When invited over to friend NAOMI HEALY’s home for a “casual” girls drinks recently, I was blown away by her faithfully renovated, modernised space. It’s a beautiful example of an iconic shophouse in Singapore. A long-term expat, she’s gathered art, furniture and stories from across Asia. Here she gives us a look into life in her beautifully styled minimalist home near Orchard.
About this shophouse in Singapore
Size: 6,000 square foot, three-storey shophouse
Location: Near Orchard
Who lives there? Greg Farrell, Naomi Healy, Spencer (15), Holly (20) when not at uni in Sydney, helper Jane, and Joe the Cocker Spaniel
What brings you to Singapore, and what do you do for work here?
I’m from the Gold Coast in Australia and my husband Greg is from Auckland in New Zealand. We met when we were both working in Sydney, just before the 2000 Olympics. It was such a great time to be in the city.
After four years together there we moved to my hometown to try for a family and a white picket fence, so to speak. But life was quieter than we were ready for. I am a communications consultant and freelance journalist, and Greg is an interior designer who specialises in luxury hotels. When he was approached in 2006 by one of the world’s largest architectural firms to take a hotel interiors role based in Hong Kong, we jumped at the chance. The experience was life-changing. We loved it.
Thirteen years, two kids and a dog later, Singapore was beckoning and in 2019 Greg took another role as the vice president of design and technical services for an international hotel chain, which he is now transitioning into a consulting role.
What kind of property were you looking for when you arrived, and were there any must-haves?
After 13 years of living in apartments in Hong Kong (the last eight years without facilities), we were really hoping to find a landed home – or a ground-floor apartment or cluster house – with our own pool and a bit of outdoor space.
Even five years ago, before the big influx of expats two years ago and the accompanying rent hikes, that was a lot harder than we expected within our budget. But the pool was non-negotiable.
As we were going to be renting, we also needed to be able to just slot in our belongings without too much effort or expense, yet make it feel like home. So, white walls and simple, minimalist fixtures and fittings were important.
We also loved the buzz of the busy streets of Hong Kong so we didn’t want to find ourselves in any sleepy ’burbs. Plus, I was terrified of encountering monkeys if we settled too far out from the centre of Singapore. As we now know, it doesn’t matter where you live – the monkeys are everywhere!
Tell us about what sealed the deal for you on this incredible shophouse in Singapore.
On walking into this place with the agent we knew it was the one. We had only seen a few other properties, but this one had such a beautiful light and feel. It’s a heritage-listed shophouse built around 1925, so it has a lot of original character, such as the facade with shutter doors and barred windows; but it’s been renovated inside in a very modern, architectural style that we like.
Typical of shophouses in Singapore of that era there’s a large internal pond and garden in the centre of the house, now covered by a glass roof that ensures the house has abundant light.
It has an open layout over three storeys and five levels, with many connecting stairs. We count 57 steps from the basement kitchen to the attic office space. It’s punishing when you get downstairs and realise you left something behind and have to walk all the way back up! The front section of the house also has a soaring high ceiling that may be my favourite feature. It makes the place feel grand without being precious.
Many of the shophouses in Singapore and in this area particularly were reportedly appropriated during World War II, and until not too long ago functioned as actual shops such as bakeries and grocery stores serving the neighbourhood for decades. We love that this home has such a rich history.
But honestly, it was the rooftop swimming pool and barbecue area that sealed the deal for us!
As a heritage home, were there any tricky restrictions that you had to overcome?
As we are only renting, there isn’t much that we would do to the exterior that would be contentious. We did have glass doors installed at the entrance to the house, though, behind the wooden shutter doors, and they had to be approved and built by contractors familiar with the heritage restrictions. The door frames had to be the same style as the original shutters and the paintwork an exact match with the rest of the facade. We were happy to comply – preserving the architectural heritage of a city is so important.
What’s your design aesthetic, and did Greg have a vision for the space as an interior architect?
I wouldn’t like to try and define our style. We’re not that deliberate. Our home is just a collection of things we have liked, accumulated over a couple of decades together. Each piece is considered as we don’t like excess, but nothing has been bought solely to fit a certain style. It needs to be comfortable and have a purpose. Luckily, we seem to have mostly the same taste as each other. Only occasionally do I have to be talked down from buying something on a whim that really wouldn’t fit in.
