A beautiful newlywed couple's home by JJ Acuna / Bespoke Studio made for him and her.

Client Brief

A local newlywed couple were handed down this apartment by their parents as a wedding gift. Both are avid travellers: the husband enjoys photography and has a photography collection, while the wife loves entertaining.

“They wanted a space that felt good, positive, open, relaxing, worldly, and suitable for entertaining their friends over hotpot. They also wanted to showcase their collection of fine vintage cameras and photos they’ve taken during their travels,” said JJ Acuna, the creative mind behind the project.

“They’re not considering having children at this stage, but they do want the flexibility to have an extra bedroom where they can host their elderly parents or friends. Eventually, this room could be transformed into a child’s room. Currently, the extra bedroom functions as a hobby room that doubles as their home office.

Reconfiguration

The apartment has been reconfigured from three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a maid’s room into two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a maid’s room.

Concept & Style

The team aimed for a detail-oriented space that reflects “easy modern coastal luxury”. “Basically, it’s a relaxing and calming home that radiates positive energy, practicality, and makes the most of natural daylight,” Acuna said.

The design features a clean palette with soft tones, tingling timber details, neutral furnishings, and coastal textures and accents, complemented by touches of rustic finishes.

Challenges

One challenge was to make an old building – with its vintage units, limited window openings, and low ceiling height – feel spacious and airy.

Solutions

The team ensured the home reflected as much daylight as possible by using various shades of whites, beiges, and creams, and by lacquering surfaces to the right degree so that light could shine off the different materials.

They also aimed to play with patterns, textures, knotting, and natural colours that reflect light instead of absorbing it. To enhance the feeling of openness, the team broke down as many walls as possible to create a seamless flow and connection from one room to another.

Tips:

• Try lacquered surfaces on the ceiling to make a low ceiling height feel much taller. That is if you don’t want to put mirrors on the ceiling.
  

• The dining table has loose chairs on one side and a dining bench on the other. This was because the space wasn’t enough for loose dining chairs on both sides, so a bench was the best way to save space and you can come in from the side and you don’t have to pull the seat backwards.
  

• Another opportunity to make a small space feel larger is to do a printed wall covering on the ceiling. The team decided to go this route with the powder room to give this room a sense of height and charm.
  
  

• The firm always attempts to make a boring wall feel more interesting, and this time it designed a planked timber wall painted in eggshell warm white to make one long wall surface within the kitchen, living and dining area feel a bit more interesting, intimate, and lived in.
  
  

• The headboard of the master bedroom is adjacent to the only window in the space, so instead of making curtains, Acuna decided to fabricate sliding slatted screens for the windows so daylight can enter while still having a bit of strong architecture at the same time.