It’s time to celebrate another episode of House Everything?. This reality TV show on Channel 8 features Starry Homestead as the interior design team that helps to transform the participants’ home interior from a cluttered space to a lovely home.
In this episode, we visit a family of four that has called their HDB flat home for the past 21 years and help them deal with the accumulated clutter in their living room.
The Scenario
As two members of the family shared a love for shoes, the most apparent chaos in the home was the overflowing shoe racks at the entrance. Moreover, each family member owned multiple pair of shoes. As a result, there was insufficient storage space for all the footwear.
While the living room was rather spacious, it had an irregular-shaped layout with several awkward corners and strange angles. Shaped like a heart, its two L-shaped wings led out to the window in the living room and to the kitchen respectively. This made the placement of furniture challenging, such as the inability to align the sofa and the TV in a parallel way. Also, the dining area was comparatively darker as the only natural light was from the window in the living room area, which could not illuminate the deeper part of the room.
From old to new – same apartment with a completely different vibe!
The Challenge
The team is tasked with the challenge of providing a comfortable living room for the family. At the same time, there should be plenty of storage space to accommodate the many pairs of shoes and the various keepsakes, personal items and decorative memorabilia that the family has accumulated over the years.
The Solution
The design concept for this project is known as the Mid-century Modern style, which incorporates some prominent trends from the 50s to the 70s to create fun, cheerful and highly textured home decors. The interior design also focuses on organic and geometric forms and functionality.
Interior designer Rayson has noticed that the owners had collected many vintage decorative items, and thus, he has decided that the retro design concept would suit them well. However, through his experience, he has realised that some people may be reluctant to accept a full Mid-century Modern style, and so, he has incorporated elements of modern design into the concept.
Colours such as olive green, mustard yellow and cream white offer a warm and welcoming feel to the room.
The overall vibe is somewhat retro and nostalgic with touches of soft colours and matt finishing. Colourful 3-D wall design is included to create a textured look. A brown sofa and brown dining chairs are also carefully selected to match the overall design.
To fully utilise the odd-shaped space, curved cabinets are tailor-made to tackle the irregular corners. The wall-to-wall built-ins are designed not just to provide plenty of storage space for the family, but are also used as aesthetic narratives for the design concept. Included in these cabinets are racks for storing shoes which can conceal the unsightly bomb shelter door at the same time.
Goodbye, untidiness! Hello, hidden shoe racks!
For more stowaway space, customised settee cum storage is also built under the window. To increase the illumination of the room, a large semi-circle mirror is mounted on the wall of the dining area, allowing it to reflect light and brighten the space.
Organic curves are iconic design elements of the Mid-century Modern style. Here in the living room, Rayson has cleverly incorporated them into the built-in cabinets by carving out a perfect circle in the centre to display decorative items. The built-in TV console also has a top shelf for the family to showcase the vintage keepsakes passed down from the owners’ parents.
Colours such as olive green, mustard yellow and cream white offer a warm and welcoming feel to the room.
The Bonus
The bonus for this episode is the refurbished dining table, which blends in nicely with the overall design concept. Rather than throwing it away, the team decided to repaint the table legs and put it to good use again.
Say no to wastage by refurbishing furniture that is still useful.
For more information about the Mid-century Modern style, please contact the designer of this episode, Rayson at tel. no. 6778 6866.
