My friend has chosen dark tiles for the floor in the colour of cappuccino and dark brown. These are Italian tiles bought at 80% discount from the Builder Shop in Changi South. Fantastic bargain if you ask me . My friend is cutting corners and bought these during a sale. He got them pretty cheap.

The contractors hv started laying the tiles in the living room.

They started tiling from the main entrance.
Note the prominent beam that cuts across the flat. He has to live with that.

The tiling has progressed pretty quickly.

Totally understand the budget constraints. Looks like a corner unit on the top floor so COV must have been pretty painful.

Went thru that with my reno, so I became very familiar with sales around Singapore.
I got some tiles from Builders Shop too for my place too. Really good quality so it is a very good buy.

Can't wait for the walls to be painted.

The walls will hardly need painting. That's because for this flat, most of the walls will be bricked up, some in red uneven bricks and some in pale beige brick for that raw look. Other parts will be covered up by panels is wood veneer for contrast and warmth. In the bathrooms the walls will be tiled with wall tiles. So this flat will predominantly require no paint job! I will draw the plan very shortly and show you what it should look like.

My first drawing of the place. This is the plan for the living room which has an open plan and open kitchen.

I shall explain from left to right. As you enter the flat, you will see a partition wall that offers some privacy. The neighbor is kinda nosy and his kid always used to come into the flat. Anyway the partition wall blocks the view of the living room partially. The partition wall is made of pale beige bricks, for contrast with the red bricks on the other wall of the living room. On this wall will be where my friend mounts his bicycle. Behind this partition wall which you can't see is the AV unit with the TV mounted. More about that later.

You could see into the flat as you enter. You should see the wall of the living room behind the partition wall. That wall us split into 2 parts, one part is made of brick, and the other part is wood panel. We are using wood laminate to save cost. The choice of the red brick wall is to confer a kind of a loft atmosphere, but it's also a cost saving measure. The wood panel is where the huge painting of the Tibetan Book of Longevity will be mounted. It's a massive painting in tryptich, ie. in3 panels totaling a length of 3.9m. It has a lot of green and brown colour and so it gives the apartment an earthy feel. Next to the painting is where the dining table is going to be placed. The table has a deep green marble top of 1.3m diameter with large steel tubes as its supporting legs arranged in a circle. We will likely pair this table with 4 sets of swan chairs, probably clad in tan leather. As a cost saving measure, we will hv a cluster of 4 Tom Dixon lamps above the table.

To the right of the table you see 2 wood panels. They are actually the doors of the bedroom which are pivoted and which may be swiveled open. During the day you can open these panels and you will get an abundance of light coming from the windows of the living room as well as the windows of the bedroom. It should fill this flat with an abundance of positive energy. The idea is not to hv walls dividing the bedroom from the living room. This philosophy is a continuation of my open plan scheme as applied on my Tiong Bahru project. You can see that as the wood panel ends, the walls of the bedroom will once again be covered by raw naked brick.

Just next to the dining furniture is the kitchen island. It will be of dark colored material, grey or black. There will be an oven underneath the electrical conduction hob. But as you can see from the drawing we are doing away with under counter cabinetry. So the kitchen shd look uncluttered. We have decided to think outside the box and introduce the kitchen into the living room area, very much like what you see in the set of American sitcoms, like Friends or Will & Grace. So it's an interactive kitchen where the guests can mingle with the hosts. You don't see the sink here but the sink is actually further to the right of the pic and it is actually within the original boundary of the original kitchen!

You also don't see in this pic the refrigerator and the cupboard inspired by the B2 kitchen. The latter is the only kitchen cabinet for the flat! So it's quite revolutionary in that sense as it breaks the norm of the conventional idea of a kitchen in a hdb flat! Drawing coming soon.

Oh I forgot to mention that we are toying with the idea of hvg the ceiling the same colour as the floor on the side of the kitchen. So it's a dark ceiling. On the living and dining side, the ceiling will disappear because of the use of steel mirror panels. That will give the illusion that the ceiling height is very high. This is a counter measure to the horrific low beam that cuts across the flat dividing it into 2. I hope it works. This is the first time I'm experimenting with a reflective ceiling as well as a dark ceiling. Both of this will give the flat a very moody feel. Yet the dark floor and ceiling will allow the walls, the furniture and the painting to come into the spotlight and confront the viewers' line of vision.

