This small flat packs a decorative punch with its unconventional layout and industrial-rustic look!
This small flat packs a decorative punch with its unconventional layout and industrial-rustic look!
Ann and Max’s rustic-style home features a casual bistro-inspired dining area.
Ann and Max Ang, the homeowners of this four-room HDB flat, are frequent travellers, and they wanted their marital home to exude the same inviting, yet visually stimulating vibe as their boutique hotel holiday accommodations. With backgrounds in interior design, the couple worked together – Max on the overall design, and Ann on the budgeting and accessories – to achieve the interior’s industrial-rustic look, which cost $80,000. Here’s what they did.
They restructured the flat’s layout
To create a more casual “bistro-style” dining space, they tore down a kitchen wall to open up the kitchen and dining areas. Where the wall once stood is now a kitchen island, which is also used to prop up one end of the dining table. Cubby holes were built to create a display of items such as canned food. Another interesting feature is the “balcony”, which they created by reducing the size of the adjoining guest room and study. The balcony and study area are also connected by a series of doors to the master bedroom, the walk-in closet, and the master bathroom – forming a home-within-a-home concept that reminds one of a cosy homestay.
LEFT
From the kitchen, you can peek through to the guest room and balcony.
ABOVE
The couple weren’t afraid to match concrete with colour and woodlook elements, in the common bathroom.
TOP LEFT
The high dining seats are from Comfort Design. Clear glass vase, from Journey East.
(OPPOSITE) TOP
The TV console was customised to match the colour of the feature wall. Vases on coffee table, from Journey East.
BOTTOM
“I like to play with colour and accessories, whereas Max works with the formfollows- function philosophy,” says Ann.
They brought “nature” in
Raw-look finishes and organic materials give the home its cool, industrial-rustic look. Throughout the home, there is a consistent use of natural wood tones – such as the suar wood dining tabletop and plywood storage units – contrasted with grey surfaces, such as the textured raw concrete blocks and concrete flooring, that creates an interesting interplay of textures.
They used vibrant colours
To give the grey-toned flat a more cheery ambience, Ann and Max designed a TV feature wall made up of over 400 pieces of stained plywood. “It is inspired by the weathered colours on wooden fishing boats, so we chose colours such as faded blue, brown, and green. It was fixed piece by piece, and we even gave the carpenter an excel sheet to follow for the placement!” quips Ann.
For a unified colour palette, the couple chose an olive green fabric sofa from Castlery, a turquoise laminate for their walk-in wardrobe, and a blue-green surfacing material from Kompacplus for the bathroom vanity counter.
The corrugated metal sheet they used on the ceiling of the balcony area is also in a bright cheery turquoise, echoing the colour of the shelving in the adjoining study, and the walk-in wardrobe.
BELOW
The balcony is accessible only through these folding glass doors from the study area.
(OPPOSITE) LEFT
A self-made balcony – that’s something you don’t see often in a HDB flat!
RIGHT
“The swing makes the balcony an ideal play area, when we have kids in the future,” says Ann.
LEFT
This eye-catching turquoise wall is actually the back of the walk-in wardrobe. Walk past it, and you’ll enter the wardrobe and master bathroom.
TOP LEFT
The laminates in this home – such as the wood-look ones in the master bathroom – are from Lamitak and Admira.
TOP RIGHT
The master bathroom’s vanity area was repositioned outside the wet area, to give the couple more storage space.
