The Chic Home: Three-bedroom HDB flat channels kampung nostalgia

SINGAPORE – In Singapore, many homes are designed in a modern Japanese or Scandinavian style, or both.

Home owners Siva and Fongling, an operations coordinator and accounts administrator in their late 40s, had something else in mind for their three-bedroom Housing Board flat in Bishan.

The couple, who have two children – a boy and a girl – and a dog, wanted the 1,119 sq ft ground-floor unit to have a nostalgic kampung vibe, with raw, rustic textures and vintage furniture.

“We wanted to have the walls looking as though they have aged in time,” says Siva.

Mr Chris Lee from Morphosis Studio understood the assignment and added subtle elements, like Peranakan features, to enhance the concept. For the living room, he created wall texture with a plastered and whitewashed effect.

Another standout feature that tied in with the raw walls is the lack of visible doorways. The owners wanted the doors to “be hidden without showing their outline”, so Mr Lee added beams to the raw wall to cover any visible lines.

The kitchen and living room were separate in the original layout, but the owners decided to combine them. The wall between the living room and kitchen was removed, so the space feels bigger and brighter. The kitchen windows were also replaced.

Fongling wanted a moss-green shade and a large, Old English-style porcelain sink to feature in the kitchen design. A deep basin she had bought from Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao inspired the area’s look. The island matches the sintered-stone countertop, with Peranakan-style blocks on the sides.

The owners initially wanted subway tiles for the kitchen walls, but chose to leave the top half of the walls bare, with exposed pipes, for an industrial-meets-retro look.

Screed flooring leads to the living area. Between the kitchen island and a caramel leather sofa sits a massage chair. Peranakan tiles are scattered here and there for some pizzazz.

At the far end of the living area is a planter wall constructed from wire mesh for the family’s indoor plant collection. Next to this botanical feature is a hidden doorway disguised by the textured walls, livened up by wooden figurines of lizards, which the owners bought in Bali.

The master bedroom is simple and minimal, and the windows across the back wall allow plenty of sunlight to enter.

Most of the home is devoid of storage, so the custom-built raised platform bed design was specifically requested for extra storage. A wardrobe was also added for the master suite and adjacent room.

The whitewashed-looking “bricks” in the master bathroom’s shower are tiles from material supplier Hafary, which match the copper shower head and taps. Mr Lee chose a contrasting, cleaner cement-looking tile for the rest of the bathroom walls so the “brick” wall could stand out.

Two wooden shelves hold up the blue-and-white Chinese porcelain sink bowl, decorated with dragons to reflect Siva’s Chinese zodiac sign. The common bathroom has the same sink in a koi fish design.

The renovation took place over 2½ months and cost $108,000. The couple moved into the home in November 2024. Most of the carpentry, panels and doors were custom-made for the family. The majority of the cost went into gutting the property, masonry works, bespoke carpentry and redoing the entire electrical wiring.