ECHOES OF THE PAST
Interior designer Elizabeth Hay used her skill for mixing colour, print and pattern to refresh the decor in this historic Singapore villa
Many people are used to thinking of Singapore as a bustling city of designer shopping malls and towering modern office blocks. But behind these contemporary structures you can still find echoes of its architectural past. This includes the distinctive houses called ‘black and whites’, thanks to their half-timbered facades. Although owned by the government, these properties aren’t listed, despite their history and heritage, so when Elizabeth Hay and her husband Timothy signed the rental lease on an Edwardian harbourside villa, they were free to do as they pleased with the interior. As an interior designer, Elizabeth was determined to do more than just add scatter cushions and hang pictures. Over the six years she’s lived here with Timothy and their three children, Arthur, five, Gabriella, three, and one-year-old George, she has knocked down walls and traded the bland, neutral schemes for vibrant colour, print and pattern. When Elizabeth moved in, the hillside house’s two-storey layout had hardly changed since it was built. ‘The ground floor had a dining room and sitting room and the kitchen with its “retro carpentry” was in a separate annexe,’ she says. ‘We didn’t touch the kitchen, however I did knock through into the adjacent garage and added the arch, which leads to my studio and office.’ Elizabeth runs her interior design practice from home and enjoys working with local craftsmen to design bespoke furniture, such as the lacquered daybed and oak table in her home, framed by shelves of bright textiles. Upstairs, Elizabeth removed the walls between the bedrooms and the terraces that wrap around the house. ‘It made the rooms feel
lighter,’ she says. ‘Thick walls and high vents keep the house cool, despite the lack of air conditioning.’ She updated the bathrooms, designing basin units and adding Malaysian tiles in earthy tones. ‘I’m trying to be sustainable. Rather than rip out the whole bathroom, I make small changes to create a brighter, more liveable space.’ The palette for the house was inspired by its Singaporean setting. ‘I’ve used colours that work in this light,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Grey and yellow, for instance, looked surprisingly flat.’ A bedroom was brought to life with a wallpaper featuring crocodiles and exotic creatures. ‘Just right for this house,’ says Elizabeth. Matching antique beds were bought and painted in glowing deep red. Having tweaked the property’s layout and fine-tuned her palette of vibrant rainbow shades, Elizabeth added the finishing touches with her beautiful art and textiles, collected on her travels. There are gleaming inlaid chests and brightly coloured dhurries from Rajasthan; Japanese woodblock prints and a prowling tiger print by the Spanish designer Jaime Parladé. The house also has some reminders of England, such as marbled lampshades, fireside armchairs, paintings by Bloomsbury Group artist Duncan Grant and a lamp from Colefax and Fowler. Elizabeth has also recently designed an attap, a traditional Malay wooden pavilion with a woven palm leaf roof and bamboo and cane furniture. ‘It’s a rustic, rustling retreat,’ says Elizabeth, ‘and it’s become a place to spend time with family and observe the wildlife, sunbirds, laughing thrushes, parrots and civet cats who frequent the garden, just as they’ve done for over a century.’