Chinese heritage meets modern living in Bishan HDB flat

SINGAPORE – When home owner Doris Foong, 58, was downsizing to a future-ready HDB flat, one of her biggest priorities was having enough space for her collection of rare Chinese furniture and other antiques. 

“I lived in China for a few years. When I got any furniture, I’d ship it all back to Singapore,” says the executive director who works in sales.

“My main concern was storage – I need a lot of it. With this unit, I had to do away with the storeroom,” she says of her four-room resale unit in Bishan. 

She shares the 1,000 sq ft space with a domestic helper and a tabby cat, a former stray that she rescued when it was just a kitten.

She requested a large bedroom as well as a dining area that was closed off as she did not want a space where “everybody walking past in the corridor can see me eating”. 

She enlisted the help of her designer friend Zach from Singapore firm Lush Interior Design, who proposed keeping the look of the flat simple, balancing the ornate furniture with sleek, modern fixtures. He also removed one of the flat’s three original bedrooms to expand the master suite and the dining area. 

He says: “I reduced the dining area and proposed a see-through divider with a clear glass fixed panel to maintain the open, spacious look of the house when you walk through the main door.”

The flat is entered via the living room, which is illuminated by recessed smart lighting. Custom-built wood and laminate cupboards line the wall with a recessed television. There is a flip-down door to access the power points. 

Glass-fronted cabinetry displays the owner’s collection of vases, figurines and jade carvings. A Chinese restaurant-inspired powder-coated steel divider with a glass panel provides a clear line of sight to the dining area and kitchen. 

The entrance to the kitchen is a three-panel folding door that can be closed to contain cooking smells. 

The all-white kitchen – with its quartz surfaces, induction cooker and cream-white appliances, including a Nespresso machine and four-door Samsung fridge – provides an elegant contrast to the antique dining table nearby. 

The cabinetry matches that of the living room and a soft-closing sliding door sections off the service yard.

Between the doors to the two bedrooms is an antique side table on which two cow-bone figurines of horses stand in mid-gallop. Above this is a traditional Chinese embroidered collar, preserved in a frame.  

The enormous master bedroom boasts more custom-built cupboards with circular black handles inspired by Chinese cabinet furniture. 

A tea-coloured fluted-glass door leads to the en-suite bathroom which, like the kitchen, is decked out in a clean white palette.  

The renovation cost around $100,000 and took three months to design and fabricate. The owner moved into the flat in late July 2025.