Name:Jerry & Catherine
Location: Bedok Reservoir Road, Singapore
Size: 4 Room Flat, 93 sq. meters (1001 sq. ft.)
Years lived in: Approximately 1 Year
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One of ATLA’s goals for the year is to stretch out beyond the Los Angeles city limits, not only into other Southwest cities, but also occasionally across to our neighbors over in Asia. Asian apartments and homes are often a great resource for examples in small space living ideas, alongside inspiring modernist sensibilities. And so this week we’re fortunate enough to be invited inside the home of a modest sized stylish flat showcasing small spacing living in Singapore…
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AT Survey:
About Us:
Catherine is working as an aircraft technician and I am a graphic designer. We are both 28 years old this year and just got married last year (Nov 2007) after dating for more than 10 years. In fact we met each another at the age of 7 in school.
Our style:
Modern Eclectic. Deciding a style is really difficult because there are too many styles to choose and we have our personal preference towards design style, so in the end we have decided to go for eclectic but with a modern twist. We can have everything under one roof, it is fun to mix and match all the themes, furniture and accessories. We are the designers of our home!
Inspiration:
From loads of books, magazines, websites and our imagination.
Favorite Element:
We love pastel and earthy colours.
Biggest Challenge:
Space planning.
What Friends Say About Our Home:
Cozy and inviting! Most of our friends are very excited whenever they visit our home because they are looking forward to see the changes in our home. With our home, we can easily kick off a conversation with friends by sharing our ideas of simple DIYs at home, photographs that we took, and the things that we bought for our home when we travel.
Biggest Embarrassment:
Hiring the wrong renovator to renovate our home and end up with many problems and caused the whole renovation to be delayed. It was really an unbearable moment during renovation. But I am glad that it is history now. We are happy with our home! Hooray!!!
Biggest Indulgence:
We love everything and every corner of our home! We felt that our home has played an important role in our relationship; it is a place that we share and live in. Our home reflects us, having a nicely designed home is easy but maintaining is the challenge.
Best advice:
A good design principal to follow: “Forms Follows Functions”.
Dream source:
From different part of the world! Travel and shop! We love to have a different little part of the world in our home.
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Resources:
We have both old and new furnitures. Most of our furniture are from IKEA, nice furniture design with economic price. We have also collected some old furniture from relatives and friends, a simple work of repainting, upholstery and modification will do the trick.
(Thanks, Jerry & Catherine!)
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Photos by Jerry Tong [please request permission before using]
that is a gorgeous place!. i love it!. i love the floors and the kitchen cabinets.
view terka27's profile
this place is lovely... bravo to the owners.
BTW, the size of the apt should be 1001 sqf or am I wrong?
view New York Muhtari's profile
I like that it's not theme-y. Almost all "asian-inspired" inetriors end up looking really theme-y and tacky. That said, I do not really see how this is all that special. But that is probably because I have seen many other better ones throughout my life when I stayed in various South East Asian countries... Still, it is a nice place.
view siongchinchan's profile
Lot's of great ideas here. Thanks for sharing!
view gquaker's profile
Yes, someone did some arithmetic wrong. 93 square meters is just over 1,000 square feet. I knew something was wrong as soon as I looked that the pictures!
view jeccat's profile
Super Awesome, but no WAY this is 300 sq feet.
view Veruca's profile
Twas might fault...not Jerry and Catherine's miscalculation. I had a previous figure copied and pasted from a smallest coolest entry. Apologies for the mixup!
view gregory's profile
Cute! Thanks for the inspiration!
view tomomo's profile
The place looks great. I especially love the vintage chairs. I'm curious: Do all flats have window grills?
view Raena's profile
Beautiful!
view suzy8track's profile
lovely... the artwork in the first picture (leaning on top of the side table, beneath the hanging pink lanterns) is stunning. Any word on the artist?
view saudoso's profile
what couch is that! i love it! where could i find it?
view DylaN Mott's profile
1,000 square feet is now considered SMALL? The office space alone is gigantic.
