Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Home & Decor

With its bold philosophy: “Do it Right, Do it Proud”, Sapphire Windows is among the few Singaporean-founded manufacturing companies specialising in windows and doors. What makes it even rarer, is that the company has been around since 1989. As part of its ongoing legacy, Sapphire Windows recently launched its new headquarters, which spans over four levels and a total of 65,000 sq ft. Located at the top of the building on level four, Sapphire Windows showroom has an impressive 10,000 sq ft of space with double-volume ceiling height. The company decided to enlist the help of Singapore’s celebrity ID, Nikki Hunt, and her studio Design Intervention to transform the massive space into something unforgettable. In order to achieve a spectacular effect, Nikki, the principal of Design Intervention, and her team…

During the National Day Rally held on August 20, 2023, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong unveiled fresh housing initiatives. These encompassed the replacement of the mature/non-mature estate classification with a revamped flat categorisation system, efforts aimed at improving the elderly-friendly aspects of HDB flats and neighborhoods, and, central to our discussion, the broadened range of housing options available to single buyers. SINGLES IN SINGAPORE ‘The new framework – Standard, Plus, and Prime – will affect everyone buying a new HDB flat, but there is one special group I want to address: the singles. More and more Singaporeans are choosing to be single. Singles too hope to own their homes and have more housing choices. We hear your concerns.’ PM Lee remarked in his National Day Rally Speech. Indeed, the 2021…

WHO LIVES HERE A family of four and their pet turtles HOME A five-room HDB apartment in Buangkok SIZE 1,184 sq ft ID SqM2 Interior Design www.instagram.com/sqm2interiordesign Husband and wife Don and Sherry Wong had been living in their five-room HDB flat in Buangkok for 15 years when they contemplated an upgrade. Their children, 12-year-old daughter Kylia and 11-year-old son Cyrus, would soon need their own spaces. “But after some viewings, we decided that it made more sense to renovate our old flat, after all,” Don shares. “The size is just nice, and we only had to tweak the layout a little bit.” It helps that Don is an interior designer with his own recently established practice, SqM2 Interior Design. “I know well what to prioritise in a renovation,” he…

Imagine an escape from the disruptive, demanding toils of our world. A quiet, tranquil oasis, where one can settle in at the end of the day and find reprieve from all the noise seeking your attention. A place to simply be. More and more in our modern world, that place is the bathroom. Paying homage to the significance of the bathroom in our homes and lives today, designers are returning to organic shapes and forms. Ergonomic designs that can withstand the test of time are the currency of today, lending themselves to spaces that are comfortable, peaceful, and simple. These designs endure - but even moreso, provide much-needed relaxation to the everyday homeowner in want of a moment to themselves. Understanding this, premium sanitaryware brand Rigel is on a mission…

Rooted in its commitment to goodness and holistic living since 2001, organic and natural product retailer SuperNature recently opened its new and refreshed store, Glow at COMO Dempsey, to provide an immersive retail and healthful dining experience. With a bigger and more vibrant space, Glow by SuperNature offers a dedicated retail line stocked with an extensive range of all-natural fresh produce and everyday products, as well as an exclusive indoor and outdoor dining areas with an array of wholesome food options. In line with the other concepts within COMO Dempsey, the brand roped in A-List female designer Paola Navone once again for the look of its interiors. The 6,500 sq ft space is brightly-lit and accented with streams of natural daylight, which helps to soften the look of the neutral…

Adrian Heng is a man with an impressive creative history. As a boy, Adrian’s parents enrolled him in art classes, sparking a lifelong interest in design whilst simultaneously expanding the horizons of his boundless imagination. Art would remain a constant companion throughout the formative years of his childhood, later imbuing his teenage years with a zest for design. “As I progressed through secondary school, I enrolled in a technical class focusing on wood-working, with metal and plastic workshops. We also had to do simple technical drawings.” Adrian recalls. “I guess those classes became the foundation for my design work.” This foundation would certainly come in handy through Adrian’s journey in design. After completing his O-Levels, he took an aptitude test at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and soon found…

