While most home owners want large cabinets to store household appliances and crockery, Mr Calvin Chu needs them for his collection of more than 1,000 ancient fossils and artefacts.
The avid collector owns one of the world's oldest rocks (4.4 billion years) and a 65-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth.
He is also the founder of Singapore Fossil Collectors, whose members organise regular fossil swops and exhibitions, as well as conduct interactive talks to show students how to handle real fossils.
Mr Chu, 42, started his collection after he got his first trilobite at age 10.
Some fossils sit neatly in the dining area of his two-storey terraced home with an attic in Upper Thomson, where he lives with his 38-year-old wife Cindy, their two children aged seven and four, and a helper.
The couple chose a minimalist, all-white design for the first storey, where the living room and kitchen are.
"I wanted to recreate the peace and serenity of a museum, while Cindy preferred a more casual and (coastal) interior seen in many Australian homes," says Mr Chu, who runs his own innovation strategy consulting firm. His wife is in sales and marketing.
Furniture such as a fabric sofa and a long wooden dining table, as well as a textured stone wall in the kitchen, helped fuse the two styles.
The palette darkens as one moves upstairs. The interior design also transitions from a museum-esque setting to an explorer's workspace.
"My interest in natural history expanded into history itself, so I started collecting maps and paintings dating as far back as the 1500s, relics and even items associated with myths," says Mr Chu. "In a way, it also explains my fondness for English-style furniture from past eras."
The renovation, which lasted about six months, cost more than $200,000. The family moved in in 2016.
The couple's study, in particular, features antique-style pieces such as apothecary drawers, a telescope and a banker's lamp.
More shelves, clad in dark wood laminate, stretch across the length of the room, while a staircase leads to a half-height attic dedicated to pop culture memorabilia and where the children sometimes play.
As a finishing touch to this discovery-themed abode, Mr Chu designed a two-way door between the study and the walk-in wardrobe.
• This article first appeared in the October 2019 issue of Home & Decor, which is published by SPH Magazines.
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