Daring To Dream

Every level of this 70-year-old terrace house has a fresh and inviting new identity, thanks to its designer and owner Kelvin Teo. Rossara Jamil takes a tour.

- Rossara Jamil

The vintage architecture and pitched roof of this compact corner terrace house built in the 1950s sealed the deal. Drawn by the charm of its architecture, designer Kelvin Teo retained its structure. “I’d been on the lookout for property in District 13 for a while,” says Kelvin, the founder of Space Sense Studio. “The house was also in its original state, which was one of my criteria.” This gave him the freedom to transform the house – with a built-up floor area of 1,900 sq ft – to his taste.

He dressed the facade with grey bricks and steel cladding, instantly giving it a contemporary update. Past the main entrance, Kelvin overhauled the entire layout of the ground floor, creating an open-concept communal space with a “fireplace” cabinet beside the sofa, and used acoustic wall panelling with a fish scale pattern for the feature wall.