ID’s 5-Room Yishun HDB is a Spacious, Open-Concept Home After Gut Reno

Every inch of this 121 sqm flat was put to good use.

More often than not, we plan our home renovation around the layout of the flat we buy. But for Yang Horng, an interior designer at Charlotte’s Carpentry, he had a rather unconventional approach: look for a home with the exact same layout he wanted.

In fact, he spent a whole year carefully planning the design based on his ideal layout and eventually chanced upon a 5-room resale flat in Yishun that matched his requirements.

The guiding factor for the home’s remodel was Yang Horng’s family.

“As IDs, we have long hours and I used to work even on the weekends managing sites and office works. It felt like I spent more time talking to clients than my wife and I knew it made her sad,” shared Yang Horng.

After the renovation, he wanted to stick to a better work-life balance to spend more time with his wife and their two young sons.

Here’s how he turned his home into a cosy abode perfect for bonding, where he can spend time in the same space with his family even if he has to work from home – along with a whole lot of intriguing features.

About the homeowner and his home

“My wife and I were renting previously,” said Yang Horng. “This is our first home, so I didn’t want to compromise on anything.”

Indeed, it was clear that he had paid attention to every little detail over the year he spent planning the design of the home based just on his ideal layout.

He came up with a spacious, open-concept design based on his goal of creating a spacious communal area for his family and hosting friends/extended family.

After years of working on different clients’ interiors, he was set on a simple yet tasteful look for his own home that involved using similar tones and materials around the space, with wood accents for visual contrast.

To that end, he went ahead with gutting the whole home to give it a complete makeover.

ID-Homeowner Yang Horng gives us a complete tour of his home

On opening up the entire communal area and reconfiguring the kitchen

Upon entering, Yang Horng led us along the entryway, past a wooden bench for putting on/taking off shoes.

Since the entryway is level with the outside, it’s easy for the family to move deliveries and their kids’ prams in and out from the entrance.

Not wanting the space to feel enclosed, he went with a half-height shoe cabinet supported by three organic shapes at the base. At the same time, it works as a divider that separates the entryway from the communal space.

From here, there’s a step-up to the communal space: an existing feature that he had kept to mark the entryway as a distinct zone.

Practically all the walls were hacked for the new layout, with the study and part of the adjacent bedroom being merged with the communal area. The other section of the junior bedroom was merged with the store for a new room where the kids and Yang Horng’s mother-in-law stay.

With the original kitchen split into an enclosed wet kitchen and a dry (open) kitchen, Yang Horng had more room for a huge dining island for hosting.

Having hacked the original store, and with two young children at home who have lots of toys and the like, he shared that they built all the storage they could around this space.

The dining island is not only great for hosting but also for Yang Horng to work, which lets him spend time with his family in the same space.

“We built storage at the corner of this island to keep my work documents,” he shared. “When the whole stretch of concealed storage behind us is closed, it has this clean look which makes for a nice background when I’m taking client calls.”

Though we’d hardly guess it, there’s even a dry pantry hidden within the storage section backing the island.

At the dry kitchen, he set up a sleek mini-counter with an inbuilt downdraft hood that blends seamlessly with the rest of the space.

As for the wet kitchen which can be closed off, he said: “The wet kitchen is my mother-in-law’s space since she does most of the cooking while my wife and I are busy at work.

She doesn’t like to bend down to get spices because it hurts her back, so we installed a pull-out spice rack at about her eye level that she can easily use.”

The dining area overlooks the extra-spacious living area.

“My wife and I really love to host and celebrate special occasions like Christmas and Chinese New Year with our friends and relatives who stay nearby,” he said. “That’s why we wanted to make sure there’s enough space for everyone to hang out.”

Besides the generous space it provides, the open layout makes it much easier to interact regardless which corner of the space the family or their guests are in.

You’ll also notice there are distinct structural pillars with wooden wraparounds.

Combined with the soft LED backlightings, they resemble the kind of pillars you’d expect in a landed home – an effect that Yang Horng wanted to achieve since he couldn’t hack them away.

Roomy double-sided sofa aside, Yang Horng did up a wooden platform for even more space for guests to sit and chat.

He achieved this by pushing back the master bedroom about the length of a structural pillar.

With the warm lighting and curved collectibles display, the platform also makes for an aesthetic focal point in the communal space.

On renovating the master bedroom and ensuite bathroom

The rather inconspicuous door at the side of the wood platform leads to the revamped master bedroom suite.

Here, Yang Horng combined the master bedroom and adjacent junior bedroom for a bigger space and repurposed the former into two halves: a walk-in wardrobe and ensuite bathroom.

At the walk-in wardrobe area, he customised a wooden ledge where his wife loves to work.

On the other side, he installed a bathtub hoping to find time for a relaxing soak there – though it has since become his sons’ favourite spot to splash about since he has been far too busy to actually use it.

In the WC/shower area which can be closed off with a sliding door, the use of large-format tiles here makes it look bigger than it actually is and gives it a classy look.

To get more space here, Yang Horng decided to forgo a sink in the bathroom and installed a wider his-and-hers sink right outside.

When Yang Horng showed us to the step-down sleeping area – which is right opposite the walk-in wardrobe – we were wowed by the feature wall.

“We wanted a relaxing resort feel here,” shared Yang Horng. “That’s why we got an expert to hand-mould this bedhead. To get the look, he prepared a mock-up and then plastered over it to create the rough stone effect. When it’s dark and we draw the curtains, it has this cave-like vibe that we really like.”

He explained that they kept the space otherwise simple: “We don’t want our kids to stay in any of the bedrooms all day. It’s just a space for us to sleep at night.”

About the rest of the cosy communal space

If you thought we were done exploring the living area, well… there’s more to admire here! One of the highlights is this corner of the home with uninterrupted views, accompanied by a low settee and movable wooden blocks that double as seating.

“This is my favourite space in the house,” shared Yang Horng. “We prefer to keep the windows closed because we live on a low floor and it gets dusty, so I thought of replacing them with a fixed window that can’t be opened.

For fire safety reasons, HDB only approved using a fixed window for a certain stretch.

My boys love cars, so they also like to stand here and look outside.”

Right next to it, in the space of the former junior bedroom, Yang Horng also has a simple bar counter where he sometimes does light work and enjoys the view while sipping on a cuppa.

In the background, he put up a dynamic noticeboard that makes him feel like he’s entering an airport.

Yang Horng’s wife had mentioned off-hand that she’d like a massage chair, so he surprised her with one.

To add visual interest to the nook, his carpenter suggested a wavy backlit feature that adds to the cosy atmosphere.

To sum up

Yang Horng highlighted that despite all the careful planning, there were naturally challenges along the way.

“The biggest headache was planning an open and spacious living area for our family. Since there were structural pillars and beams that we can’t hack, I also had to think about how to beautify them.

We love the final result though. Since we used to rent before, we couldn’t be happier that after all our years of hard work, we now have our own place to call home.

I’m also glad to say that my work-life balance is much better now,” Yang Horng said with a smile.

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