Nearly All Walls Were Hacked in This Resort-Themed Tampines Resale HDB

An unconventional choice with brilliant results.

Being avid nature lovers who enjoy jogging and hiking, the owners of this 5-room resale flat in Tampines had a clear vision of what they wanted for their renovation.

“Since they love the outdoors, they wanted the house interiors to connect with nature,” shares Emma, an interior designer from The Interior Lab whom the couple worked with.

Their choice of colours and materials, as well as hacking nearly all the non-structural walls, were their ideas to create that connection and emulate the open feel of the green spaces outside.

Intrigued? Follow Emma as she shares more!

About the homeowners and their home

Emma (E): I got the impression that the owners are quite easygoing when I first met them; they appreciate the little things and have fun.

They came prepared with a PDF file and clear requirements, so it helped me with doing the space planning, without needing me to guess and probe. Apart from the colour scheme, the owners wanted a comfortable and spacious area for hosting their families.

It’s great that this resale flat has a near-perfect square shape with no odd corners. Unlike in newer flats, we also had more space to experiment and come up with different ideas to meet the owners’ requirements.

WATCH: Designer Emma talks about giving the home a makeover

On renovating the living/dining room

E: There’s a recessed niche under the windows at the entryway. Because the owners didn’t need much storage here, we converted a third of it to a shoe cabinet and the rest into display shelves to add interest to the space.

This is where they display decor and souvenirs the husband brings back from business trips.

E: Since the living room wall is long, we thought it would look rather boring with just a plain TV console, so we suggested using brick-like tiles for the TV feature wall. They’re mixed and matched from Soon Bee Huat and Hafary.

For the rest of the living room, we did minimal built-ins to maintain the spacious feeling. This also makes it easy for the owners to shift the configuration as they like.

E: The wife is great at styling, so she sourced most of the loose furniture here and around the home; they have a distinct Bohemian style with a more rustic colour palette, which enhances the nature vibes in the space.

About the open-concept kitchen

E: There was originally a storeroom at the entrance of the kitchen that we hacked since getting more space was the owners’ priority.

Owing to the owners’ height difference, they decided to skip top-hung cabinets – there wasn’t a good height that works for them both. Other than that, they didn’t want to cramp up the space. There’s just one set of ceiling-height cabinets with a forest green laminate that we used around the kitchen.

In case they need it, there’s storage space on both sides of the island too, including an oven, since the wife bakes.

E: One of my favourite details in the kitchen is the butcher block look the countertops have. It’s actually a Kompac surface. The owners didn’t want the thin black edge to be visible, so we did a downturn by ‘dropping’ it down within the cabinets.

The result was even better than we expected since it looks like a solid wood block.

E: When it comes to resale flats, we often encounter unexpected issues or structures. We thought everything looked good in the kitchen until we hacked the existing cabinets and found a big sewage pipe!

The owners didn’t want upper cabinets to conceal it so we did a box-up instead. The wooden ledge installed there also helps to draw the eye since the owners use it to display decor.

On doing up the common bathroom

E: Although we hacked the storeroom, there was a section with a structural wall next to it that couldn’t be hacked. Instead, we extended the common bathroom entrance in the kitchen following the length of the structural wall.

This made it much more spacious, with enough room for a longer vanity.

On the outside, we had space for a small nook that we turned into a closet for the owners to store tall items like their vacuum cleaner.

E: The owners didn’t need a shower area in the common bathroom, so we could do this half-paint and half-tile design that’s otherwise difficult to maintain in a wet space that gets hot and humid.

E: It’s a design you’ll often find in European countries since they have drier and cooler weather.

About the study

E: The biggest change we made during this renovation was to hack all the room walls and replace them with lattice glass.

It’s a really daring decision, but the owners were set on it because they wanted the house to look even more spacious. It’s not practical if you have children, but after discussing with the owners, I understood that futureproofing wasn’t a concern they have for the near future.

After all the hacking, when I stood in the centre of the house mid-renovation, there was actually an echo (laughs).

E: The second junior bedroom-turned-study is a simple space for when the owners are working from home. It doesn’t have any built-ins apart from the storage settee by the window – that’s where they can relax and enjoy the view.

We actually did two rounds of painting for these study room walls and for the bedroom. The first time, the green colour turned out much lighter than in the catalogue so we redid it with a different shade from Benjamin Moore.

Benjamin Moore has an app to simulate the paint under different lighting conditions, like warm and cool light, which was very helpful.

On making over the master bedroom and ensuite

E: As in the original floorplan, there were two junior bedrooms. While we converted the corner most one into a study, we combined the second one with the main bedroom for a bigger master bedroom. The lattice glass amplifies the effect of space too.

The owners wanted a TV in the bedroom, but with all the walls hacked, we didn’t have anything to mount it on.

E: That’s how we came up with this centrepiece: a vanity room divider that lets us mount a TV. With the vanity on the other side, it’s effectively a dual-purpose feature in the room.

In line with the nature theme, the owners went ahead with this rustic-looking laminate that mimics natural wood.

The walk-in wardrobe is not just a dressing area, but also the space where the wife does yoga. The wardrobe’s mirror doors were something she requested for, so that she can check her form.

E: Other than that, there’s the seating at the windows, like in the study. The owners purposely chose not to have curtains so they can enjoy the unblocked views of the trees at any time of the day.

We actually wanted to change the bedroom windows since they weren’t in great condition; this flat is about two to three decades old. However, they’re two-thirds of the wall height and have an odd shape unlike the typical half-height ones, so we couldn’t get approval from HDB to change them.

The alternative was to try to get Professional Engineer (PE) endorsement, but it’s expensive and doesn’t guarantee that the change will be approved. With this in mind, the owners decided to forgo changing the windows.

E: In the master ensuite, we recreated the half-paint half-tile look at the sink to match the rest of the green tones in the house. To up the woody vibes, we installed wood-look tiles at the shower area.

To sum up

E: Whenever we encountered renovation hiccups, the owners were understanding and open to alternatives, which made it a smooth and collaborative process.

Hacking all the walls also opened up so many design possibilities, so I felt that we could achieve a unique look.

While this renovation project is part of my work, the owners see it as the process of shaping their dream home. That’s why I’m very glad I could help them bring it to life.

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