Wanna See What Elvin Ng's Bedroom Looks Like?

One of two living areas in Elvin’s sprawling new home, which he renovated for $1mil. Done up in tasteful neutral and earth tones, the place is warm modern contemporary with interesting touches. The actor moved in three months ago with his mum, sister, brother, and his brother’s wife and two-year-old daughter and a domestic helper, and tells us, “When I see my niece playing and running around the pond trying to catch the fish, I feel happy. When I sit downstairs at the pond and look at the fish and the plants, I feel like a kampong boy. I have to water the plants and it’s a bit like roughing it out, but in my own space.”

The second living room in Elvin's massive three-storey home, which he calls a haven away from the world.

Elvin’s obsession with horses (he wrote a book called Our Epic Little Lives: An amusement park, a horse’s eye & little orange suns, remember?) shows up in this grand piece of art at a staircase landing. He tells us he wanted an open-concept stairwell, where all the family rooms would be visible and which would connect everyone. “Also because if I want anything, I can just shout downstairs to my maid,” he jokes.

To impress upon us the scale of the project he managed almost single-handedly, Elvin sends us many pics of what the house that used to stand on that plot of land looked like. This is one of them. He knocked down most of the existing structure and built almost a brand new house, designed by him. Consider us impressed. He also sends us a pic of him eating instant noodles at the construction site of his house last December. His errant contractors caused the completion of his place to be delayed several times, and he spent his birthday supervising the works so that he could move in earlier. “I didn’t celebrate, so I actually forget to add a year to my age when people ask me how old I am!”

One side of Elvin's cavernous bedroom. The man occupies the whole of the top level of the house, and says: “The third level is sort of a SOHO unit on its own. There’s a dry pantry in the [karaoke/man cave] room [across the hallway], so I don’t have to go downstairs — it’s like my own bachelor pad."

The large lounge area on one side of Elvin's bedroom. He says, "I like the natural light, and the space. Actually, I don’t need such a huge space. (Laughs) It seems to take longer to get out of the house. And when I come home, I’ll look at the fish tank, do this and that, and by the time I come up to my room, it will be half an hour later. But at the same time, with this space and openness, I also become more open and free.” (Laughs)

A large shelf in Elvin’s bedroom holds gifts from his fans, memorabilia and family photos. When we tell him he doesn’t look like the rest of his family, Elvin laughs, “Yes, I heard this quite a bit, even when I was young, until I started to question if I was really ‘picked up from the dustbin’ and even demanded my parents show me my baby photos. (Laughs) But I think we all have our father’s eyes.”

The 36-year-old actor says, “I don’t know if I’m getting old or what… (Laughs) But when I look at the plants and see the flowers dying, but there are new shoots coming out; or if I see that the leaves look like this today, but in a few days, they look different… I think that if you pay attention, these are the finer things in life you can enjoy.” You can’t see them in this pic, but the large trees at the front of Elvin’s house were planted using a crane. He laughs, “I was running around trying to tell them which angle to plant the trees at, ’cos once they are planted, I cannot change!”

The mirrored walk-in wardrobe area, which reveals neatly-pressed shirts impeccably arranged by colour. His helper is the one who organises the shirts, although Elvin does confess to being a control freak when it comes to certain things.

He says of the décor in his new pad: “It’s not showy. I feel that when you have something too ornate, it’s [not comfortable] to look at it every day. I needed something comfortable. It’s not designer designer, but at the same time, I like the little details.”

Don't miss! Video: Elvin Ng gives you a personal and exclusive grand tour!