The Chic Home: Family’s metropolitan penthouse apartment evokes life in New York and London

SINGAPORE – A home tells the stories of the people who live within its walls.

For finance industry couple Jon and May – who are in their 30s with a young daughter, and declined to give their full names – their two-storey duplex penthouse unit in Telok Kurau is inspired by their personal history.

They wanted the 2,285 sq ft condominium unit to capture the spirit of London and New York, cities where they had lived. They also needed it to double as a space to entertain and work.

The couple turned to Mr Lawrence Puah, design director of Akihaus Design Studio, to help them achieve this.

Mr Puah and his team reconfigured the unit’s layout, starting with the centrally located kitchen.

The walls around the kitchen and yard were removed to create an open-concept kitchen, which resembles a bar with its U-shaped counter and seating on both sides.

Despite the absence of built-in cabinets above the black Dekton counter, the kitchen has ample storage below.

The drawers and cabinets are finished in British racing green laminates, a colour that pays homage to the couple’s stint in London.

The hue can also be found on the television console and wainscoting on the columns in the living room, tying the spaces together.

Removing the kitchen walls revealed an existing column and beam between the kitchen, dining and living areas. This column presented a major obstacle for the layout and spatial flow.

But by introducing a mock column and beam that mirror the existing structures, Mr Puah injected a sense of balance and symmetry into the space, accentuated by inserting mirrored panels on the ceiling between the beams.

In the original layout, the columns would have been in the dining area, and placing a large table between them would not have been feasible.

A sofa, however, slotted in nicely between the columns. This prompted Mr Puah to swop the locations of the dining and living areas. His approach reflects his philosophy that design is a response to site as much as it is about aesthetics.

Another standout element is the black spiral staircase that connects the penthouse’s two floors.

Its cast-iron structure with timber treads, together with the teak wood flooring and patterned tiles on the first level, instantly transport the viewer to New York’s lofts and London’s walk-up apartments.

Next to the spiral staircase, a former bedroom is now a study. A whitewashed brick wall extends horizontally from the main entrance and dining room to the study, and vertically up the staircase’s double-volume void.

The second storey’s layout was also tweaked in order to extend the master bedroom, while still allowing access to other spaces such as the balcony and terrace.

Mr Puah conceptualised the second floor as a master suite comprising a foyer, bedroom, walk-in wardrobe, en-suite bathroom, study, balcony and terrace.

The master bedroom has a pitched roof and ceiling that make it feel like the upper floor of a landed property.

White wainscoting on the lower section of the bedroom walls and a simple four-poster bed strike the perfect note as a modern interpretation of classical, old-world elements.

The design process took about three months, followed by about four months of renovation before the family moved into the home in January 2022.