Family’s Tampines EA Gets Remarkable ‘Korean-Indo’ Interior Makeover

It’s a wow-worthy blend of cultures in this spacious home.

A family-friendly home is all about elevating the interior while balancing it with kid-proof features and that’s what Eleven See, an interior designer at Authors • Interior & Styling, was tasked with – but with an added layer: to incorporate design elements inspired by his clients’ diverse backgrounds.

“With 150 square metres to work with, the homeowners basically had the luxury to dedicate each space to its own function. What was most important to them was to create restful, open spaces that encourage more family bonding," shares Eleven.

We had a chat with Eleven to find out exactly how he teamed up with the homeowners to transform the 36-year-old resale executive apartment into a cheerful home for six, where the conversation flows naturally thanks to open-concept spaces.

About the homeowners and their home

Eleven (E): This resale executive apartment belongs to a couple with two young children. They also have a helper and a pet dog, so it’s a lively family.

E: The flat hasn’t had any renovations since it was completed in 1986 and it was quite dim because of the closed-off rooms and grey-tinted windows the previous owner had around the house.

It was also pretty rundown; the walls had a rough texture and we had to scrape off all the existing wallpaper which covered most of the walls and ceiling during the hacking phase. Since it had been there for some three decades, chipping it all off was a tedious process.

E: While the main focus was designing a family-centric home with open spaces, we incorporated various elements that draw on the couple’s international roots along the way since the husband is from Korea while the wife is from Indonesia.

I really appreciate that they have a good eye for aesthetics which aligns closely with mine; it was easy to get the right balance for the entire project. When they shared their ideas, I helped to fine-tune and polish them, which creates a special touch to the house.

On renovating the living room and studio

E: Concept-wise, we focused on bringing out the spaciousness of the communal areas. Since it’s a rectangular unit with windows at all corners, tearing down walls – either fully or partially – helped to amplify the natural lighting flowing into the spaces from one end to another, as you’ll see.

While the owners didn’t have a specific interior style in mind, I would call it a modern-contemporary home with a touch of retro and a relaxing colour palette in the common areas.

E: The wood look was something the husband focused on; in Korea, you’ll find the interiors are filled with wood, so we replicated that here with a lot of wood tones.

It’s also a safer palette to play with in such a big area since this is a family-oriented home, and we wanted to keep things light and comfy.

E: The stand-out feature is definitely the studio room right behind the couch, designed for the wife to work in. She’s a homemaker, but she also works part-time sewing apparel like hats and clothes to sell at pop-up markets.

The studio was originally a junior bedroom, but we tore down half the wall and changed the upper half to pivot glass panels framed in wood.

The homeowners were very keen on having this type of pivoted window, which I think is used quite often in Korea. We integrated that idea here, but with a twist – using them as ‘indoor windows’.

E: One of the reasons the homeowners picked this unit is actually because it’s on a high floor with unblocked views, so they get a lot of natural light coming from every direction of the house.

Since light passes through these panels, the common areas are very bright and have more of an open feeling. Of course, this helps with the ventilation too.

While the wife is doing her work, she can also monitor the rest of the communal space where her kids are playing.

About the revamped balcony

E: The balcony is where the wife does her gardening, so it has a more tropical and vibrant colour palette. She appreciates natural textures and wanted a more ‘raw’ space, so we achieved that with the cement screed flooring and the full-body terracotta tiles used to build up the settee.

If you look closer, you’ll also see some retro elements like the Peranakan tiles bordering the corners and under the settee. This is something the wife really wanted to have, given her Indonesian heritage.

E: Much like in the balcony, the floor tiles in the foyer have a baked terracotta-like palette for an earthy look.

On making over the kitchen and dining room

E: One of the highlights of the home is the revamped kitchen: the homeowners wanted to turn it into an open-concept space, so we tore down the full-height walls to open it up to the living room and set up a dining area.

The former dining area was converted into a spare bedroom.

E: The wife cooks daily and this updated layout helps her keep an eye on the kids while she’s doing her food prep.

For me, the outstanding part of this space is the custom island adjoining the dining settee and the dining table; it was an idea I proposed after doing some research as the homeowners wanted a really long bench.

E: When they have visitors over on weekends, like their kids’ friends, this provides plenty of seating space. It’s almost like a ‘link’ between the kitchen and dining space that encourages casual conversation.

E: My clients love green, so apart from the wood laminates, we did up the kitchen cabinetry with this matcha green laminate.

They wanted the natural light to flow around, so there are a lot more open shelves instead of closed upper cabinets. These shelves also give them the space to display their numerous collectibles, like cups and planters.

E: Not wanting the kitchen to look flat, we created this backsplash with tiles from Hafary, which have an organic sort of texture.

About the master bedroom and ensuite

E: We installed this partition to separate the bed from the wardrobe space for a walk-in wardrobe concept in the bedroom.

It doubles as a headboard and also has some storage nooks for the homeowners to keep their phones and other small items.

Instead of an opaque partition, we used ribbed glass to do up the top half of the partition so that light can still travel into the walk-in wardrobe area.

E: There are also small open shelves along the side of the partition for the homeowners to store books.

One challenge we faced during the renovation was uneven levelling around the house, which is common in a resale unit that’s about four decades or older.

This meant my builder team had to take extra note to buffer space for the levelling so that the carpentry – like this built-in wardrobe – fit in just right without looking uneven.

E: Built-in bathtubs are pretty common in Korea. That’s why instead of getting freestanding store-bought bathtubs, we built them up from scratch with patterned tiles – one for each bathroom, as requested by the husband.

To separate the bathtub from the rest of the bathroom in the master ensuite, we used glass blocks instead of plain glass panels. Not only do they add more aesthetic texture to the space, but they are also easier to maintain: because of the heavy fracturing, you can’t spot watermarks like on a normal glass panel.

The bathroom walls look like they’re tiled with kitkat tiles – but they’re actually large-format tiles (1.2m by 0.6m), with the tile design resembling kitkat tiles. This way, we achieve an elegant touch while keeping grout lines to a minimum.

E: Making the most out of the small corner outside the common bathroom, we set up an additional basin for the kids to brush their teeth or wash their hands. Similar to the balcony, we infused retro elements, like the exposed copper piping and the mixer tap that has a raw look.

The patterned tiles also add a Peranakan look to the space while the breeze blocks above the door frame amplify the retro vibes.

They improve ventilation and help to brighten up the common bathroom a fair bit too, since it gets quite dark inside.

E: Like in the master ensuite, there’s a bathtub here, although you can’t see it in the photo.

What’s unique is the triangular cabinet at the corner of the wall – we positioned it like this because the bathroom’s original layout is rather odd and cramped.

Pushing the basin here in a triangular configuration gave us space to make the shower area bigger to fit the bathtub.

To sum up

E: Apart from the aged wallpaper and uneven levelling, the overall renovation process was smooth because my clients are great people and easy to work with.

Closing off this project, I was happy with how it turned out. When I visited a month later for the photo shoot of their house, I felt even more satisfied seeing how the clients had settled in and personalised the house with loose furniture and decor.

It had a cosy, lived-in sort of atmosphere that reflected exactly what they had wanted when we started the renovation.

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