Inside A Couple's Magical Abandoned Shophouse Home Transformation

Stacked is launching an online store where you'll be able to find a curated collection of both home and decor brands. Visit stackedhomes.com and join our mailing list for exclusive updates. The shop house front was an extremely attractive feature. I think they're very few and far in Singapore. Charlene likes the challenge of a fixer-upper. She saw the space and she was quite excited about the possibilities for it. My name is Charlene and I'm a pediatrician. Hi, my name is Prakash and I'm a corporate lawyer. It's a two-story terrace house. The land area is about 1,700 square feet and built up it's approximately 2,400 square feet. This is at Hood Kiang Road. It's somewhere between Great Wall City and Wheelock Place. I actually bought it when it had been uninhabited for over a decade and prior to that it was actually a worker's dormitory. But the bones were great. Structurally it was very sound so we knew we had quite a lot of work to do but we were attracted to it nonetheless so we had an opportunity to voluntarily conserve. The living room space we didn't change very much. We kept the open concept. When you walk in there's a mirror to the left, paintings on the wall. The sofas are placed in a position such that it's welcoming so it's sort of a front of the house space where people can sit and relax and entertain. It still retains the original breeze blocks that adorn the four corners of it and I think that's a nice feature. It's something that you don't see in a modern house. The dining room we wanted to make sure we maximized the space. We got a nice large solid teak wood table with rattan dining chairs. We've got a nice carved wooden panel, very Balinese but also traditional which we thought would elevate the space. The courtyard is probably one of our favorite spaces. I wanted to create alfresco lounging space. We've got pattern tiles on the floor and there's a feature wall so it's a stone carving that has a slight embossed look because we mounted it on the wall and we flushed it the same color as the wall. This is part of the original design because if you look at how these houses were built in the 1920s, there was already a courtyard. It was just a question of enhancing what was already there. There is one designated as a guest or granny's room downstairs with an ensuite bathroom. It's very functional because there's access to the bathroom, there's access to the kitchen and it opens out to the courtyard. We've just put in a daybed in there and decorative wardrobes, nice shower stall framed by breeze blocks and decorative sink and some pendant lights. The kitchen is probably the biggest addition to the original space because it was an open L-shaped courtyard. We kept to a U-shaped countertop and we wanted to allow for lesser shelving and more drawer space for utility purposes. The back of the house, it leads out to a small private alleyway that the houses on the row enjoy. It can be used for anyone to enjoy a backyard barbecue or cookout. Of course, the breeze blocks are on the back of the house as well, the back of it matching the front in terms of the overall aesthetic. On the second floor of the flooring, we had to replace all of the wooden flooring just because of the state that it was in. The original roof had started leaking and that rotted the timber floorboards, so we had to get that fixed. The master bedroom is huge. It was originally two rooms. We collapsed the partition and we created a large space. The trickiest bit was creating an ensuite bathroom. We got handcuffs, his and her, dual vanity, once again with decorative mirrors. The one thing that would draw anyone's attention when you walk into the master bedroom is actually the roof. We realized that the exposed brick was extremely beautiful and I also really adore the timber beams. So at the expense of some noise, we've left it exposed. The area that we are in right now is the study area. Our primary considerations were people these days are often working from home. They need a nice quiet part of the house to work, so this place is perfect. It's bright and airy and relatively quiet. We have the original front doors. We've also got some original windows from the house as well as the courtyard door right there. We wanted to preserve some of these pieces in the name of voluntary conservation. Fitting the pieces of the puzzle together wasn't as straightforward as expected, but we've managed to create something that works. So the second bedroom I think is one of the nicest rooms in the house because it opens up into the courtyard. It's just a very simple and clean space. It's very quiet. We haven't started living here as such. We purchased the home as an investment. It was also our matrimonial home purchase because prior to this, we've been living in my in-laws' house. I don't think there's anything we would really change about the space, but I think just the experience of being here in this house takes you back in time. I think that's a fun thing. Sometimes it was also useful to appreciate how people lived back then. Thanks for staying till the end. Now if you like what you've just seen, do subscribe to our channel and click the bell so that you get updates whenever a new video pops out. And if you'd like to have your home featured, feel free to drop us an email at hello at stackedhomes.com.