Our Shabby Chic Home In Toa Payoh

[missyrisc 0]

Hello there, we are Mr and Mrs K.

We thought we would let you in on a sneak peek of our new apartment. Our Love nest is strategically located along the perimeter of Downtown Singapore. We lived in the outskirts of this nation for the longest time and wanted a home that is easily accessible. It is absolutely exciting to be able to get to town in 15 minutes by subway.

The Greenery:

The view from our new apartment.

Our Love Nest is clustered amidst beautiful greenery; we faced a small park where you can see big tropical trees. This is the best we can make of since most housing options in Singapore are mostly situated in housing estates; where most are back to back high-rise apartments. Most of us do not get that much greenery; so to us, this is an absolute luxury.

Mr and Mrs K love to walk by the green to our new home. The trees provide perfect relaxation. Mr K loves to play basketball so to have a court right beside our apartment makes him really excited. We plan to organize basketball sessions here soon!

Before the transformation

Here are some pictures of Mr and Mrs K’s abode before the transformation:

The Kitchen was rather well-maintained. We decided to keep most of the carpentry and change the door handles. Let’s see what handi-crafty Mrs K can do to transform this rather “lao-goh” (read: old fashioned) cabinets into something unique and chic.

The toilets HAD TO go. Re-doing the toilets contribute to the bulk of our renovation costs; the previous toilet was so yucky and dirty… eeeewwwwwwww.(Inset: The common bathroom)Gosh the super ugly window grills. These will be removed.Actually, EVERYTHING in the toilet will be removed.

The Salon (aka Living Room) was decorated with ceiling cornices which we will retain. I like the classic lamps and we are keeping this intact; we decided to keep the most of the wrought iron window grills as well. It is challenging but but yet so exciting to see how we can make the most of what is already here and make it a chic and beautiful home that we can call our own.

The Bedrooms were all equipped with built-in wardrobes, all of which we will be retaining and changing the handles. Not like they are fantastic, but it saves us a lot of money for sure.

Mrs K is NOT getting a walk-in wardrobe. Surprising isn’t it? Eat your socks, people . More of why she did not go for that in future posts.

Isn’t it exciting to see how this can be transformed? Haha, we cannot wait to show you more.

Edited June 9, 2010 by missyrisc

[Supersimon27 2]

Welcome to Rt-blog ,

Cannot view all photo leh. Did u paste wrongly ?

Btw , I used to play basketball .... but really very very very long din play liao

[missyrisc 0]

Welcome to Rt-blog ,

Cannot view all photo leh. Did u paste wrongly ?

Btw , I used to play basketball .... but really very very very long din play liao

Thank you for the warm hospitality!!! Yes this is our first blog entry so we are trying to test if pictures can be viewed. We have uploaded all pictures. Can everythng be seen? Heh My husband Mr K loves to play basketball... He is very excited! Hahaha...

[Supersimon27 2]

Can see le

[missyrisc 0]

We have been up to our necks trying to get our new apartment ready. Hacking has been done to the bathrooms; the dirty and yucky bathrooms are now reduced to a dusty mess of debris. Spent the last long weekend trying to get good toilet bowls and basins for our new bathrooms, we started with Balestier; ran through Geylang; passing countless Teochew porridge coffeeshops; and ended our quest back at Balestier’s “Viva Nueva”.

Mr and Mrs K should have trusted their instincts on “Jojo” the friendly saleslady.

We had wanted to get a “simple” toilet bowl, though after trying on several seats, we realized that it was not as easy as it seems. It felt funny to sit on it with our pants intact, haha.We felt it was important since this seat is going to be a good part of our “thought-evoking” moments in the house.

At Viva Nueva, we finally found a good “1 WC + 1 basin” deal at “$288”. Yay.

Mr and Mrs K are all about bathrooms.

After our honeymoon in Bali and the Maldives, we have been ridiculously pampered.

We wanted our bathrooms to be somewhat like the bathrooms from Morocco. We found only ONE tile design that could fit the bill. We thought that must have been brought into Singapore because we prayed about it, since our designer P**** from “Ideal House” commented that this design will not sell in the Singaporean market.

That said, please see our inspiration above…. Woohoo.

Let's also talk about the shower system. We love rain-showers. Yes, there is nothing like showering under a rain-shower after a full day’s work. At first, we did not know that there was a difference between “hansgrohe” and “GROHE”. Until of course, after careful scrutinizing and research by Mr K, we realized that we preferred “hansgrohe” for its quality. But, “hansgrohe” also came with a rather hefty price tag...

At an impeccable timing, we managed to stroll into hansgrohe’s showroom at the start of their GSS (aka the “Great Singapore Sale”) promotion. They offered us a 25% discount on all items. We nabbed a great deal, not only we can have rain-shower installed in the master bathroom, now we can have a hansgrohe massage hand-shower for the common bathroom.

{Mr and Mrs K are very blessed indeed } ^_^

More amazing favour and adventures of our renovation project awaits.We will update as we proceed. YAY.

Edited June 9, 2010 by missyrisc

[sff 0]

Hi, welcome welcome. So glad to see another one staying in toa payoh. Which part of tpy are u at?

[missyrisc 0]

Hi, welcome welcome. So glad to see another one staying in toa payoh. Which part of tpy are u at?

We are staying at Lorong 2.

