NEVER TOO SMALL: Clever Spaces in an Illustrator’s Vibrant Apartment, Singapore 47sqm/506sqft

This particular one-bedroom apartment is home to Jackie, an illustrator, and her partner, Toby, who is a jiu-jitsu instructor. When I first met Jackie and Toby, they gave me a small Swiss army knife. This right here is the perfect analogy of what we're looking for. It's compact, functional, and also well-designed. It really inspired me to create a space that was just as versatile. It allows the apartment to transform effortlessly from a cozy place for two to an inviting space for friends and family. I'm Jade, an interior designer at Knock Knock Studio. And I'm Jackie, an illustrator at Eight Eyes Bud. I live here with my partner, and together we designed this space. If you're a fan of this never-too-small episode, our new book is perfect for you. Discover our top 30 small footprint homes, available at the Never Too Small store. The apartment is in the Fernvale neighbourhood, located in Sengkang, which is in the northeast part of Singapore. Fernvale is one of the newest neighbourhoods in Sengkang town. It's a lively and peaceful residential district with a couple of supermarkets nearby and many food options. This is a public housing project built by Singapore's Housing Development Board, and was completed in April 2023. The building is 25 storeys tall, and we live on the 13th floor. The apartment was brand new and came with basic fixtures such as flooring, tiles and doors. This is the usual layout of a one-bedroom public housing in Singapore. Every apartment also comes with a household shelter, which is often used as a storage space. We kept the original floor plan but made a couple of changes. We pushed up one of the kitchen walls by 20cm to add a laundry trolley and install the bifold door. The original bifold door in the bathroom was replaced by the swing door and we built a half wall for the shower. The wall that hid the original bedroom door was knocked down and replaced with a half-glass sliding door. We also built a cabinet in front of the household shelter to provide more storage. When we enter the apartment, we see our first piece of side hustle furniture that I custom-made to fit this corner. It's a shoe rack that also doubles up as a bench for putting on shoes. We named them side hustle furniture because they don't just save space but add a lot of personality to the home. We picked this shade of green for the foyer because it reminds us of the calmness of being in nature and is a respite from the busyness of the city. The original storeroom door is concealed behind a full-height cabinet. It features a curved corner with a built-in nook for keys and knickknacks. There's also plenty of storage space on the top and on the sides. As this storage space is accessed often, we used a fingerprint-resistant laminate for easy maintenance. We added storage shelves in our storeroom to fit the bicycle and a couple of our luggages. In Singapore, it is common that a kitchen in a one-bedroom apartment is a shared space for cooking and doing the laundry. But we made sure that these tasks do not happen at the same time. We replaced the original drying rack that came with the apartment with an electric drying system to ensure that the clothes will be dried in a couple of hours and kept away before any cooking starts. On one side of the galley-style kitchen, we added floating shelves to make the space look larger and feel more open. The switches for all the appliances are hidden behind the cabinetry above the oven. The pull-out serving trolley is another piece of side hustle furniture that we designed. It doubles as storage for unwashed laundry and when it's not being used, it is tucked away in the cabinet. On the other side, there is a wall-hung top cabinet for storing pantry items and a dish-drying rack is also conceived within. We also made sure that every item in the kitchen had a designated space to be stored. We added a bifold door with clear glass as its safe space. It also separates the kitchen from the main area to contain the smells. Before stepping into the combined living and dining area, you will find a cabinet with a distribution board. We replaced the original door of the cabinet with a full-length mirror to bring light into the dark corridor. Above the dining table is the blue display shelf where I put my books and cameras. The pivoting wall lamp above the dining table can be swung into position. We knew we wanted a pull-out bar but we didn't want our house to look like a gym so we made it look a bit more inconspicuous by adding it below the shelf. The dining table extends to accommodate up to eight guests and features a single chair that Tobi and I made. Additional seats can easily be pulled together from pieces around the house. The long bench that extends from the dining area to the window is made of plywood with a veneer finish. It serves as seating, storage, a pull-out bench and a TV console. The pull-out bench is not only handy in providing an extra seat for guests but also hides our gym equipment. In the living room, we have a second-hand IKEA sofa bed that unfolds to a queen-size bed. Having this gives us the flexibility to turn our living room into a guest room. Our rug is from Etsy and is custom-made to fit the length of the sofa. It also provides a distinction between the living and dining areas. The gallery wall is our favourite part of the house. As an illustrator, I wanted to display some of my artworks and pieces from artist friends and our travels over the years like the one I made out of my partner's jiu-jitsu belts that have been worn over the years. The convex mirror was found in a bargain bin in IKEA. We like that it encapsulates the coziness of the living room every time you look into it. The original wooden sliding door was replaced with a steel and glass one to introduce natural light into the bedroom. A curtain was added for privacy and to minimise light and noise disturbances from the living room. A narrow open cabinet was built at the entrance to provide more space to move around. Clothes that are worn often are hung facing outwards and don't require as much depth as a typical wardrobe. The main wardrobe uses sliding doors to maximise the space between the queen-size bed and the wardrobe. This also allowed us to add two side tables and a floor lamp. We couldn't find a side table that I like so we made one out of recycled plastic and plywood. We used veneer with matte varnish finishing for most of the cabinets in our apartment. It adds warmth to the space and makes it feel more effortless and refined. For the bathroom, we chose medium-sized glossy maroon towels because they are easy to maintain and the glossy surface makes the bathroom appear bigger. A vanity cabinet with a mirror was installed to keep the counter free from clutter. We also included both TAS and Imbion lighting within the space. Inside the shower, we added nooks on both sides to hide toiletries. To maximise the floor space, we designed a hexagon-shaped shower screen so when the door opens, it doesn't take up much space of the bathroom as compared to the L-shaped shower screen. When I was young, I grew up in a small home with my parents. Space was very limited to every part of the house to serve a practical purpose. Even then, I still found ways to add touches of beauty. Once you understand how the person lives, many design decisions are already made for you. Their needs become the foundation of their home and everything that comes after, from material choice to colour palette is a way to express who they are. Each object, every piece of art and every single piece of furniture in this home is here because we made a conscious decision for it to be here. With good design, a small space isn't a bad thing. It can be something desirable and it can also be a space you're proud to call home.