Luxe Living

By Savitha Hira

Photography: Jo Ann Gamelo-Bernabe; courtesy Design Intervention

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Interior styling is to interior design, what icing is to cake! Singapore-based partners Nikki Hunt and Andrea Savage of award-winning studio, Design Intervention seem to reinstate this fact with every project they set their sights on.

Their most recent accomplishment that won them 2014 Asia Pacific Best Interior Design – Private Residence from International Property Awards is a tropical house in Singapore, where spaciousness has been put into perspective in terms of material, texture and colour application, to optimize on a visually resplendent décor despite a modest clutter-free approach.

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Addressing the client’s brief of personalizing the home with warmth and timeless appeal, and simultaneously keeping it lively and outward-looking; the designers cull a design vocabulary that rides on personification, while it is trendy; keeping the interior vistas engaging without compromising on the verdant views outside.

 

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Strong straight lines chisel the spaces complemented by a chunky deep-seated approach in the choice of furniture pieces and in-your-face colour palette. Using a neutral backdrop in varying tones of grays and umbers and a material palette of wood, glass and steel, the ambience comes alive with textural details viz., wood grain, rough-cut stone, distressed leather, cowhide, polished stainless steel, white quartz …, whilst pattern is minimized and relegated to smaller items like throw cushions, floor rugs and at places, floor and wall coverings - the application discerning and understated.

 

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Large expanses of solids are encouraged with bevel-edged glass and mirrors, moulded plastic, the colours largely borrowed from the outside landscape. Soft contours are strategically introduced – in the art, the pantone chair, rug patterns, and rounded tabletops. Art work injects wit. Upholstery is oversized and designed for comfort. Ceilings are patterned with chunky rafters or scooped out – either way calling attention, while floors are glossy and dressed. Openness anoints the place.

 

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The home is welcoming, friendly, warm and lighthearted. It makes you appreciate its distinctiveness. It conjours up images of familiarity and togetherness. It is first and foremost a family home!