DINK Couple with Cats Turns 3-Room BTO into an Open-Concept ‘Studio’

With custom furniture from Foshan, China!

Most 3-room BTO flats are planned around clearly defined spaces: a living area, and a narrow corridor leading to two bedrooms. But for homeowners Fiona and Shao Wei (@h0mebodies), that layout doesn’t quite reflect how they actually live.

So instead of working around walls, they got rid of them entirely — reimagining their 690 sq ft flat as an open studio shaped around their daily routines, and the way their three cats move through the home.

On knocking down both bedrooms to create a studio

“We were renting previously, and realised we were opening the doors all the time to let our cats roam,” Fiona shares. “In the end, we were essentially functioning like it was a studio anyway.”

So when it came time to renovate their own flat, the decision felt like a natural one: remove both bedrooms entirely and start with a clean slate.

“The moment you put a queen bed in the master bedroom, you would have to crab walk,” Fiona adds, recalling how tight the original layout would have been.

By opening everything up, the couple traded two cramped rooms and a narrow corridor for a layout that feels noticeably more comfortable to live in — especially for two people (and three cats) sharing the same space.

A blank slate that lets styling do the work

For Fiona and Shao Wei, the renovation wasn’t about packing the home with built-ins or following a fixed design theme. If anything, they took the opposite approach.

“I don’t think there’s a concept or theme,” Fiona says. “It’s more whatever is pleasing to the eye.”

“A lot of what you see comes from styling as opposed to carpentry,” she adds. “If I want a space to look good, a lot of it is about curating the right pieces.”

It’s a subtle shift in mindset, but one that shaped how the entire home came together. Rather than locking in a look through heavy renovation work, they kept things pared back — allowing furniture, materials, and smaller details to define the space instead.

Custom furniture from Foshan that fits just right

Rather than sourcing their furniture locally, Fiona and Shao Wei took a detour during a trip to Guangzhou — making their way to Foshan, widely known as China’s furniture hub.

“It was just a one-hour drive, so we thought, why not?” the couple shared. “You can actually see, touch, and sit on the pieces — it’s very different from buying online.”

What started as a one-day visit quickly turned into a key part of their renovation. From the sofa and dining set to storage pieces, most of the larger items in the home were sourced and customised there.

“The usual furniture sizes would be too big for a 3-room BTO,” they explain. “So the good thing about customising is that we could shrink everything proportionately — the length, the depth, everything.”

Beyond sizing, they were also able to choose materials tailored to their lifestyle — including scratch-resistant, waterproof fabrics that could better withstand life with three cats.

Even with shipping factored in, the costs came in at around 20 to 30 per cent lower than comparable pieces in Singapore. But more importantly, the process gave them a level of control that would have been hard to achieve otherwise.

“You can actually feel the different material options, and you can customise everything,” they say. “That’s the beauty of it.”

Thoughtful details that shape the space

With the layout fully opened up, the couple had to find ways to define different zones.

One of the more striking solutions is the glass brick divider that separates the sleeping area from the rest of the home. “After seeing a lot of Pinterest posts, I knew I wanted it,” Fiona shares. “When we decided to make our home a studio, it fit in perfectly as a partition between the living and private spaces.”

Instead of closing off the bedroom, the semi-transparent blocks allow light to pass through while still creating a sense of separation — a balance that works especially well in a smaller flat.

At the same time, many of the design decisions were shaped by their three cats. From placing the cat tree right by the window to give them a view, to installing an almost-invisible mesh that allows for ventilation without compromising safety, the home was planned with their routines in mind.

“We couldn’t install anything in our previous rental, so the windows always had to be closed,” Fiona explains. “Now, we can finally open them for ventilation and still keep the cats safe.”

Even smaller additions — like a simple cut-out cat door — were chosen for practicality. Unlike typical flaps that require training, this design lets the cats move freely between spaces (to access their litter box in the bathroom) without hesitation.

In fact, the cats prefer going through the hole, even when the bathroom door is open!

Designed around their daily routines

Opening up the layout gave the couple more flexibility — but it also meant being clear about what they truly needed from the space.

Storage was a priority from the start. Instead of the typical L-shaped wardrobe beside the bed, they opted for a full-height wardrobe that covers the full length of the wall.

“Usually, you can’t fit as much into an L-shape,” Fiona explains. “When planning the layout with our ID, we had to think about how to maximise the wardrobe space.”

The bathrooms were also reworked. Rather than having two compact bathrooms, Fiona and Shao Wei decided to convert the common bathroom into a powder room and remove the toilet from the master bathroom to accommodate a larger shower area.

“We shower the cats ourselves, so we needed a bigger shower area,” Fiona says. “Splitting the bathrooms just made more sense to us.”

In the kitchen, the lack of a service yard meant rethinking how laundry would be handled. Instead of relying on the standard ceiling rack, they opted for a heat pump dryer — freeing up overhead space and keeping clothes away from the cooking area.

“Our flat didn’t come with a service yard, and a laundry rack would have to be installed right above where we cook,” Fiona explains. “So we decided not to hang anything at all and just use a dryer.”

To make the space more usable day to day, the counters were also extended to wrap around the kitchen, giving both of them enough room to prep and cook at the same time.

To sum up

Looking back, the couple agrees that the biggest win wasn’t any single feature, but the decision to rethink the layout entirely.

“I think the best part was deciding to knock down all the walls,” Shao Wei shares. “It just makes our home more spacious and a lot more comfortable to live in.”

That shift has changed the way they experience the home day to day. What could have been a series of tight, separated rooms is now one continuous space that feels easy to move through and live in.

More importantly, it reflects exactly what they set out to do from the start: build a home around their routines, their habits, and the way they share the space — rather than forcing themselves to fit into a layout that never quite worked.