The husband and wife owners of this home were very strategic with their BTO application.
Mindful of the strong demand for the 4- and 5-room BTO flats, they balloted for a 3-room flat instead, and successfully secured their new home in the strategic location near the Lavender area.
“We were very lucky since this area is hotly contested,” says the wife. Moving in together to a new home is both a challenging and exciting milestone.
Having previously lived with their respective parents, they moved in together to their home in June 2019. He is a graphic designer with a penchant for collecting toys and secondhand furniture while she is a teacher who favours simplicity and practicality in her daily life.
Who Lives Here: A couple in their 30s
Home: 3-room BTO HDB flat, Lavender
Size: 700 sq ft (65 sqm)
Interior Designer: Wood Works
Wood Works Studio
Tasked with designing their new home was interior designer Keith Low of Wood Works studio. Keith was recommended to the couple by their friend, whose house in Tiong Bahru was also designed by Wood Works.
“We loved Keith’s collaborative design approach. He tries to understand what we wanted instead of imposing his own vision as a designer,” says the wife.
The resulting design is a visually arresting home that captures both husband and wife’s personalities and lovingly showcases their shared history, quite literally.
Glazed display window
At the centre of the design is a fully glazed display window that took over the entire wall of a common bedroom.
This showcases the wife’s collection of penguin plushies arranged on platforms, which are actually upside-down Ikea coffee tables.
“My husband gave the first penguin as a gift more than 10 years ago when we started dating,” she shares.
“It became our tradition. We would buy one every time we visited a zoo or an aquarium around the world,” he adds.
Festive decorations
The display window in their home does not only provide visual interest and a talking point, but it also serves as a creative medium for the husband, who loves to change up the decorations according to festive seasons.
![home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_display-closeup-683x1024-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_display-closeup-683x1024-1.jpg)
Living dining area
One of the priorities in the design brief was to have a sturdy table where the wife can grade her students’ work.
She was also adamant about not having a television in the living area.
“We wanted the conversations to flow and real interactions to happen in the living area, undistracted by the television,” she explains.
In the end, they decided to do away with a traditional sofa-and-television-centric living room altogether, assigning the dining room as the social hub of the house.
Local sustainable wood dining table
At the centre of this dining room is a $3,000 solid wood dining table by Arthur Zaaro, a locally-founded sustainable tropical hardwood brand.
The tabletop was made with a felled angsana tree sourced from the site of the Changi Airport’s future Terminal 5.
![home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_057_living-1024x683-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_057_living-1024x683-1.jpg)
Hock Siong furniture
The other furniture pieces are secondhand pieces that the husband bought from Hock Siong.
“There was a period where I would come down to Hock Siong and come back with something almost every week. Most of them were impulse buys. I didn’t really know how they all would come together in my place,” he confesses.
Salvaged wall lamp from Raffles Hotel
These impulse buys range from an art-nouveau style wall lamp salvaged from the refurbishment of The Raffles Hotel and a vintage leather and timber office chair to a giant timber wardrobe.
Keith helped to catalogue these and used them to enhance the interior of the new home.
Barbershop-themed feature wall
The wall lamp – restored to functionality – and the chair served as an inspiration for a striking barbershop-themed feature wall next to the dining room.
The interior of the wardrobe was altered and made to serve as a shoe cabinet.
![home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_058_dining-barber-683x1024-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_058_dining-barber-683x1024-1.jpg)
Double door
The living area and the bedrooms are separated by a double door.
Behind the display case is the entertainment room.
![home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_059_dining-display-2-1024x683-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_059_dining-display-2-1024x683-1.jpg)
Master bedroom design
At the end of the corridor is the master bedroom. Simple and sparsely furnished, it does away with a wardrobe.
“We decided to turn the store into a wardrobe and just have more breathing space in our bedroom,” says the wife.
![home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_061_bedroom-683x1024-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_061_bedroom-683x1024-1.jpg)
Bathroom Design
This no-fuss approach extends to the bathroom and kitchen.
The former features an angled counter that rounds off an awkward corner.
![home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_060_bathroom-672x1024-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_060_bathroom-672x1024-1.jpg)
Open kitchen concept
Meanwhile, the latter features open shelves that display their content in the open so the couple can find everything easily instead of opaque storage cabinets.
All in all, this compact home has strategically blended two separate lives together while providing ample room for growth and flexibility.
This article was first published on Sona Decor in March 2021.
![home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_060_kitchen-1024x680-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/home-_-decor-house-tour-3-room-lavender-hdb-bto-wood-works_060_kitchen-1024x680-1.jpg)