lieblingsg has recently bought a Tiong Bahru SIT flat and has given permission to share his renovation details here

------------- By lieblingsg in Nov 2007 ----------------------------------------------------

This is how I picture the dining area in my apartment will look like when it is done. As planned, the flat will have a mid-century modern look, with classic furniture from designers in the 50s and 60s. The dining set is by Warren Platner and above it will hang a stunning Artichoke lamp made of copper plates. The feature wall made of cultured stone will give it a retro look and contrasts well with the raw concrete floor and the wooden panels of the kitchen. There will be a 50s style fridge in front of the stone wall in screaming electric orange hue. The entire kitchen cabinetry will be hidden by foldable panels clad with exotic wood veneer, so you don't see the kitchen when it is not in use and the avoidance of clutter. There is a break in the stone wall where there will be sliding doors either covered in retro wallpaper or fabric. The sliding doors open to the bedroom which is raised on a wooden deck. The first thing that you will see in the bedroom is the round bed, an updated 1966 classic from Poltrona Frau. When the sliding doors are open you will also see the windows from both ends of the flat, so the place will be bathed in natural light. At night, it will glow like a light box.

That is the plan. I hope the contractors will be able to execute my vision.

-------------- By lieblingsg in Jan 2008 ------------------------------------

At long last, finally I got my renovations plan cleared with HDB. It was my fault really for being very fussy and demanding about the reno plans. HDB is probably not used to demanding tenants and testing the limits of the renovations guidelines. I am relieved that my renovation could finally proceed. My contractor started hacking all the walls today and the pictures below show the current status with all the walls gone. As planned, the apartment will be pretty much open planned so that you would be able to see the view from window to window admitting lots of light into the apartment.

view when you enter the apartment - you can see the kitchen, whilst the toilet walls and bedroom walls are gone.

view of front balcony as you enter the apartment

view of front balcony from master bedroom with all walls of bedroom demolished

view of front balcony's corner window from the back balcony through the master bedroom

view of kitchen from back balcony

Lookout for the transformation here in the near future!

lieblingsg has also shared the look of his apartment before demolition

View of the current living room with the 2 doors to the bedroom on the right and an arch door to the kitchen.

same view of the current living room as viewed from the front balcony. The current living room will become the dining room.

THis is the view of the kitchen with the toilet cubicles on the right. There is a corridor leading to the toilet separated from the current living room by a wall.



The shower and wc are designed to be in a self contained cubicle beside the kitchen with access from the kitchen only. They are not ensuite. As the toilet are located in a cubicle in the middle of the room, I dont think it gets very good ventilation.


The WC squat style.


The shower.

I had originally wanted to enlarge the cramped toilet but HDB's regulations do not allow the wet area to be enlarged except for a limited size for the purpose of constructing a vanity cabinet. After much deliberations with hdb, I managed to get approval to do something quite drastic to the wc. I will rotate the wc 180 degrees so that it faces the window on the basis that my wc area is a dry area. So the original WC area that has now been freed up will be utilised for a built in closet with access from the bedroom next to the toilet. This makes for a much more aesthetic and functional design suited for the new millenium!

This is the view of the back balcony outside bedroom 1. There is a door to the bedroom 1 on the right. I have hacked the wall separating the balcony from the bedroom so the bedroom area is enlarged. The whole of the bedroom 1 area will be raised on a wooden platform.


This is the view of bedroom 2. The wall separating the bedroom 2 from bedroom 1 on the left has been hacked to make way for a new wall with sliding doors. The wall on the right separates bedroom 2 from the front balcony. This has also been hacked so as to enlarge the bedroom 2 area which will be converted into a living room.

Notice there are 2 bedrooms one in front and one at the back. There are also 2 balconies, one outside each bedroom. Basically, I have demolished all walls in the apartment and will rebuild a wall to separate the toilet area and the bedroom adjacent to the toilet from the front part of the flat. There will only be one bedroom in the flat. The 2nd bedroom will be converted into a living room and the original living room will become the dining room as it is closest to the kitchen.

I will actually have a guest area - the front balcony can be cordoned off using collapsible panels to form a petite bedroom. The guest bed will be a wallbed, with the bed completely hidden behind a wall and when pulled down reveals a queen sized bed. This I have to import from Italy as there is not a single stockist in Singapore which sells a decent wallbed. It is being fabricated now in Italy and will be shipped in February.

The plan is to have an uncluttered flat with just the right amount of furniture. If the previous apartment was of a moroccan theme, this time it will be 50s or 60s modernist furniture with a scandinavian bent. I have purchased all the furniture and they are quite unique signature pieces. Some of them are repros to cut down the cost whilst others are original. For example, the dining set is by Warren Platner and a stunning original artichoke lamp by Louis Poulsen will hang above it. The bed is the most indulgent acquisition. It is a round bed from Poltrona Frau which is a re-issue of a 1964 classic design by Luigi Massoni. In fact, it is quite swinging 60s Austin Powers! It took 2 months to order the bed and for it to be shipped from Italy. I dont even know if it will fit through the front door! I may have to use a crane to hoist it up through the windows! Hahaha. Seriously. But it will completely crystallise the look of that era.

