Modern Home for the Modern Interracial Couple

Virtual House Tour

Mid-Century Modern
HDB (Resale)
~1,000 sqft
3 br
Couple Living

Welcome to our modern home for the modern interracial couple.
Hi, I’m a 29 year old Filipina living her dreams in Singapore. I moved to this metropolis 8 years ago and met the love of my life. Fast forward, we tied the knot exactly a year ago and moved to our first home just a few months ago. It’s not 100% complete but we’re getting there! As a foreigner, we knew right off the bat that BTO was a no go for us. We would be extremely lucky to secure a unit and collect keys in 5-7 years but we’re not too keen on waiting. Hence, the hunt for the perfect resale flat begun!
When I saw the floor plan for this house listing, my creative gears started turning as I saw so much potential with the space. It’s a 3-Room Flat, with a small corner for the dining area. Most of the flats we saw had a shared dining and living space which we did not like. After viewing the house we placed an offer and closed the deal!
Coming from a design background, I decided to design the entire space myself and got a contractor to execute it for us. Not only will this give us overall creative control but it saved us a fortune! This 3D Model was the initial design that I showed different contractors along with a mood board to get estimate quotations. This really helped us in finding not only a contractor that understands our vision but also an affordable one.
When you enter our home, you will be greeted by our small foyer. Here, we placed a small shoe rack so we have something to sit on when putting on shoes. We also re-laminated the DB cabinet with a darker laminate to fit with the rest of the house.
So this is our living room and I wanted a Mid-Century Modern/Victorian inspired home. My husband was okay with it but his only request was to make it cosy and warm (he hated white interiors as he feels it makes the house look cold). So I married both our design tastes and ta-da! I just love how it turned out (patting myself on the back lol)! It feels light and airy but still warm and inviting.
The wainscoting on the wall was actually done by us. We bought the wooden strips and cut it to size using a mitre box. We then used MaxBond to stick them to the wall, applied caulk to seal the gaps and brushed a layer of primer before painting. Friends always get shocked when we tell them we made this. Having this big L-Shape sofa allows us to both lay comfortably while watching our favourite shows. It can also sit up to 6 people which is great as we love having friends and family over. The beautiful coffee table that reminds me of Rachel’s apothecary table in FRIENDS, is used to store our excessive collection of board games (we love hosting game nights and it could get pretty competitive hahaha). You can also transform it to a dining table by pulling the table top up. So on lazy days we just sit on the couch, eat and watch TV.
This little nook is where we store our little bits and bobs, display our wedding photos, and check ourselves out before leaving the house. The big mirror helps open up the space as it reflects the view outside the window.
Now let’s move on to my favourite part of the house, the kitchen! We knocked down all the existing carpentry. We then built a full height cabinet on the left and a low cabinet on the right to make this space feel more open. We also placed our refrigerator in the service yard along with our washing machine and dryer (a necessity as it always rains in Punngol).
I went for a Shaker cabinet door style even though it is much more expensive than normal flat doors because it just gives that sophisticated feel, it is definitely worth it. For the laminate, I chose dual tone as I’ve always wanted white kitchen cabinets but also know that they get dirty easily. So I chose a deep green/blue laminate for the bottom.
As for the backsplash, I went for a modern subway tiles look. This tiles is not flat and quite glossy making it look more atas and it glistens beautifully when the warm lights hit from the top.
For the Dining Area, the first thing we did was knock down half of the wall and installed glass panels. This instantly made the area feel more spacious and gives a very modern look. Now that you can see into the kitchen, conversations don’t have to stop! I can be preparing snacks while talking to my friends who are chilling in the living room. Totally love it!
For our dining table, we went for this walnut table top with sleek black legs. We complemented it with these luscious green velvet dining chairs. The chairs look so luxe in person and every female friend that came to my house fell in love with them!
As there’s only two of us staying in the house, we decided to make the common room into a Home Office / Guest Room. This big sofa can transform into a queen sized bed when we have guests over. The Halloween artwork on the wall was given by a close friend and now my husband is on the hunt to fill the wall with movie posters (help!).
We decided to install our main wardrobe in the Common Room as our Master Bedroom is quite tight. We went for an open wardrobe so visually you don’t see just a huge brown box standing there, it also gives a bit of a boutique vibe. As you can see, we are still missing drawers as we have been waiting for months for them to be restocked but no luck so far!
For our Common Toilet, I wanted it to be a mix of marble, light wood and gold accents. I just had to create a very girly powder room which is what I have wanted since I was young.
Our Master Toilet is the complete opposite of the common toilet. We wanted it to feel warm and cosy so we chose daker tiles and deep wood carpentry. We installed two sets of mirror cabinets to visually open up the space as it reflect the bedroom area.
Having the darker wooden tiles only in the shower area gives us the warm impact that we want without making the space feel smaller as we used lighter/plain tiles for the rest of the area.
Finally, this is our Master Bedroom. As the space is quite tight, we decided to use a chest of drawers to store our home clothes instead of putting a giant built-in wardrobe. Look at this beautiful acacia wooden bed with herringbone patter, this is the centrepiece of the room. We also matched our drawers and my makeup table to make it look cohesive.
For bedrooms, one tip that I can give is to aim for symmetry. Symmetry creates balance and a feeling of calm when used in interior design. Implementing this in our bedroom, we installed wainscoting above the headboard and shelves on both sides of the bed.
I made sure that we have a TV installed opposite our bed as it gives a hotel vibe. I loved using the TV to play my guided meditation in the mornings or play a show in the background when I’m doing my makeup. When I have a long day at work, I just imagine myself coming home, tucked under the duvet and watching my favourite show, so relaxing!
The past eight years in Singapore have been so life changing for me. Of course there were bad times but for the most part in has been great. And cementing my life here with this house made me finally feel at home. I look forward to embellishing this space with more decors that shows our individual heritage and culture and really make it the perfect home for a modern interracial couple.