[lilithfiend 0]

welcome to RT! ooooh shabby chic sounds exciting & so different..look forward to seeing your transformation.

i think its amazing that you'll be keeping the kitchen cabinets and giving it a facelift..how do you intend to do that? my hb + i are very much bathroom people too. we've spent hours planning the bathroom in our place, many more hours than the rest of the house. unfortunately, the limitations of a hdb bathroom just gives you that much space to play around with. lots of ideas cannot be achieved and you keep facing obstacle after obstacle.

anyway, good luck with the reno!

Edited June 10, 2010 by lilithfiend

[missyrisc 0]

welcome to RT! ooooh shabby chic sounds exciting & so different..look forward to seeing your transformation.

i think its amazing that you'll be keeping the kitchen cabinets and giving it a facelift..how do you intend to do that? my hb + i are very much bathroom people too. we've spent hours planning the bathroom in our place, many more hours than the rest of the house. unfortunately, the limitations of a hdb bathroom just gives you that much space to play around with. lots of ideas cannot be achieved and you keep facing obstacle after obstacle.

anyway, good luck with the reno!

Hello there!

Yes, due to the fact that we paid quite a sum for the flat, we decided to use what we have now in the flat and "refurbish" slowly. I am all about turning vintage pieces into gems, fleamarts and second hand furniture stores are my regular hangouts. It is quite exciting to see how our flat will slowly evolved, and since I don't see much of these blogs around in the forum. We decided to start one to encourage people that it is ok to not being able to have an overhaul. What is important is that we will make use with what we have and improvise. Yes the bathrooms are top priority in our list and we cannot do with the existing state at all.... Limitations are inevitable, like the ugly pipes and the lighting...etc, but I think to make a bathroom cosy the decorations also plays a huge part. So I guessed we are going to go in that direction.

We also decided to make the exposed pipes a design feature in the bathrooms by painting them black. More on that later, when it gets done.

[Amy Choon 1]

hi! welcome to RT! shabby chic reminds me of scrapbooking! keke.

[lilithfiend 0]

Hello there!

Yes, due to the fact that we paid quite a sum for the flat, we decided to use what we have now in the flat and "refurbish" slowly. I am all about turning vintage pieces into gems, fleamarts and second hand furniture stores are my regular hangouts. It is quite exciting to see how our flat will slowly evolved, and since I don't see much of these blogs around in the forum. We decided to start one to encourage people that it is ok to not being able to have an overhaul. What is important is that we will make use with what we have and improvise. Yes the bathrooms are top priority in our list and we cannot do with the existing state at all.... Limitations are inevitable, like the ugly pipes and the lighting...etc, but I think to make a bathroom cosy the decorations also plays a huge part. So I guessed we are going to go in that direction.

We also decided to make the exposed pipes a design feature in the bathrooms by painting them black. More on that later, when it gets done.

yeah i think truly making a house a home takes years..not just months. cos you add things along the way that speak of your personalities and these are the little details that really make a home. very wise to not want to overspend!! what are your plans for the bathroom?

[gimz63251073 0]

We also decided to make the exposed pipes a design feature in the bathrooms by painting them black. More on that later, when it gets done.

wow, this would be daring! nowadays some restaurants also go for exposed pipings, very chic.

i think the wardrobes in bedrooms are very lasting, my grandma has those in her house as well. quality of stuff then is very good. very good decision to keep!

btw, where are some nice vintage places to go to? i only visited www.likethatone.com @ bt batok

super nice furniture but very expensive as well.

[patsy_sg 1]

Hello there!

Yes, due to the fact that we paid quite a sum for the flat, we decided to use what we have now in the flat and "refurbish" slowly. I am all about turning vintage pieces into gems, fleamarts and second hand furniture stores are my regular hangouts. It is quite exciting to see how our flat will slowly evolved, and since I don't see much of these blogs around in the forum. We decided to start one to encourage people that it is ok to not being able to have an overhaul. What is important is that we will make use with what we have and improvise. Yes the bathrooms are top priority in our list and we cannot do with the existing state at all.... Limitations are inevitable, like the ugly pipes and the lighting...etc, but I think to make a bathroom cosy the decorations also plays a huge part. So I guessed we are going to go in that direction.

We also decided to make the exposed pipes a design feature in the bathrooms by painting them black. More on that later, when it gets done.

can you recommend any second hand furniture shops? Been to David's antique and this place run by 2 uncles behind the pinacle in duxton.. but still looking for some quirky pieces to accent my place..

[DL838 0]

can you recommend any second hand furniture shops? Been to David's antique and this place run by 2 uncles behind the pinacle in duxton.. but still looking for some quirky pieces to accent my place..

www.hocksiong.com.sg

they sell 2nd hand stuff from hotels & restaurants in Singapore, check out their page on facebook.

[missyrisc 0]

can you recommend any second hand furniture shops? Been to David's antique and this place run by 2 uncles behind the pinacle in duxton.. but still looking for some quirky pieces to accent my place..

Some places that we've been to:

1) Hock Siong

www.hocksiong.com.sg

>>Pretty cool place with their furniture from Hotels. Minimum work needed, we bought our bathroom mirror from Hock Siong.(Sorry no pictures yet)

2) Yasashii Trading

Blk 123 Bukit Merah Lane 1 #01-114| Tel: 6271 3308. Name of person who served us: Alan

>> We bought our victorian cabinet from them.(Sorry no pictures yet)

3) Expat Auctions

www.expatauctions.com.sg

>> Previously loved items from expats.

4) Like that one

http://www.flickr.com/photos/likethatone/

>> They are expensive because they refurbish the old into something new. There is a fair bit of work involved in what they do, so naturally they are expensive.

We are still scouting for interesting items on ebay as well. We will be updating the vintage stores as we go...