This place is superb, but small? Come on now...
view Rob in PDX's profile
This place is awesome, except for the red/white/blue chairs, which are hideous and don't remotely go with the rest of the stuff. Just sayin'.
view eeka's profile
I enjoyed this house tour very much. I really liked the magnets on the fridge and the lanterns. My parents are from Malaysia and Singapore - when I saw the red ,white and blue chairs - it brought memories back :)
Karen
view Alkemie's profile
Finally a featured apartment from Singapore! My husband and I moved here three years ago from the US and due to sky-rocketing rental, we have to downgrade to a much, much smaller space next month and we're almost depressed! But now I'm really inspired by Catherine and Jerry's place. Thanks, AT for featuring us from this part of the world!
p.s. I have those exact red/blue/white lawn chairs! So retro and I love 'em!
view I'Ching's profile
Hey, pay attention there all the people that are quick to correct. This is NOT a Small/Cool entry! It is a house tour.
Also, jeez, I am almost beginning to despise the comments from a lot of readers. I realize a lot of tours and such are put up here to be "judged" but that doesn't mean it has to be ripped. Siongchinchan... grow the f up. Or at least give something more constructive than 'I have seen better in my world travels'. You've "seen" better? How about your lovely place? :)
Anyway... I absolutely *love* everything about this place! Clean, fun, artistic, minimal, fun and fun! Thanks for showing! :)
view vertigen's profile
Ahahaha vertigen, I knew someone would blast me soon enough for being vocal about my actual opinions. It doesn't particularly float my boat because I don't see anything very special, but I've lived with architects and interior designers my entire life, so I am used to seeing a lot of special places. But again, these are places that I deem to be special - may not be necessarily how you think. Sad how comments always end up either argumentative or are simply not representative of true opinions.
view siongchinchan's profile
I like this apartment a lot. Beautiful floor.
I love the red/white/blue chairs. They're very fun, but not tacky.
view lolax's profile
I am most fond of the fushia lanterns hanging from the ceiling!
Nice job :)
~Lenore
view tikilicious's profile
I'm an American who grew up in Singapore and it was great fun to see this.
re: The "Asian-inspired interiors" comment above, the best example I can think of for how tacky that can look was Jan and Michael's condo last week on "The Office."
This place, on the other hand, is fantastic.
view Mercy Street's profile
Well done, Jerry Catherine!
What a lovely harmonious blend of asian, retro and modern styles. And nice to see colour so well used, too. Not scared to stray from the neutral palette.
It has a lovely peaceful feel to it. Very homely, in the best possible sense of the word. Stylish, but not pretentious or ostentatious.
An ispiration...
May you enjoy it always! x x x
view MeliaDesignUK's profile
cute place and cute love story too :)
view k in ditmas's profile
Well done! I like the lighting and the floors!
view speedmike's profile
Great kitchen and floors - too bad there's an overabundance of IKEA...
view bepsf's profile
meh
view hdtex's profile
Those red, white and blue chairs are really fun - as are the stuffed animals poking out behind the sofa. Very kawaii!
view Dave's profile
Hey hey!
i was telling myself this place looks so familiar! haha. Didnt expect to find u here!
Love what you did. Very nice and homely!
view affinity's profile
Hi to all,
Thanks for dropping all the little comments. We are a young and newly wed couple who does not have a luxury home renovation budget to begin with, but we are really happy with what we have. There is always a bigger plan, so we will just have to add on slowly.
Design is really subjective and it is all about feelings. We welcome ideas, comments and critics for our home. We are constantly experimenting and learning about aesthetics and life.
To Gregory: Thanks for featuring our humble home.
Cheers
Jerry & Catherine
view sumobear's profile
Hi Jerry & Catherine
Lovely, lovely apartment. Could you please tell me where you got the white tv console and the dark coloured table console from as well as the prices? Much thanks.
view arnrod's profile
Hi Arnrod,
The white tv console is from IKEA. If you are refering to the dark brown table which I have the pictures on top, I bought it from a flower shop's closing down sale.
view sumobear's profile
Thanks for the information. Yes, I love the dark brown table with the pictures on top.:)
view arnrod's profile