable and allowed us more flexibility to do an overhaul afterwards.
Design-wise, we were inspired by our travels. I tend to like summer-ish, hot places, so I was naturally drawn towards Mediterranean designs – like the kind you’d find in a holiday villa in Greece.
JJ: For myself, I really like houses with raw materials and wood, which I think gelled well with the look that Emily wanted.
On creating the entryway
JJ: We widened the main door as much as HDB allowed us to; this was to create a more impressive first impression when you’re entering the home.
Also, as we wanted the space to be as bright and airy as possible, we included some glass panels at the side to bring light in. It actually turned out to be more useful than we thought – it lets us watch out for any guests who are coming over, and our cats also love sitting there to look outside.
We also removed the previous tiled roofing and changed it to skylight for that same purpose!
The entryway, pre-renovation
E: Our entryway was a recessed area that the previous owners bought and incorporated into their home.
Other than welcoming guests, it’s also where we keep our plants. After we moved here, we both took up gardening, and one plant became many (laughs). And as this area gets the most amount of light, it’s the best place to keep them.
The floor tiles are actually raw clay zellige tiles that we imported all the way from Morocco. We were lucky to have a good Moroccan friend that we met during our travels and thus got his help to ship the tiles over.
It turned out to be pretty troublesome, though. Shipping took forever and was very difficult to track because the tracking details were in Spanish. Also, because the tiles were not locally made, they weren’t glazed and waterproofed beforehand – so JJ and I had to manually do it ourselves before we could lay them out.
Overall, it was quite a tiring process. We spent the entirety of Valentine’s Day working on them – at the end of it, our backs were hurting like crazy (laughs). I’m not sure if we’d do it again, but I think the effort was worth it as it adds an organic touch to the space.
On renovating the kitchen
JJ: The kitchen used to be in the middle of the house, but after some discussion, we thought it would look better if we shifted it to right beside the entrance, since it has a welcoming vibe to it. This change also allowed us to extend the kitchen and install a kitchen island, something that we really wanted!
To keep in line with the bright and open look, we turned it into an open-concept space – except for a black folding glass door by the side, which we use to prevent the cooking fumes from leaking into the laundry area.
E: If you notice, the floor tiles are arranged in an unusual way. It’s a French tiling pattern which we frequently saw during our travels, which we thought would add a unique touch to the space.
First, we sourced for the large-format tiles we wanted and then spent some time researching and coming up with the measurements. There was a whole mathematical formula we had to follow to get those numbers and ensure that everything fit! Thankfully, our contractor was very helpful throughout the process of creating this pattern.
About the living room and balcony
E: Since we envisioned level 1 to be for socializing, we hacked most of the walls in the first level to open up and brighten the space, including the one between the living room and balcony.
Also, we decided to use a projector instead of a TV, because we felt that the projector gives us the flexibility to open or close up the space whenever we want.
When the screen is withdrawn, the entire living room and balcony becomes integrated and allows for large groups to socialize and hangout together!
JJ: The balcony is easily our favourite place in the house. It’s where we come to sit and chat with our friends, so we wanted the space to give off the soothing vibe we wanted.
One thing we did was to visually demarcate it from the rest of the house using microcement floors and walls, which we thought contrasted nicely against the wooden vinyl floors of the living room.
Another thing was to build this settee for us and our guests to sit on, which we intentionally coated with the same shade of microcement to keep the look seamless. It also has a little cubby where we keep our olive plant – which, incidentally, was the first plant we got after moving in here. It’s not surprising that this is everyone's favourite photo taking corner!
The main reason why we kept this plant here was because it needed lots of natural light, and this area is easily one of the brightest spaces in the house thanks to the huge, custom-made full-pane windows.
Also, because the windows were so big, they couldn’t fit in the lift or be carried up the stairs. We had to get a crane to lift the window panes up to the house – we were lucky that we stayed on the lower levels else it wouldn’t have been possible to lift these large pieces of glass panels up!
About the master bedroom
The entrance to the master bedroom, pre- and post-renovation
E: The arched doorway was actually done by the previous owner. All we did with it was to change the doors into French double doors to open into the space.
Normally, the second floor doesn’t get a lot of natural light, so we thought of brightening up the bedroom by installing two big internal windows on either side. One side brings in light from the entryway on the first floor, while the other side captures light from the side facing the staircase.
JJ: Privacy wise, it’s not really an issue currently as it’s just the two of us living here for now. This feature also helps us to watch our cats from the outside when they are resting in their room!
To sum up
E: We won’t lie – it was a challenging process for us. Since we went with a contractor instead of an interior designer, we had to give precise measurements and design details to execute what we wanted.
We were fortunate that our contractors from Palmwood were very experienced and could advise a lot on what made sense and what was functional to live in.
Overall, the whole renovation process took about 8 months, which I believe is longer than what it’d usually take with an interior designer.
JJ: But it definitely did help that we knew exactly what we wanted, both in terms of aesthetics and practical functions. From the start, we knew that we wanted to go with a California-casual style, and we imagined ourselves using the space before the renovation to figure out what we needed.
In the end, the house turned out exactly how we wanted it to, and we definitely don’t see ourselves moving out anytime soon.
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