GETTING PERSONAL

Creative customisation and a plethora of patterns give this home its playful character.

Despite the mix of materials used in the living room, the white walls make the space feel spacious and airy. Vases from Galanga Living.

Before they purchased their home, Kenny Ren and his wife, Ruby Chong, already had an idea of what they wanted it to look like – a lively and eclectic space, filled with designs inspired by their ideas. The renovation for the charming space cost $80,000. This is what they did.

Personalised the home

Ruby is big on crafts, and is not one to buy things that she can make herself. Her passion for do-it-yourself projects can be seen around the home. An example is the unconventional metal washbasins in the bathrooms. “Ruby felt that regular basins looked too plain and boring, so when she saw these Graslok plant pots from Ikea, she repurposed them into basins instead,” explained Kenny. Some of this has rubbed off on Kenny, who asked his contractor to source for chipboard material to clad the walls around the bomb shelter with, including the shelter’s door, effectively concealing it. The chipboard surface is now a giant pin-up board, which is great for displaying pictures. Other inspired touches include a house-shaped bed frame that they commissioned from vintage store Second Charm, creating a whimsical bedroom ambience.

Some decorative accents in the home were sourced online, such as the hanging pendant lamps in the corner of the living room. The hanging rattan chair is from Mint Garden. Vases from Galanga Living.

This multipurpose room is where the couple work, and have their meals in.

Creating personal space was important to the homeowners. This nook is where Kenny retreats to have “me-time”.

Created an open space

If there is one thing the couple really love, it is space. Several measures were taken to make the home feel roomy – for example, taking down one of the bedroom walls to create a larger master bedroom. The activity room is also closed off with tempered glass, so that the living room does not look too confined. The homeowners also designed an open-concept kitchen, complete with a movable island countertop that can be wheeled around for more space. “Ruby and I like to see everything at a glance the moment we step into the house,” states Kenny. “It makes the space feel less restricted.”

The home sports touches of mint green – from the Smeg fridge, to the tableware – thanks to Ruby’s love for the colour. Tableware from Galanga Living.

The couple removed the home’s original doors and replaced them with customised blue ones.

For a pop of colour and fun, the couple decided to make their wardrobe resemble stacked crates. The hanging bulbs on the bed frame were bought online.

Ruby dried sprigs of flowers from the bouquets Kenny gave her before they got married, and stuck them on a wall in the master bedroom using washi tape.

Used patterns and shapes

The couple made a bold decision to use several styles of tiles in the flat, most of them hexagonal. Hexagonal vintage-style floor tiles from Soon Bee Huat lead the way in from the main door, which then changes dramatically to the woodlookalike floor tiles of the living room and open-concept kitchen. The bedroom floor is clad in wood-lookalike tiles in two tones – light and dark – laid in a herringbone pattern. Kenny and Ruby chose different colour tones as they feared having only one shade would made the bedroom look monotonous. Flooring is again used to mark the shift to another space, this time from the bedroom to the en-suite bathroom, which sports vintage-style patterned tiles on the floor, and a wall of hexagonal white tiles. The common bathroom echoes the same aesthetic style as the master bathroom, but with white subway tiles for a subtle difference.

For a more rustic look, the couple decided to go for Peranakan-style tiles from Soon Bee Huat for the bathroom flooring.

Hexagonal tiles from Hafary were used on the wall of the master bathroom.