It took three months and $70,000 to totally transform this five-room Serangoon flat into the eclectic, breezy and bold abode that it is now. Home to a couple with a love for cocktails, the heart of the 1,300 sqft apartment is an open-concept bar and dining area that wouldn’t look out of place in a hip speakeasy.

But the flat, which was 37 years old at the time of renovations, didn’t always look this good. Interior designer Eric Yap of The Interior Lab tells 8Days.sg: “The condition of the flat was quite bad. Ceilings were warped, some even had concrete spalling. There was leakage from exterior walls as well.

“They gave me the freedom to plan for them, and the final outcome was almost the same as what I’d proposed, especially the kitchen and master bathroom,” says Eric. “I’m really thankful that they were very receptive to my ideas and suggestions to use bold coloured materials, like for the kitchen and toilet tiles, as well as kitchen cabinets.”

The homeowners only had one thing on their home wishlist: to have a bar area as one of them has an interest in bartending. So Eric converted the original dining area to accommodate this sleek high bar counter, which also doubles up as their dining area.

The see-through hanging cabinet above the bar counter not only serves the functional purpose of housing their bottles of booze, but also firmly anchors the bar area as the centrepiece of their home.

One of the major layout changes happened at the kitchen. Walls were hacked down to create an open-concept galley-style kitchen, while the walls of the common bathroom (below) were hacked and its entrance shifted to fit the new kitchen layout.

Thanks to the layout changes, the kitchen is now a charming, cheery space flooded with natural light, jazzed up with bold, vintage-esque Peranakan floor tiles, accented by forest green and mustard tones of the kitchen cabinetry. Eric also points out that the fridge is purposefully placed in the centre of the kitchen with the sink next to it.

“The reason being this is sort of a central hub [of the kitchen],” explains Eric. “We access the fridge more than anything else, and ideally the sink would be next to the fridge as we commonly use it to prep whatever we take out from the fridge.”

Another tip from Eric for kitchen space planning: “I’ll always try to place tall and bulky items, such as the fridge and tall cabinets, to be against the wall that’s front facing the entrance, so that we can hide the thickness and bulkiness of the structure.”

With the old kitchen walls torn down, the open sightlines extend to the living room. Instead of built-ins, the owners chose to spruce up the living space with loose pieces instead.

The walls of the home office that’s adjacent to the living room were also knocked down to fit half-height glass windows for a better visual flow as well as to brighten up the walkway.

The main considerations when it came to space planning in the master bedroom was that it should fit a king-sized bed, have sufficient wardrobe space and also fit a vanity — and still have a good flow and enough space to walk around comfortably.

The look of the master bedroom is decidedly more muted. That said, the colour of choice for the master bedroom was once again green, albeit a lighter shade than the kitchen’s green cabinets. It’s coupled with wood tones in the blinds as well as the modern barn door, lending to a tranquil vibe in the space.

The master bathroom was expanded by borrowing some space from the bedroom. “Because we can’t extend the wet area [of the bathroom], we brought the dry vanity area into the bedroom area,” explains Eric.

The walls of the master bathroom were then rebuilt so that the new vanity extension becomes a single space with the rest of the bathroom.

More info here.
Photos: Courtesy of The Interior Lab