I will post my sketch of the interior design in due course.

liebs

Even those HDB flats at Telok Blangah Heights had toilets like these. lieblinsg, I want to see how u transform this toilet!

there are so many balconies! Lieblingsg, do you intend to do something to the balconies? can it really become a small bedroom?

OMG.

Does it do that automatically when press on flush button? Or there are other controls to use?

Those controls were worded in Japanese, right? How to tell one button from another?

LOL... I prefer something simpler like this.


Think I'll split this thread so that it fits into renovation theme :)

Amazzzing!  Great plan.  Look forward to seeing the progressive transformation.  Caught my attention about a round bed.  Somehow, it looks good but may not be practical

Hi Hyancinthus. That pic of the A-La-Uno toilet i beautiful! The $10k version of the TOTO toilet is something like that. I bought the cheaper version which is not too bad.

Hi Ron. About the round bed, I was at first apprehensive abt it but on 2nd thoughts, it is so swinging 60s and fits perfectly into the midcentury /60s theme. The round bed is an updated version of a 1964 classic by Luigi Massoni. See picture below.

The headboard can be rotated in any desired direction. It is a very big bed and could probably fit 4 people! It is 8 ft in diameter and 9 ft if the headboard is included. The bed was just re-issued last year by Poltrona Frau. I am probably one of the few if not the first to have the bed in Singapore. There is a shop in beach road which sells round beds but the finish is cheap looking and the headboard does not rotate.

That was why I did my research on the internet and came across the Poltrona Frau product. I will have one exactly like the one in the picture because I love the mustard yellow colour of the leather. But my bed sheets will not be so garish. The bed sheets will have to be custom made. Because of the size of the bed, I had a dilemna about furniture in the room. That was why I lobbied very hard to get approval to build the closet into the original WC area. In this way, I dont eat into the original bedroom space and so now I have the space to walk around the bed. The width of the bedroom is slightly above 14 ft so I have abt 2 ft of space on both sides of the bed to move.

Lieblingsg, you are very knowledgeable in these products. Where did you get the information of these products from? Perhaps, you are an interior designer yourself?

A round bed may look impractical especially in small flats. But, they are safe from hitting the corners.

As this thread now includes ID transformation, I shall share the ID plans with members. Whist we are on the topic of beds, I had a dilemna abt lights for the bedroom. It is difficult to match the bed with suitable lighting. A lot of pendant lights will either disappear or are too small or are too distracting in design. I was at first contemplating a cluster of mother of pearl shells as pendant light. Then I thought it was a bit busy and a tad feminine. I also contemplated a cluster of round or tear shaped pendant lamps above the bed. On 2nd thoughts, they would be too overwhelming. If I had nothing except down lights and a round sunken ceiling above the bed, it would look too bare. Finally, I decided to have 2 artemide lamps which are ceiling suspended as pictured below. The lamps are definitely retro looking like the desk lamps I used to have whist I was studying for my O levels a long long time ago except that it is inverted and hanging from the ceiling.



The arm of the lamps are like robotic arms and therefore a tad industrial. They can be rotated 300 degrees to a desired spot. Thus like the bed the lamps can be rotated. I can have each shade positioned on any side of the bed. Even the height of the shade can be varied at will. This flexibiity makes it ideal for the round bed.

agree that those lights were rather industrial looking. Reminds me of going to the dentist.

about creating some ambient lighting on the bed itself with varying heights and angles... if u r sleeping on it, u wouldn't want too much lights shining and heating up your bed, right? Unless, it's for some kind of photography purpose.

Do share your ID contacts here too.

Sorry, not info abt the round bed but info abt the wall bed!

I am having a wall bed for guests. As I have turned the 2nd bedroom into the living room, I have no bedroom for guests! To solve this problem, I decided to fix a wall bed in the front balcony against the wall immediately adjacent to the main door. Essentially, when not in use, the front balcony next to the dining area is just an empty space. If I have a guests, the wall bed can be pulled down and magically transforms into a queen sized bed. I got the inspiration from watching old hollywood movies where small studio apartments have such hidden beds. I think the most recent hollywood movie that has something like this is Down With Love starring Rene Zwelleger and Ian McGregor.

Bed hidden behind wall.


Bed opened.

I plan to have moveable partitions which can cordon off the entire balcony from the dining room and living room thus forming a petite guest bedroom only when the need arises. Otherwise, the bed will be well hidden from sight and all I ave is a luxury of space!

As mentioned before, I searched high and low for a stockist in Singapore that supplies such a bed and I found only one. He sets up a booth during home decor fairs at the Singapore expo but the quality and finish is so dismal. I was forced to look beyond singapore and found the manufacturer of the above chic wall bed in Milan. I ordered it last November. It is now ready for collection. My shipping agents are arranging collection of the item even as you are reading this.