Greg didn’t have a vision for the space as such – just that our existing furniture and art wouldn’t look out of place in the surrounds. That was why it was important that the house be a blank canvas. He has also made sure we (I) resist the temptation to fill up the space – partly as it feels lighter being uncluttered; partly as we are leaning towards a quality-over-quantity approach; and partly because it’s unlikely any of our future homes will be this big. It would be wasteful to buy a lot of new furniture, only to have to offload it again in a few years.
Where is your personal sanctuary in the home?
Our bedroom has an open bathroom with a deep, free-standing bath in front of a floor-to-ceiling glass window that overlooks a lush garden. That’s pretty special. It’s so serene.
Your art and décor are sublime. Where do you source from?
Nearly everything we have here now came with us from Hong Kong, except for the Cassina sofa from Space Furniture, the marble coffee table from Minotti, and a new bed from King Furniture. We also had the shelves in the entryway made here by the same contractors that renovated Raffles Hotel.
The rest is a mix of vintage pieces from 1st Dibs, lighting from Flos, décor from Lane Crawford and Manks in Hong Kong, and a few Shenzhen specials bought on day trips to mainland China before COVID hit – plus a lot of Kallax from Ikea.
The art has been bought from many different sources, but the most recent is two hyper-realistic monochrome drawings of cardboard cut-outs from an artist in the UK (sounds obscure but it’s not, they’re quite whimsical) – bought at the Affordable Art Fair at the F1 Pit Building late last year.
I also bought a small piece for my husband by one of our favourite Chinese contemporary artists and activists, Ai Weiwei, from a local gallery called Mr Lim’s Shop of Visual Treasures. He displays some big-name urban artists like Weiwei, but also champions up-and-coming Asian artists. My husband bought me another small painting by a local artist who painted a different chair or stool every day of one month last year. It feels so Singaporean, straight out of a wet market. I love it.
What three items would you save in a fire (god forbid!)?
Funnily, for people who like nice things we are not overly attached to any of them. I think when you have seen your belongings packed into boxes and containers enough times they start to lose their hold on you. I would want to get the little personal things of course, like drawings the kids made when they were young, or their first teddy bears that we have kept, or jewellery from my grandmother, but I don’t think I’d be able to run up all those stairs fast enough! Something on the ground floor I would go back for would be the indigenous Australian artworks. Each piece tells an important ancestral story, and it would be a shame to lose those unique tales forever.
What is it about the Little Red Dot that fills your cup?
It’s a cliché, but the greenery in Singapore takes my breath away almost every day. It’s so beautiful. And being such a central hub means we always have a steady stream of visitors stopping over on their way to or from somewhere else in the world.
Naomi’s Recommendations
Food & Restaurants
- Newton Circus Food Centre (“for a hit of hawker food we always head to stall number 31”)
- Fatty’s (“for Cantonese food”) wingseongfatty.com
- Tiann’s (“my favourite café”) tianns.com.sg
- Burnt Ends (“my favourite restaurant”) burntends.com.sg
Furniture & Home
- Noden (“for vintage Scandinavian design”) | nodenhome.com
- Hock Siong (“for second-hand and vintage furniture”) hocksiong.com.sg
- This Humid House (“my favourite florist”) | humidhouse.com
Art & Design
- Mr Lim’s Shop of Visual Treasures (“my favourite local gallery”) mrlimsshopofvisualtreasures.com
- Sam Framer (“my go-to framer”) samsframer.com
Gifts & Crafts Studio
- Yono (“my favourite design and gift store”) | studioyono.com
- Kim Soon House of Ribbons (“a fab craft shop”) mintonribbons.com
Out & About
- National Orchid Garden (“my favourite tourist attraction”) nparks.gov.sg
Loved this gorgeous shophouse in Singapore near Orchard? Check out our Homes section for more inspo!
This article first appeared in the June 2024 edition of Expat Living. You can purchase the latest issue or subscribe so you never miss a copy!
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