WHO LIVES HERE A couple with two young kids HOME An inter-terraced home in Upper Thomson SIZE 1,500 sq ft (land area); 2,140 sq ft (Gross Floor Area, GFA) ID The Design Abode Pte Ltd/Wkl Architects https://www.thedesignabode.com/ Acquiring that first landed property is a significant milestone for many people, including this couple who upgraded from their HDB flat in Marine Parade to an inter-terraced home in Upper Thomson. As the existing house was single-storey, it made sense to demolish it and rebuild a new two-storey home with an attic that would better meet their needs and that of their two children, aged five and three. The Design Abode was the interior designer for their flat and they decided to engage the homegrown practice as the design consultant for the reconstruction…

We are all familiar with the colloquial phrase, “My grandfather’s road”, but it is not every day that we come across someone who can actually lay claim to this saying, literally. Specialist doctor, Matin Mattar, lives in a condominium located at Mattar Road, which was named after his great-grandfather, Shaikh Salim Mattar, a Singapore merchant of Arab descent and a prominent leader of the Muslim community in Singapore. Beyond just the road name and its connection to his ancestry, Matin was also drawn to this place because of the quiet neighbourhood and convenient location. He has always wanted a loft, which explains his choice of this one-bedroom unit located on the ground floor of the development with a 4.6-metre high ceiling that is perfect for a loft addition. After extensive…

There’s nothing like a warm shower to start the day on a positive note, thanks to the introduction of the nifty water heater appliance that provides hot water effortlessly on demand. After a long day at work, taking a hot shower also allows your mind and body to enter a more relaxed state. Essential as they may be, water heaters account for about 20 per cent of the total household energy consumptions, ranking second only after air conditioners as the least energy-efficient household appliances and taking up the bulk of the utilities bill. Aside from energy efficiency, remember to consider factors, such as size of the water heater, time taken for the water to heat up, as well as the complexity of installation when choosing one for you and your…

So Plast!c is a series of products made from recycled or upcycled plastic waste. It is inspired by the ubiquitous and highly versatile material, celebrated as “the material of a thousand uses” when it was first invented in the early 1900s, associated with styles that were cheap, filmsy or fake in the 60s, and today, viewed as a major pollutant and threat to our environment. So Plast!c harnesses the potential of plastic waste to exist as permanent pieces of design art for homes and commercial spaces instead of being discarded into landfills. So Plast!c small tables are made from recycled plastic waste. Recyclable plastics from food and drink packaging are collected, sorted, cleaned, and processed into useable raw material for the production of eco-polymer sheets that can be used to…

WHO LIVES HERE A couple in their 50s, their two daughters and a pet dog HOME A detached home at Jalan Senandong SIZE 8,686 sq ft (Land area); 6,210 sq ft (Gross built area) RCHITECT & ID EHKA Studio LLP www.ehkastudio.com When the homeo-wnersa banker and accountant couple in their 50s, purchased this property, they consulted with a feng shui master to guide the development of the house. One of his sketches illustrated the heart of the home as a place for “ren yuan”, which means “human relations” in Chinese. This salient idea inspired EHKA Studio’s driving concept for the design form and internal spatial configuration. The couple was one of the early clients of the homegrown practice who engaged the firm to design a restaurant a few years ago.…

WHO LIVES HERE Couple with two young daughters HOME Walk-up Maisonette SIZE 1,400 sq ft ID Cream Pie creampie.sg When Melissa Tai was looking for a new home after her second child was born, she wanted a place that offered a similar tranquillity to her previous home. “We always seem to gravitate toward quiet, small estates. This place was kind of what we were looking for, and within the budget we were willing to spend,” shares the business operations manager who lives with her husband and two young daughters. This walk-up maisonette is housed in a matured development in the east of Singapore, surrounded by leafy foliage. White walls and brick walls define the exterior – typical of estates built in the 80s. To design her new home, Melissa called…

WHO LIVES HERE A young specialist HOME A studio apartment in Moscow  SIZE 700 sq ft ID Svetlana Herzen This studio apartment is part of a new residential complex located in the heart of Moscow, with views overlooking the city, historical centre and Kremlin. The owner is a young specialist who spends most of his time overseas, but he wanted an apartment in the capital where he could relax in between travels, as well as host friends and colleagues. His brief to interior designer, Svetlana Herzen, the founder of Svetlana Herzen Interiors, was to create an open plan with minimal walls, a designated bedroom and a television set that can be viewed from both the living room and bedroom. He also expressed a preference for dark colours and concrete. Conceived…