Before & After: A 3-Room Flat’s $50K Renovation Transformed It Into A Minimal Wabi-Sabi Home

Less is more for the homeowner of this three-room flat in Bedok Reservoir.

A three-month-long $50k renovation breathed new life into this formerly drab and dated space that had not been renovated since its first buyer. After a massive overhaul, the the 36-year-old flat is now a light, bright and peaceful abode.

The refreshed 721 sq ft apartment is home to a trauma-informed practitioner in her mid-30s. “[My client] knew that she wanted her home to embody the philosophy of wabi-sabi from the moment she started looking for a flat,” Insight.Out Studio’s Roy Teo, the interior designer tasked with the flat’s makeover, tells 8 Days.

The traditional Japanese concept of wabi-sabi embraces transience and imperfections. Translate that into home interiors and you get an aesthetic that emphasises natural forms and raw finishes, coupled with an intentional approach to furnishing.

Naturally, the home owner’s project brief for the flat was for colours, design and aesthetics that imbue imperfection, incompletion and impermanence to take centrestage — nothing modern, sleek, luxurious or shiny.

These decisions reflect the homeowner’s lifestyle. Roy informs us that she has learnt from years of backpacking that “less is always more” and has “leaned into a minimal life over the last decade”.

To fulfil the homeowner’s ideal home wishlist would mean opening up the space big time — major layout changes had to be made.

All the walls in the two bedrooms were hacked, the kitchen was opened up, and the two bathrooms were combined into one.

Living room: Before and after

The spacious living and dining area is intentionally kept uncluttered to make it conducive for gatherings. There is minimal carpentry — it was imperative that loose furnishings would be used here as much as possible — so that the space remains fluid and dynamic, Roy explains.

Limewash paint was used for the walls in the living and dining areas, as well as the bedroom, adding instant patina and subtle visual interest to the surface.

“It is more expensive than normal paint but worth the money because the process and the effect is exactly what [the homeowner] was going for,” says Roy. It’s accentuated by a light shade of vinyl flooring, which was overlaid on the original floor tiles.

The wall between the master bedroom and the living area was also hacked, and it is only separated by a curtain.

Kitchen: Before and after

The kitchen entrance was also hacked down to open up the space.

The walls are cement screeded, complemented perfectly by a beige-grey Kompacplus countertops and backsplash, a departure from the tiled backsplashes you see in most kitchens.

Says Roy: “The homeowner lived with a cement screeded toilet in her previous home for seven years and felt that it was a brilliant expression for wabi-sabi — the natural cracks that appear over time, the imperfect look and natural changes as it aged tell many stories at once.”

There are no top-hung cabinets or even a cooking hood so that the space doesn’t feel weighed down.

On the other side of the kitchen, there is a built-in cabinet for essentials, with a steel rack that can be moved or switched out in the future if necessary.

Bathroom

The common bathroom in the kitchen and the master bathroom were combined by hacking down the wall in between, thus creating a new expanded bathroom that's accessible via both the kitchen and the master bedroom. Cement screed walls continue inside the bathroom, and a fluted glass shower screen adds dimension and texture.

To maximise space in the bathroom, basins were shifted out, with one in the kitchen and another in the master bedroom.

Bedroom

A cement concrete structure was built in the bedroom to not only house the basin, but the extra space next to it acts as a desk as well.

Fun fact: There are no doors in this house except for the toilet doors and the main door. So, yes, you can peek into the bedroom from the dining area through this arched bedroom entrance.

Photos: Insight.Out Studio