Before & After: A 3-Room Flat’s $50K Renovation Transformed It Into A Minimal Wabi-Sabi Home

The spacious living and dining area is intentionally kept uncluttered to make it conducive for gatherings. There is minimal carpentry — it was imperative that loose furnishings would be used here as much as possible — so that the space remains fluid and dynamic, Roy explains.

Limewash paint was used for the walls in the living and dining areas, as well as the bedroom, adding instant patina and subtle visual interest to the surface.

“It is more expensive than normal paint but worth the money because the process and the effect is exactly what [the homeowner] was going for,” says Roy. It’s accentuated by a light shade of vinyl flooring, which was overlaid on the original floor tiles.

The wall between the master bedroom and the living area was also hacked, and it is only separated by a curtain.​​​​​​​

The kitchen entrance was also hacked down to open up the space.

The walls are cement screeded, complemented perfectly by a beige-grey Kompacplus countertops and backsplash, a departure from the tiled backsplashes you see in most kitchens.

Says Roy: “The homeowner lived with a cement screeded toilet in her previous home for seven years and felt that it was a brilliant expression for wabi-sabi — the natural cracks that appear over time, the imperfect look and natural changes as it aged tell many stories at once.”

There are no top-hung cabinets or even a cooking hood so that the space doesn’t feel weighed down.

On the other side of the kitchen, there is a built-in cabinet for essentials, with a steel rack that can be moved or switched out in the future if necessary.

The common bathroom in the kitchen and the master bathroom were combined by hacking down the wall in between, thus creating a new expanded bathroom that's accessible via both the kitchen and the master bedroom. Cement screed walls continue inside the bathroom, and a fluted glass shower screen adds dimension and texture.

To maximise space in the bathroom, basins were shifted out, with one in the kitchen and another in the master bedroom.

A cement concrete structure was built in the bedroom to not only house the basin, but the extra space next to it acts as a desk as well.

Fun fact: There are no doors in this house except for the toilet doors and the main door. So, yes, you can peek into the bedroom from the dining area through this arched bedroom entrance.
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Photos: Insight.Out Studio