I hope these plans work. I'm pretty excited about this project because if executed well it will look totally unconventional and might rival my Tiong Bahru project in its uniqueness.

This is an example of how a reflective ceiling gives illusion of height. The mirror reflects everything below it and the ceiling somewhat disappears. This is the ceiling of the escalator area at Harvey Nichols Hong Kong.

Actually the kitchen island in the drawing above is not accurate. Whilst it is correct that the conventional oven is under the hob, they are not at the end of the island as drawn. They are somewhere in the middle and so there is a part of the island that is cantilevered. The island shd be as shown below. The sink is on the right. As I said previously, the sink is located within the boundary of the original kitchen.

And in case the drawing is not clear, this is the cluster of Tom Dixon lights I'm referring to that we will likely used above the dinner table. It's fairly inexpensive. I like the fact that it's actually black on the outside but underneath the shade it's bronze.

And of course everyone knows the iconic Arne Jacobsen Swan Chairs. It was designed in 1958 for a hotel actually. I think it would suit this flat well.

The huge painting called the Tibetan Book of Longevity that will hang on the wood panel in the dining area.

The living room tiles have been laid. This is how it looks.

As my dear Passion of Reflections stole the idea from me and got himself a Hepburn Bed, we hv decided to abandon the idea of getting the Hepburn Bed for this flat. (passion, Just kidding!!). We hv decided to get another one just as stylish if not more. So stylish that it has been awarded the Bed of the Year award by Wallpaper! It's the Suite Bed by Autobahn! Decision to purchase is pending, budget permitting. Lol. This is the gorgeous Autobahn Suite Bed.

I love the simplicity of the design and it is very elegant. The wings on the side provides a cocoon like effect whilst you sleep. Come to think of it, it looks like the sides of 1st class seats on Singapore Airlines! The wood is of American Walnut and the headrest is slightly inclined. The inside if the headrest is padded and line but a material of yr choice, either fabric, leather or suede. If we get this bed, we will choose suede in merlot colour. It is actually very luxurious looking. I was shopping at the Lane Crawford furniture store in Hong Kong and they hv one on display right now and alerted my friend about it. We ate now making enquiries about it. It will take 3 months to indent. Here is the display at the Lane Crawford store in HK.

A few months back a friend went on holiday to Turkey and stayed at the Witt Hotel which is a designer hotel. It is quite an ultimate hotel which was fully decorated with Autobahn furniture!! Not a surprise, as Autobahn is the pride of Turkey. But it is the Suite Bed that caught my eye and that began my love affair with this bed. This prompted me to persuade my friend to abandon the beautiful Hepburn Bed (on which Passion sleeps), and to opt for this instead. Budget permitting. Because it will cost an arm and a leg.

These are pics of the Witt Hotel suite with the Suite Bed on location. I believe the bed was designed for this hotel.

Posted By lieblingsg on 20 May 2012 01:08 AM
The walls will hardly need painting. That's because for this flat, most of the walls will be bricked up, some in red uneven bricks and some in pale beige brick for that raw look. Other parts will be covered up by panels is wood veneer for contrast and warmth. In the bathrooms the walls will be tiled with wall tiles. So this flat will predominantly require no paint job! I will draw the plan very shortly and show you what it should look like.

Ok, I just don't like the current wall color. :)

With the cooking area so near the painting, are you worried that cooking grease may damage the painting? Plus accidental knocks from seats or clumsy visitors?

Bed looks good! Hope Dream gives a good discount for the bed since it's GSS. (Am assuming is Dream, don't think the other stores carry Autoban, right?)

I'm devising a way of protecting the painting. May cover it with a layer if matt glass.
Yes, it's Dream. Oh I forgot about the GSS. I got a quote which is supposed to be discounted price but it will still cost an arm and a leg. So my friend is still mulling over it as the Hepburn bed is so much cheaper in comparison!

By the way the design of this flat is getting more stylish with each passing day!! Lol. Enough of the bed. Now with the bathroom sink. We will not settle for an average sink. No way, Jose. We hv been hunting high and low for a stylish vanity. I saw it Bangkok at the Porselanosa tiles showroom. And we hunted for the distributor in Singapore and we managed to track him. So this is the vanity we will be getting.