With vintage furniture, quirky paraphernalia and antiques, this Tiong Bahru home will have you thinking you’ve stepped into a museum...
Whether we’re planning to give our home a makeover or just getting the keys to our new crib, we’re always on the hunt for rad places to shop furniture and homeware, as well as pinning home decor inspo like the jungalow style trending on Pinterest. For more home goodness, we’ve got a brand new series up our sleeves — Interiors Addict — where we take a peek into homes with serious style. Kicking off the series, we checked out Honeycombers video producer Hubab Hood’s covetable pre-war abode in Tiong Bahru, which is a perfect mélange of modern and vintage. With vintage furniture, antiques and kitschy bric-a-brac at every nook and cranny — plus some jungalow vibes thanks to all those lush plants — this Tiong Bahru home will have you thinking you’ve travelled back in time.
Inside a Tiong Bahru apartment with serious vintage style
Attention all interiors addicts: Our very own video producer Hubab let us take a tour through his amazing Tiong Bahru apartment. With vintage furniture, quirky paraphernalia and antiques, you’ll think you’ve stepped into a museum… Find out more here: https://goo.gl/Bqhdyk
Posted by Honeycombers on Thursday, January 18, 2018
We caught up with Hubab to get the inside story on his stylish pad…
What attracted you to the neighbourhood of Tiong Bahru?
While apartment hunting in Singapore, my partner and I had to consider certain factors like wanting to live in a neighbourhood with a strong sense of community. We have quite a number of friends living in Tiong Bahru and we wanted to recreate that ‘Friends’ moment where everyone is just a couple of doors away. With its plethora of shops, markets and cafes, as well as a close-knit community, we have an actual sense of what it’s like to live in Singapore à la the kampong spirit, unlike living in modern condos.
Why a ground-floor apartment?
Initially, we wanted to live on higher grounds for more natural light and breeze. However, we stumbled upon an apartment with an open kitchen concept, which was a requirement, and also perfect for a long dining table. It was custom-made to function as a dining table, shoe rack, cabinet and storage space — and it’s had its fair share of turning into a runway or stage to dance on during parties. The apartment’s dinner party-friendly space won us. Plus, its cement wall and original mosaic flooring work well with our mix of mid-century, vintage and industrial furniture.
Describe your home decor style
A mix of mid-century, industrial and antiques. We like to collect vintage and eccentric stuff — things with history and personality, like fossils, antiques, you name it. The artworks here are either painted for us or commissioned. We always buy from Carousell, and see how they can fit into the apartment. Our style is a mix of everything, but the apartment is styled in a way so we can harmonise it all.
What is the main inspiration your home?
My partner and I love nature and we try to incorporate as much of it as we can into our apartment. We even managed to turn our lightwells into gardens. We also like a little bit of eccentricity with modernism — mixing the old with the new — and playing around with odd bits that people don’t normally have in their homes such as fossils and insect specimens.
Where do you source your furniture and home accessories?
We got most of our items from the marketplace app Carousell. We usually search for ‘pencil legs’ under the vintage section, and voila! There are plenty of vintage stores in Singapore where you can a variety of pre-loved furniture. Some of the kitschy items are found during our travels, and we can’t help taking them home.
What do you look out for when shopping for your home?
I try to find the worth of the item, where it originates from and the story of its previous owner (there are plenty of interesting stories!). Most of the items in the house come with interesting tales like our original cast-iron Theodore Roosevelt coin bank. Ever wondered how the name ‘teddybear’ came about?
Which is your favourite room and item in the house?
It definitely has to be the kitchen/dining area. We’re obsessed with the long table — it’s where we have our dinner, do our work, hang out with friends… It’s the ultimate treasure with many memories forged. I also love the typewriter I got from Vintage Empire as a wedding gift. It’s old but it still works and we regularly write letters to my in-laws and send them to Ohio.
All photography and video by Hazirah Rahim for Honeycombers.
