Transforming a 4-room HDB flat into an edgy ‘post-apocalyptic’ home
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Transforming a 4-room HDB flat into an edgy 'post-apocalyptic' home
CNA Lifestyle'due south Making Room serial looks at small homes with big transformations. While most homeowners hibernate or disguise the bomb shelter, this couple wanted their flat to look similar one.
Fancy living in a "post-apocalyptic industrial" HDB flat? (Photo: erstudio)
21 Aug 2022 06:37AM (Updated: 22 Aug 2022 05:53PM)
Married couple Shanmugaraj and Maheswari are an adventurous duo who work in scientific discipline and engineering. So, inspired by their worksite visits, they gave their interior designer Rey Tan of Er Studio an unusual renovation cursory for their 1,001 sq ft iv-room HDB flat in the Canberra neighbourhood.
Information technology had to be "mail-apocalyptic industrial". Also, "environmentally-conscious" and with "sustainable article of furniture" likewise.
"We don't feel information technology'southward very out of the norm, because it's who we are," explained Raj. "The whole industrial theme is about sustainability, which ties in with the environment."
The end effect is a truly idiosyncratic habitation that resembles an air raid shelter or doomsday bunker, thank you to its stainless steel-clad front door, grayness concrete walls and floors, cinderblock features and industrial-way fittings – think exposed pipes and ac cassettes and ducts, oversized switches and utilitarian-looking steel pendant lamps.
Even the dwelling decor accessories look rough-and-ready: Shipping hooks and weathered-looking chairs in high-contrast colours such as red, yellow, bluish, orangish and black.
To go on costs depression, the couple chose a DIY approach in designing some of their piece of furniture.
"My concept is, annihilation with a moving part that is prone to failure will fail eventually at some point or other. And if it fails, and then yous need to supervene upon or repair it," said Raj.
So, to minimise vesture and tear, the couple opted for a customised dining table that's literally built into the flat.
Its legs, fabricated of steel rebar typically used in building construction, don't just support the tabletop merely are are encased within the poured concrete floor in an eye-catching radial pattern.
The tabletop itself is a talking point as it resembles an elongated fire extinguisher box, as it's topped with a red-framed glass panel that bears the words "In case of emergency, suspension glass". 6 sturdy steel dining chairs in distressed yellowish pigment complete the dining area.
Any doomsday prepper worth his table salt knows how important information technology is to have your ain food supply, so right outside the stainless-steel-clad kitchen (which looks more like a makeshift science lab), is a vertical planter made out of wooden pallets, where edibles such as chilli padi, spearmint and basil thrive, thanks to rows of grow lights.
The wall correct next to their front door is fitted with iii big, yellow shipping hooks hanging from oversized bolts. Not but does it express the theme of their home, information technology also serves a practical purpose "for hanging stuff that nosotros utilize on a daily ground when nosotros go in and out of the house (such as business firm keys and headphones)," said Raj.
It's as well a proficient spot for target practise – the couple are avid archers and martial arts enthusiasts, so in that location'due south a blowdart target board hanging there.
Below this is a stack of cut grayness PVC pipes secured with orange straps – it'due south as middle-catching every bit it is practical; a low-cost and ingeniously effective shoe storage solution.
For the living room, they fashioned an L-shaped sofa out of industrial wooden pallets and topped it with made-to-measure daybed cushions in rugged denim.
Instead of ownership a regular java tabular array, they opted for a trio of authentic stainless steel chemical drums, complete with the kind of scary-looking alert labels y'all'd expect to run across in a toxic chemical plant.
"Nosotros wanted to employ something that could be repurposed and used for multiple uses likewise instead of simply for artful purposes," said Raj of the metal drums.
Past placing round two-tiered stainless steel baskets within them, they get a handy place to store lots of snacks and other items the young family might demand shut by for pic nights.
Better even so, it's easy to stash them out of sight when non in use, just similar the giant projector screen which rolls up overhead.
The couple also wanted to pay tribute to their favourite picture show genres.
"I grew up watching all these dystopian films. The superhero thing is quite cliche these days so why not just go for something out of the norm," mused Raj.
As such, a liberal sprinkling of cinematic influences and iconic villains' motifs imbues their already edgy-looking apartment with even more personality and character.
For example, a Suicide Squad-themed landscape in neon green and pink spans the unabridged wall betwixt the living and dining areas. Featuring The Joker and Harley Quinn enclosed inside a heart shape and captioned "You Drive Me Insane", it'due south cutely dark and wildly romantic at the same time.
Another dystopian detail within the apartment is that some rooms are missing doors.
"If yous have a door, the first thing that will always give way is the hinge," Raj noted. So, several doors were replaced with curtains, which are easily maintained and customised to suit their mood.
Ane of the bedrooms was transformed into a family den. A mural of sharp-toothed Marvel Comics villain Carnage decorates one wall, while opposite information technology is a bookcase shaped like another villain's logo.
The remaining walls are covered with black chalkboard paint – useful non just for work calculations, only for their young son Amaran's own doodling.
"If we take anything in our minds, we just come up inside and start scribbling on the wall," said Mahesh. "So it'south a very good identify for us to just permit loose everything and have our minds go wild." Or, they tin just chill out on one of the orange beanbags lying around.
A Decepticon container door leads to the adults-simply room that's used for storing their archery equipment. The room is also a workshop for repair and restoration work, equally well fun projects such as painting their tabletop board game figures.
An oversized photo portrait of the couple dressed in their archery gear, turns out to be a secret door that hides their master bedroom. Built-in compartments on the back of that "door" mean information technology too serves every bit a storage unit.
The master bedroom is also all done upwards in physical. They opted for an open-concept wardrobe system made out of cast-fe pipes for that raw, edgy industrial loft await.
A platform bed creates additional storage space for their folded wearing apparel, while a sheer canopy overhead adds a touch on of softness and sensuality.
"Anybody wants to live in a dream home but they're only very afraid near escalating costs and you lot're going to exist living hither for a big portion of your fourth dimension. But to us, it was, 'Yous know what, we're going to live hither. Let'southward just exercise this," said Raj.
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