Skip to content

Hougang

A troweled cement-plaster living room with a dark plank floor, a stone-topped cooking peninsula clad in scorched timber, and a low run of slatted bamboo cabinets under a shaft of afternoon light.

Hougang · 2019

Two floors,

one plaster,

one timber

Almost every surface is troweled cement plaster, taken across walls, ceilings and the beams that could not be moved, and the joinery is a single dark scorched-looking wood that reappears as sliding panels, as the lining of the arched openings, as the kitchen carcasses.

It was photographed in use: dumbbells on the bedroom floor, guitars and cases propped along the study wall, a kettle left out on the counter.

A view past a stone-clad column and an induction hob to a breakfast counter in dark timber with two teal upholstered stools, daylight and tree canopy filling the window behind.
02
A wardrobe wall of handleless taupe doors, each cut with a single angled recess for a grip, under a continuous cove light beside a frosted window.
03

The kitchen runs as a galley in weathered grey-brown timber under a pale stone worktop, with a barn door on a black track closing the far end. The breakfast counter turns instead to face the window and the canopy behind it.

The beams that could not move

were plastered in,

not boxed out

The stair was kept,

and the rooms were stripped

around it

A bedroom with a dark timber wardrobe wall, a television on a slim ledge and a doorway through to the landing beyond.
04

Turned balusters and a gloss-black newel stand in rooms otherwise free of ornament, with the marbled herringbone tile cut into the plank floor on a diagonal. Upstairs the bed sits on a raised platform behind a fluted screen.

The same view

A hall lit from a recessed ceiling cove, the arched opening to the kitchen half closed by a sliding panel in dark scorched timber, with a black turned-baluster stair at right.
Sliding panel drawn across
The same hall with the sliding panel pushed clear of the arch, opening the view through to the lit worktop and the barn door on its black track beyond.
Sliding panel pushed back

The wardrobe doors are taupe and handleless, each cut with a single angled recess to grip. A continuous cove light runs above them, so the wall holds as one plane broken only by the recesses.

The plan works by sliding,

never by swinging

Details

01Surfaces

The foot of a black-painted stair beside a full-height cupboard in scorched and fluted timber, where marbled herringbone tile meets dark plank flooring on a diagonal.
  • Troweled cement plaster to walls, ceilings and beams
  • Dark scorched timber to the joinery
  • Dark plank flooring through the ground floor
  • Marbled herringbone tile cut in on a diagonal
  • Pale stone worktops
  • Slatted bamboo and oak cabinet fronts

02Openings

A galley kitchen in weathered grey-brown timber under a pale stone worktop, with a linear ceiling light, a sliding barn door at the far end and a slatted oak appliance cabinet in the foreground.
  • Full-height sliding panel between hall and kitchen
  • Arched openings lined in timber
  • Barn door on a black track at the utility end
  • Handleless taupe wardrobe doors, each cut with an angled grip
  • Fluted timber column screening the ensuite

03Lighting

A study and music room with a curved scarlet ceiling raft lit from beneath, a wrap-around desk, a red upholstered window bench and guitars and a small amplifier resting along the wall.
  • Recessed ceiling cove to the hall
  • Linear light over the galley
  • Continuous cove above the wardrobe wall
  • Lit worktop seen through the arch
  • Curved scarlet ceiling raft lit from beneath

04The rooms

A bedroom on a raised cork-toned platform beside a walnut-veneered partition, a wall-mounted screen on fluted panelling, and a fluted timber column screening the ensuite beyond.
  • Living room with a stone-topped cooking peninsula
  • Galley kitchen and a breakfast counter with teal stools
  • Black-painted stair with turned balusters
  • Bedroom on a raised platform beside a walnut-veneered partition
  • Study and music room with a wrap-around desk and a window bench

Instagramenquiry@spireid.com

Spire

(2011)A living room in white marble with floor-length taupe drapery drawn back from a garden window, a gloss white media wall with a slim black recess, and a crystal-drop chandelier over a charcoal sofa.Sun CottagesCashew · Landed home