Designing a flexible dining setup

305

Eclectic
HDB (Maisonette)
≥1,500 sqft
4 br
Couple Living

Like many EM homeowners, we removed all the walls that can be hacked in this zone. However, we did not take the opportunity to extend the kitchen, although it would have allowed a much grander kitchen and dining setup. The rationale for that was because The Wife wanted to position our study on the lower floor. According to her, if our study were to be on the upper floor, we would spend most of our time upstairs. And she is right - WFH on the lower floor keeps us aware of what is going on outside. This nifty dry kitchen corner was not in our original design blueprint - it came to life after some space planning magic by our ID, which is also why we chose him. And yes, those are the diagonal French doors to our study.
The dining table acts as a divider between the living room and the dry kitchen, showcasing 2 different areas in almost equal proportions at the same time. The leading lines from the table edges direct the viewer’s attention to a framed painting that was gifted to us by a friend’s mother.
This corner of the dry kitchen is not exactly all that spacious but we do enjoy looking out into the living room from this vantage point. The walls, beam and dining table combine together to form a “window” that frames the whole scene nicely.
We like our staircase as it is, but somehow positioning our dining table and colourful Kartell Masters chairs next to it makes the whole scene much nicer.
We sometimes wish there is a natural skylight in an EM but that very idea is contradictory, unless it is for the top-floor unit. From time to time, we like to position our dining table near the staircase to get away from the usual configuration and experience the double-volume luxury. ••• Let us un-stage this shot. In reality, while we do move the dining table away from its “docking” location, we do not position it so close to the staircase because it would be near impossible to get seated on one side. This shot also unveils the full beauty of our dining tabletop and its “veins” against a white background.