Singaporean private tutor, Ange, knew right off the bat that she wanted to own a home together with her husband, Wes, someday.
Their humble backgrounds meant they had to make certain sacrifices if they wanted to accomplish this goal.
Hard work, discipline (lots of it), and time helped the couple to save up enough money to purchase a 5-bedroom HDB apartment in their early 20s.
“We initially wanted to live somewhere close to the city center. But, we could only afford a 3-bedroom unit with our first home budget. That didn’t work for us. So, we decided to look a little further away from the central region and ended up in Yishun – a neighborhood with several estates that were on sale and built in the last 5 to 10 years,” Ange says.
Ange and Wes have always emphasized practicality over trends. From choosing darker wood stains to painting all of the walls white, every decision led to a low-maintenance home. Their cat’s room was no exception. Their furry friend, Pancake, has an Instagram-worthy room to chill and play in.
The final result is a space that feels both timeless and functional. Ange and Wes may be new homeowners, but they have created a home that truly works for their beautiful family of three.
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Name: Ange from @foongfamilyflat
Location: Singapore
Type of home: HDB (Public housing in Singapore)
Number of rooms: 3 bedrooms + 1 study, it’s called a 5-room flat in SG
Size: 1206 sqft
Years Lived In: Just 4 months!
Rental / Owned: Owned
How would you describe your home style?
Simple and practical, but elegant. We didn’t opt for any fixtures or accents that could be transient in style, mainly because we bought this home with longevity in mind. We see ourselves being in this house for at least 10 years. So, we wanted a classic design and style that would hopefully not tire our eyes in the years to come.
Most of the furniture in our home is in walnut wood. We intentionally selected it as opposed to lighter wood tones that are perhaps more favored amongst homeowners these days. We think that gives our home an elegant and timeless look, and also ensures that our home isn’t just a cut-out of somebody else’s beautiful home.
Our home style is practical because we decided to go with loose furniture in our home as much as possible, as opposed to fixed carpentry. Again, with the longevity of our stay in mind, this will allow us to change things up in the future without having to go through another renovation to refresh the house again.
The husband and I like to think that we share the same love for simplicity and a neutral palette. Our home is mostly made up of varying shades of white, grey, brown, black, with a touch of green from faux plants! We plan to keep it this way and stick to this neutral color palette as it resonates with us most. After all, the clothes that we wear follow the same style as well.
What inspired your home decor?
I think it came from a mixture of being present in beautiful homes as well as Pinterest! They were useful in helping us find the corners and areas of the home which needed decor.
I think our home is not decorated to its full potential yet, since we are still in the infant stage of moving in. We were hoping to travel and collect mementos along the way. But, it’s going to take a while before that can happen due to the ongoing pandemic.
We try not to buy decor pieces just to fill spaces we think have to be filled. Frankly, we would much rather collect unique pieces along the way and tell stories behind every artifact. We think this would give our home the character it needs in the years to come.
Did you renovate your home?
We did not hire an interior designer but we did renovate our home. Our contractor was TLS Reno and we think they did a fantastic job! We appreciate their quick handover – our renovation only took 2 months. This timeline is pretty fast since we did a complete overhaul. Our complete overhaul included:
- Hacking of existing fixtures and floor/wall tiles
- Re-tiling in both our bathrooms, kitchen, and service yard
- Laying vinyl flooring in the dry areas of the home
- Building our office space (4th room) as the previous owners had this opened for a larger living room space
- New electrical and plumbing works
- New bathroom windows
- Painting our space
- Changing all our bedroom & bathroom doors
- Installing new A/C units
Tell us about your favorite room or element in your home.
I love that we chose to have warm lighting for every lamp and light in our house. It honestly changes the whole vibe and makes it more inviting and cozy! We have warm led strip lights in our bathrooms. They make us feel like we’re showering in a spa every day. I come out of the shower always in a better mood, and I look forward to my night showers a lot.
As for my husband, he probably loves that we have a home gym. He is very thankful that he still can continue his workouts at home since we are in partial lockdown again and gyms are closed.
What is the best investment you’ve made for your home?
I feel like we have so many! I’ll have to say our Bosch dishwasher because we host a lot. We throw in everything after a good meal and enjoy the rest of the night with our guests. It’s also a tough fight between our 601L LG fridge with an ice & water dispenser and our Dyson vacuum.
Name one thing you would like to change about your home.
We didn’t see the importance of having a sink in our service yard dedicated to washing non-food items. Granted that our service yard is right next to our kitchen, and we thought 2 sinks within 20cm would be an overkill! But, I’m starting to think that we’ll have to install one in our service yard by the end of the year.
Another thing that we would like changed is our door frames! We wish they matched our walnut bedroom doors. We overlooked this during the renovation process. Thankfully they’re easy to change with laminates now, so we’re definitely looking to do that.
Where do you shop for furniture and home decor pieces?
We bought 95% of the furniture in our home locally from Grey & Sanders, Commune, and Castlery. These shops carry walnut wood furniture and are of high quality. We also like that they have physical showrooms so we can touch and feel the pieces before purchasing.
We bought most of our home decor from Taobao as we would like to keep it affordable so we don’t feel too bad for changing things up. They also have really trendy pieces of good quality if we count on the good reviews and pick the ones with high sales volume.
We love your cat’s room! Tell us how Pancake’s room came about.
We actually didn’t really have a theme in mind, but we knew we wanted it to be like a cute (cat) nursery that’s still in line with our home’s general color palette.
Taobao was a treasure trove for us when it came to shopping for his room! Everything in his room is from Taobao, including the wall climbers.
I think his room gained some traction on Instagram because it looks so much like a kid’s room. But, it’s actually for one cat! The toddler slide is eye-catching, but he doesn’t really use it much haha.
We later added wallpaper to further beautify his room. We DIYed the installation courtesy of Honpo Wallpaper who reached out to us and guided us through the process.
What would you like to share with fellow homeowners who have pet cats or are looking to have one?
Cat-safety first & foremost! Most of us in Singapore live in high-rise buildings, but even if it’s a terrace house or bungalow, we don’t want our cats jumping out of the windows. So, installing grilles even before adopting a cat is super important.
We also justified dedicating an entire room to Pancake because we knew the room would accommodate all of his needs while keeping him absolutely safe.
Cats are generally very shy and cautious creatures, and the room gives him safe hiding if he happens to feel threatened by strangers in our house.
We also created a routine and stuck to it, so Pancake is kept in his room in the afternoon while we work from home and at night when we are asleep. He is thrilled to be in his room because he sometimes meows to remind us to put him in the room and feed him if we are “late.”
Any other advice you would like to share with others?
Start saving up as soon as you know owning a home is something that’ll happen in the coming years. Your future self will be thankful that you were disciplined enough to set aside money for renovating and furnishing your home just the way you dream of it to be, and the process will be an enjoyable one for you and/or your family.
What do you love most about this classic and timeless home? Follow Wes and Ange’s journey on Instagram here.
