A peek at our cosy 4-room flat in Sengkang

We made a trip back to Singapore for less than two weeks in May. It was rather miraculous what we managed to accomplish in the short 12 days.

1) We sold off the 5-room flat in Hougang which was previously jw's parents' flat but under our name. So as a HDB requirement, we could only own one flat and thus had to sell off the old one. We found an agent who took some buyers to view our flat and we settled for the first offer. Just before we boarded the plane on our last night, we were still busy signing off the documents!

2) We collected the keys to our new flat and settled all the administrative work. Finally! Although the new flat is a small 4-room flat (all the new flats are tiny by the way) with a floor area of only 93 square metres, it is still a home we can call our own. A home that belongs to me, jw and Angel! Ok, my in-laws will be staying in too, but I'm still happy I have a place I can call my home.

3) We bought all the lights after shopping at Balestier and Courts, we got a green sofa for the living room, we bought a storage queen bed for ourselves, we also bought all the curtains and settled majority of the appliances like air conditioners, kitchen stove, oven, sink, cooking hood etc. Not bad, right.

4) Just before we left, we also came to a consensus on the choice of paint for each room. The main colours of our new house would be white, blue and green! White because it is elegant and clean, blue because it's jw's favourite colour, and well, green of course is my favourite colour.

5) In wanting to be aspiring interior designers, we decided to design our very own house. Oh yeah. Who needs an ID. We continued brainstorming on the designs in Sweden and thanks to much help from jw's parents, we could communicate our ideas through faxes, emails and phone calls and they would help us to get contractors to execute our plans. So, take a peek below on the work we have done so far.

 

I have to say that the best part I love about my new house is the cornice design. I brainstormed much on it and jw and I had ran into several obstacles before we could materialise it. For example, we got a initial quote of over S$6K which was way too expensive. Then we also received comments that the 'wavy' pattern we wanted could not be executed as it was too hard to cut out. It wasn't till many rounds of fine-tuning and re-designing that we achieved this final look. Which we both really loved! Yippee!

What made us proud and surprised was the the contractor who did it for us liked it so much that he said he would use of it as one of his designs for his future customers. Ok. While I'm flattered, that also means that we might see similar designs in future. Darn. I should have gotten a patent for it.

Oh by the way, we have in our mind this beautiful scenery in our house. The cornice which runs in blue is the river flowing from the main door into the living room, and then subsequently into each of the rooms. River means water, and water in chinese refers to good fortune too. The green walls in the living room refers to the meadows and jw even said that the green sofa could be the green green grass!

Next, we had to design a divider. This was mainly because we were told that since our main door opened straight into the living room and directly opposite were the windows, the divider served to prevent our good fortune and riches from falling through the windows. In a more practical sense, the divider was to block our dining area which would be right behind it. By the way, our living and dining room were combined as one since the area was small. It wouldn't be nice for guests to walk in and see our dinner leftovers at first sight, right?

Jw came up with a series of designs and I must say I was pretty impressed by his ability to draw and his creativity. I always used to think I was the more creative one of the two, but the ideas he generated from this renovation project truly well surpassed mine. Bravo, dear! I'm so proud of you!

That said, I also have to mention the rationale behind our divider design. While the fish tank was my idea so that his parents could continue their hobby, Angel would have fishes to entertain her, and guests would be greeted by fishes when they walked in, the rest of it was devised by jw. He came up with the idea of using the word 财 to form an abstract design for the top part of the divider. Can you see it in the middle picture above? The rationale of using glass shelves was so that I could display all my favourite ornaments and more importantly, it would allow wind to pass through and the house would be less stuffy.


This is the curtains in the living rooms which are made of blinds in three alternating colours: Blue, green and cream. Jw's mum commented that it looked like the curtains you see in offices or banks. *chuckles* Still, we thought it looked unique and therefore went ahead with it. By the way, we bought this ceiling fan with lights for the living room. Though it didn't strike me as elegant or charming, I was quite convinced by the argument that it would be practical and I would come to appreciate it when I move back to the scorching hot and humid Singapore next year.

This would be the green curtain, green wall and green sofa. As well as our new storage bed.

Moving on to the kitchen, it is almost all done up! We decided on this shape and design for the kitchen after many rounds of discussion on how to optimise the small space. His parents are great chefs and love to cook, so the kitchen is definitely going to be a frequently used corner. I also decided to get an oven in motivating myself to carry on cooking and baking when I get back home. Not that I can bake a lot, but I find the oven truly useful. We did a blue chromium top so that it looked more attractive and would make it safer and easier for us to do all the chopping next time.

Last but not least, here is the kids' room which we chose to paint yellow for the walls and blue for the ceiling. The only thing we bought for this room was the cute butterfly light. Not to worry, I am pretty sure this room will be my biggest project when I get back to Singapore. Dear Angel, mummy will create a paradise for you, okie?

Till more updates on our cosy little home!