The Chic Home: Interior designer’s Yio Chu Kang house optimised for family’s routines (2024)

SINGAPORE – Ms Cheryl Gay of Coterie Design may be an interior designer by profession, but she considers herself more of a display artist.

Everything in the 55-year-old’s semi-detached house in Yio Chu Kang – which she shares with her husband, 56, and their three daughters aged 29, 26 and 24 – has been conceived to achieve maximum visual impact while being completely functional.

Though she is practical and organised, she does not believe in restricting herself to specific requirements when it comes to home design. “Go with the feel and the flow. When everything is in place, everything flows.”

From the first storey, there are two points of access to the home, which spans about 7,200 sq ft of built-up area.

One is the main entrance, where a timber deck extends into the car porch. Apart from defining an outdoor foyer space just outside the main entrance and the glass doors leading into the living room, it also addresses other practical concerns.

“I do not like the sensation of cold granite on my feet when leaving the house. This solution allows us to step out onto the timber deck, retrieve our shoes from the shoe rack and sit on one of two armchairs while putting them on,” Ms Gay says.

To the left of the main entrance is an outdoor staircase that leads down to the basem*nt, where Coterie Design’s office is located. This allows the team independent access to the office without having to walk through the house.

Coterie Design’s work space resembles a clubhouse, complete with a bar-pantry, swimming pool, pool table and powder room. Work desks and filing cabinets are concealed behind sliding-folding doors after office hours. There is even a gift-wrapping station.

The living room on the first storey is elegantly furnished, with a tiled wall backdrop and television unit. In one corner, next to the main door, is a full-height cabinet that stores vases, cushion covers and essentials like face masks and tissue packets.

On the other side of the main door is storage for reusable paper bags and socks, which reinforces Ms Gay’s philosophy of planning around the sequence and flow of daily routines.

The dry and wet kitchens, together with the indoor and outdoor dining areas, have a restaurant-like ambience with an open-concept design and varied seating arrangements.

Separated from the dry kitchen by glass doors, the wet kitchen also has a serving counter facing the outdoor dining terrace, complete with cafe-like electric shutters which were created by removing a wall.

Two of the bedrooms on the second storey have been staged as guestrooms-cum-showrooms to give visiting clients some ideas on soft furnishings.

The master suite – belonging to Ms Gay and her husband, who works in telecommunications – occupies the other half of the second storey, towards the rear of the house. It consists of a study along with her husband’s massage chair, their sleeping area and a cavernous walk-in wardrobe and master bathroom.

Right outside the bathroom is a changing area with drawers for towels, house clothes and undergarments. The walk-in closet also has a central island, just like a luxury boutique.

The top floor of the home has been reconfigured into three bedrooms for the daughters. Their bedrooms reflect their personalities: simple and understated for the eldest daughter, a pre-school principal; a cosy yet sophisticated look for the second daughter, who works in banking; and one with bohemian vibes for the youngest daughter, an interior designer.

Each room has a distinct look, but certain elements – such as a consistent black-and-white theme for the naturally ventilated bathrooms, but with slightly different tile designs – tie them all together.

The bedrooms’ balconies have also been transformed. In the eldest daughter’s room, it has been converted into an attached bathroom with a glass roof. The balcony of the youngest daughter’s bedroom is now a sunny space for work and crafting, with a greenhouse-like area overlooking the front of the house.

Ms Gay and her family moved into their new home in September 2019 after a three-month renovation costing about $300,000.

• This article first appeared in Home & Decor Singapore. Go to homeanddecor.com.sg for more beautiful homes, space-saving ideas and interior inspiration.