Finding Your Singapore Style

How do you make a rental in Singapore feel like home? Start with pieces that actually suit the way we live here.

- BY JESS SMIT

There’s a moment almost every expat recognises. You get the keys to your new place - maybe a condo with glossy tiles, maybe a rambling black-and-white —and you suddenly realise this is nothing like the London semi or Sydney terrace you just left behind. The light is different, the climate is different, and the way you use your home is different too. Windows stay open year-round, kids wander in and out of the pool, and friends drop by on a Tuesday just because.

It doesn't take long to realise that the furniture you've loved elsewhere doesn't always love Singapore back. Sofas sag in humidity, fabric pills faster than you can unpack and the dining table you shipped halfway across the world suddenly looks a bit lost against rental marble and tropical light.

So how do you make a rental feel lived-in rather than temporary — a home rather than a holding pen?

Why the same name keeps coming up

If you've lived in Singapore long enough to attend a brunch or two, you've probably admired someone's sofa or dining table and asked where it came from. Many times the answer is, “Oh... Originals!” It's not a name-drop, but more the tone someone uses when they've finally found a GP, a reliable helper agency, or the one hawker stall that never disappoints.