The Chic Home: Elegant East Coast apartment full of heirloom furniture

SINGAPORE - Married couple Kirti Hariharan and Juthika Choksi Hariharan, both trained lawyers in their 40s, moved to Singapore from Hong Kong in 2011.

The two lived with their son, 14, and daughter, 12, in a rented condominium apartment in the East Coast area until 2020. When a four-bedroom, 2,412 sq ft unit in the same development was put up for sale, the couple made an offer.

"We always knew we wanted a four-bedroom unit because our kids are growing up and we have relatives visiting all the time," says Mrs Hariharan, who works in enterprise technology.

Her husband, who works at a private equity firm, adds: "Each bedroom has its own bathroom."

The family moved into the home in April last year (2021) after a $195,000 renovation.

The couple's brief for interior design firm Parenthesis Studio included a light palette, a place for an altar and a spot to house Mr Hariharan's wine collection.

There was also existing artwork and furniture to consider. Each piece of art has a story and is precious to the family. "It's collected, not curated. It's purely for personal pleasure, not for investment," says Mr Hariharan.

Stepping inside the home feels like entering a luxurious hotel suite. There is an art-filled foyer, a wide corridor, many marble surfaces and clean lines with no clutter in sight.

At the main corridor, the design team installed a storage wall to keep the family's sports equipment. The storage space - as well as the doors to the bathroom and the son's bedroom - has been made flush along this corridor to create a seamless look.

In the living room, a feature wall opens up to reveal a blank wall, which is used as a screen for the projector. There is no television set.

The original flooring was retained and surfaces with high-impact visuals were paired with plain ones to make them pop. Each bathroom features the same white tiles with a different stone accent.

Off-cuts from the large-format marble-like Florim tiles for the sliding feature wall were used for the interior of the bar, which is concealed behind a double door displaying a striking diptych artwork that Mr Hariharan won at an auction in Mumbai, India.

The couple engaged a vastu (traditional Indian architectural practice) consultant to determine the location of the altar and kitchen stove. The altar now occupies a former storage area near one of the bedrooms, with the home's IT hub occupying its lower shelves.

The furniture collection is a mix of old and new. The low-back dining chairs are custom-made by a local designer in Bedok, while the 1990s-style high-back woven antique chairs in the living room are reserved for elderly guests who might find it challenging to get up from low-slung plush sofas.

Each bedroom has a corner for the couple to work from home - Mrs Hariharan in the master bedroom and Mr Hariharan in the guest room.