The loft life - Three-D Conceptwerke

Text by Disa Tan

Project type: Walk-up apartment
Floor area: 1,180sqft

Not exactly move-in ready, this old walk-up apartment in Joo Chiat had sloped and uneven flooring, which affected the entire unit. The homeowner, who is a British expatriate, hired Three-D Conceptwerke, an interior design studio well-experienced in rectifying rundown homes, to help turn it into a home. The design team went to work, gutting the entire flooring, along with all the non-structural walls, to make the space safe and liveable again.

With the floors now levelled and newly fitted with engineered wood flooring, the designers crafted an open-plan layout by converting the enclosed cookspace into a communal eat-in kitchen. Structural walls and columns which could not be removed were then turned into divider and display areas to showcase the homeowner’s amazing art collection.

According to the designers, the homeowner also had impeccable taste in furnishings and most of his furniture was shifted from his previous place to the current living room. The team spent time planning and curating the setting to ensure all the pieces would fit well together. The result is a cosy and welcoming living space to lounge and entertain in.

One of the two bedrooms has been hacked away and transformed into an open-concept study and guest area. The team designed a multipurpose desk and storage unit with a Murphy bed feature. This allows the homeowner to tuck the bed away when overnight guests leave, thus saving much space.

More functional shelving appears at the back of the unit when the Murphy bed is pulled down. Next to it is the master bedroom, which is enclosed in steel framed glass doors and panels that draw more light further into the space and enhance the loft-like aesthetic.

Artificial bricks scale the main wall of the master bedroom and project the industrial character of the decades-old apartment. While the designers could have gone with fuss-free wallpaper, they decided to take the more cost- and labour-intensive route of artificial bricks, which were painstakingly installed sheet by sheet. To them, these looked and felt closer in drawing out the rough ridges of exposed bricks.

Once gloomy and dark, the designers brightened the master bathroom dramatically with a total redo. All the existing tiles were ripped out and refreshed with white subway wall tiles and grey large-format floor tiles.