In this family home: plenty of space and moody hues.
Cool aesthetic aside, if there’s one thing going for Jooe’s home in the North-east, it’s definitely size. Comprising of 5 bedrooms and measuring 140 sqm in total, this recently revamped condominium apartment has more than enough space for its new owner’s family of four.
“We were deciding between this unit and a 4-bedder penthouse in the same block,” says Jooe. “But eventually, we went with the bigger option because I was expecting my second child by that point of time.”
As for the new look of her family home, Jooe’s vision was “a dark and cosy interior with black and green as the defining colours” – which she requested local design firm Prozfile to bring to life. Here, we got Jooe to share more about her renovation journey as well as the various makeover ideas she had in mind!
About herself and her home
Jooe (J): I live here with my husband and two daughters. This is our second home – we wanted it to be in Sengkang as well, since it’s close to both of our parents’ homes.
Jooe’s home, pre-renovation
Other than finding a bigger space, we were also looking for a ‘new’ unit that hasn’t really been lived in. And as it turned out, the previous owner had never stayed in this home, and bought it only for investment – so it was really good that we were able to find a house like this.
Jooe’s home, post-renovation
Personally, I really like interior design. I’m passionate about designing, and when I look at a space, I have a lot of ideas and can visualise certain things. I actually came up with the design of our previous home, and I guess it’s the same with this house, where I knew what I wanted right from the start.
Looks-wise, there’s no real theme per se. I went with green and black simply because it complemented the mustard yellow living sofa. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it in the showroom. I know the ‘in’ thing now is Scandinavian or Japandi designs, but I didn’t want any wood furniture as I find them hard to maintain.
About renovating the living room and dining area
Jooe’s living room, pre-renovation
J: The original living room was quite small, so we merged it with one of the junior bedrooms to expand the space. That’s actually where our dining area is now – I like it because it has a full view of the Jalan Kayu neighbourhood.
From the beginning, I knew that I wanted this whole stretch of space to be the TV feature wall area. It looks seamless, and it also has a long storage unit at the bottom. Other than that, I opted for fluted panel walls – which was a feature I took a liking to after visiting a showroom.
The black and green shades in the living room were chosen to complement the sofa. Black generally is very easy to match with other colours, and I thought that green would be a good contrasting colour for the mustard yellow sofa.
About the kitchen’s makeover
The kitchen, pre-renovation
J: These counters are actually the original ones that were built into the space. We didn’t hack anything away – the main issue I had was the colour, which was this off-white shade that I didn’t really want. Cadine eventually overlaid the original counters with black laminates so that they’d match the rest of the house.
Another thing was the sliding door that separates the dry and wet kitchen. It was initially a wooden door, but I had it changed to a reeded glass one for easier maintenance.
About making over the children’s bedroom
J: My daughters’ bedroom was actually much smaller, but we decided to merge it with the tiny bathroom next to it. There was also a structural wall that we weren’t able to tear down, so we used it to create a bookshelf.
Most of the furniture here were brought over from our old home. Because my daughters are still young, we kept the space bright and colourful to make it more conducive for them.
About renovating the master bedroom
The master bedroom, pre-renovation
J: We were initially thinking of creating a wall in the middle of the bedroom to mount a TV, but we decided against it, because that would make the space smaller. So, instead, we used a projector.
Also, because we didn’t create this mounting wall, we were able to include an island that stores my jewellery and bags. I had one in my previous home as well, but it had glass panes that showcase everything. I wanted something different this time around, so I decided to keep everything hidden inside fluted drawers.
About the common bathroom and master en suite’s new look
J: Both the common and master bathrooms have the same colour scheme as the rest of the house. It was a bit hard to find laminates in the same shade of green as the one used for the communal areas, so we settled on a couple of options that are similar-looking.
We also thought that keeping things plain would make the bathrooms look too flat, so we chose some patterned laminates for visual interest. They’re just simple ones – we didn’t want overly complicated on designs that would look too messy.
To sum up
J: I’ve been living here for over a year now, and honestly, it’s been really good. There’s plenty of space for family activities, and the kids really love it – especially my older daughter, who was the one who convinced me to buy this place (laughs).
Looks-wise, it’s exactly how I envisioned it to be. I’m glad that I got myself involved in the renovation process because it gave me more control over the final result; it’s better than leaving the creative direction entirely in the hands of someone else.
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