At Mr Shopper Studio, the interior design style we do best is Modern Luxury. Most recently we completed a project at City View – a DBSS apartment at Boon Keng, probably the nearest DBSS apartment to the city center. This residence is the choice location for young working professionals Mr. and Mrs. Ng, and this home exemplifies what we do best with Modern Luxury design – the design leans toward art deco elements coupled with contemporary design, use of quality materials, and smart home integration.
Maximalist styles are making a comeback
The modern luxury aesthetic is essentially a style that has a lot of character and incorporates a lot of luxurious looking materials such as plush and velvet, marble surfaces, metallic fittings, and art deco motifs. In this City View apartment, this look is strong especially in the living room and dining island area—with the choice of royal blue as the predominant color of the living room, the whole section on one side of the wall from the entryway to the living room area features these Italian tiles with exquisite blue and gold marbling resembling ocean hues. The wall is inspired by Fengshui principles “背山靠海，财源广进”, which is the Chinese belief of health and wealth and is also the basis of Hong Kong’s building landscape, “(the buildings) face the sea with the hills for a background”. On the side of the dining island, the walls are fully mirrored adding another luxurious-looking element and at the same time, expanding the view of the space. Overhead of the dining area is a ritzy looking Swarovski Crystals Chandelier and the bar island is made of natural soft stone with an illuminated backdrop. Then in the living room, the wall with the TV installed is adorned with marble fluted wall panels—the use of fluted wall panels add texture and dimension to the look of an otherwise plain and flat wall, with an art deco motif carpet and coffee table.
Invest in quality materials
Adding to the luxury aspects of the home, is Mr. Ng’s, generosity in spending on quality materials for his home. One such example of this is the surface slab of the bar tabletop, which is made of Negro Stellar, a high-end Silestone surface from Cosentino. Silestone is a durable and hardy material that is 90% natural quartz, making the surface stain, shock, and scratch-resistant. The marble wall feature is made of large-format Italy porcelain tiles. The marble fluted wall panels, prominently placed as the backdrop of the TV is also a repeated feature throughout the house—namely at the entryway, bar, and cupboard doors throughout the house—albeit done in a woodgrain finish. In the kitchen, the countertops are Dekton and cabinetry laminates are anti-fingerprint. Both bathrooms are designed with inspirations from luxurious hotels—the lavatory's dark marble wall with polished gold metal fittings add lavishness to the bathrooms.
There’s even an outdoor dining section
Besides eating at the dining island that leads to the kitchen, Mr. Ng, also cleverly designated another area where his family could gather for meals or other activities to convivial—a dining table placed on a high-floor outdoor balcony results in those seated at this table to be greeted with great views and the pleasure of a cool, breezy wind. Its night scenery is the perfect background for a romantic candlelight dinner together. At the balcony, the wall is covered with natural stone slabs with recessed mounted Belgium mirror panels and the flooring decks are made of the wood plastic composite (WPC), evoDeck.
Ample storage space to maximize real estate
This DBSS flat also measures approximately 1151sqft which is around the average typical HDB flat (around 1023sqft) so we know that there is potentially a lack in real estate space. For the design brief of this project, there is a focus on creating additional and seamless space storage design for the family and room for their 2-year old son to grow. Lead interior designer of this project, Eric Lim, covered up one of the bay windows in the bedroom and installed cabinets on top of the bed headboard to compensate for the lack of storage space (initially there are bay windows on two sides of the room, lending to an expansive city view). Another clever storage space solution is found in the child’s bedroom where additional space is created by means of a raised platform bed with a seamless push to open cabinet doors and built-in ceiling to floor wardrobe.
Integrated smart home automation and technology
Last but not least, a significant feature of this home is that it is fully smart home equipped. The smart home system of choice is courtesy of KobleHome which includes the digital lock, smart switches, smart fans, Ziptrak curtains in the living room, and Ziptrak blinds at the balcony that can convert the outdoors balcony into an indoor one. The home’s architectural smart lighting is planned out by My Lighthouse and what these could do is create different scenarios for the home such as welcome home automated light switching, and movie time ambient light setting are among the light settings you can play with. Good morning settings help you automatically switch off the air-conditioning and turn on the fan to signify that it is time to wake up and begin your daily routine. If you haven’t yet read our smart home integration article, please check them out here. There are helpful tips with plenty of suggestions you can incorporate into converting your normal home into a smart one. With a smart home system installed, mainly with the setup of smart switches and hub, Mr. Ng can in the future slowly add in his own curated mix of smart home appliances from different manufacturers, depending on which appliance gets the most usage and could benefit from the conveniences of being a smart device—even the ever-popular Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant can be incorporated to the smart home.
On top of Mr Shopper Studio’s illustrious Modern Luxe portfolio, homeowner Mr. Ng was mainly attracted to the hassle-free end-to-end services which specifically caters well to busy PMETs such as Mr. Ng himself. The end result achieved also truly exemplifies what Mr Shopper Studio frequently does for every home renovation project—and that is creating a home that resonates with you while delivering the modern luxury aesthetic to Singapore homes. Ready for a consultation? Follow the link to complete our Interior Personality Assessment (IPA) Analysis and we will arrange for a suitable Designer to attend to you. Our current waiting time is 2 weeks but with our detailed questionnaire, we will be able to guide you through the process and help you get a clearer picture of your needs in mind. Alternatively, please contact our WhatsApp if you have any further questions regarding your next home renovation project!
Project Credits:
Project-in-charge: Eric Lim
Interior Decorator: Reyane
Photos by: L’arc Studios