Despite how the Jungalow-style home was trending back in 2018, it continues to attract fans everywhere.
Plenty of home owners have been getting into the trend of decorating with potted and hanging plants and the great thing about it is that you can always adjust the ways you choose to decorate and add more plants along the way!
Get inspired by these soothing, plant-filled homes in Singapore that show different ways to decorate your home with greenery:
This four-room resale HDB flat in Jurong West, which belongs to and was designed by architect Kenn Goh, is simple yet full of personality (and plants).
Visitors will get a peek of the space through this customised black steel gate.
Measuring 969sqf, the flat has a combined living room and dining area. “My partner Kelvin and I love to host gatherings, and this modular use of the space allows us to do that.”
Kenn chose to go curtain-less, as this allows natural light and breeze to fill the room. Plants play a large role in the design; the greenery complements the neutral and pastel furnishings in the home.
This solid oak table can sit up to 10 people for dinner parties, and double as a large work station for the homeowners. “The use of black steel and oak furnishing here visually separates the dining from living room,” explains Kenn.
An oak shelf covers the entire length of the wall, and acts as a repository of the homeowners’ favourite things, from books to travel finds.
Check out that impressive plant collection! If you’re looking for low-maintenance plants like these, start with these 13 plants.
Kelvin is an avid home cook, so Kenn designed extensive storage for kitchen utensils and their collection of handcrafted ceramic plates from Japan. Air plants hang from the ceiling to save space!
The large drawers allow easy access for utensils, while the monochrome geometric tiles signals a change in usage of space — keeping to the wood and grey hues throughout the home.
The room is adorned with mementoes, such as an inspired print of Fernando Botero’s Mona Lisa from their Vietnam trip and their collection of Sonny Angel figurines from Japan. One or two plants sit by their bedside – check out these plants that thrive in dark rooms.
The rest of the room is kept simple and organised.
A modern home, swathed in hues of golden-brown and green, shows what happens when you embrace the best that nature has to offer.
Home to a couple in their 40s and their two daughters, this three-bedroom condominium unit of 1,185 sqf features the warmth of wood in delightful excess, punctuated across spaces with greenery and neutral hues.
A warm, rustic-chic vibe permeates this three-bedroom condo apartment in Tampines, thanks to the wood tones and greenery in the form of material finishes, furnishings and a copious amount of plants.
Every angle of Adrian Chua and Irene Ng’s abode accords a soothing vignette. With most of its surfaces clad in beautifully grained teak veneer plywood, the apartment exudes a cosy and rustic vibe, accented by notes of modernity.
Greenery is incorporated into the nature-inspired look, in the form of a living wall in the living area and around 150 plants peppering the interiors. The renovation was handled by the couple themselves, who are the founders of Paper Carpenter, a business that uses cardboard to create installations, art displays, and even pet furniture.
Dressing the walls of the living room (and reaching the ceiling of the corridor and into the master bedroom at the back of the apartment) are 3mm-thick teak veneer ply pieces, cut into 4-by-8-inch strips and staggered.
Adrian shares that he chose teak for its durability and unique grains. “Teak grains are more distinct than other woodgrains,” he says. He scoured through the wood piles of four different shops to get cuts from various trees for a more textured and distinct look. Adrian preserved the wood’s natural golden-brown colour, which he loves, by simply applying a lacquered finishing.
“As wood is a very overpowering element, having strong, leafy greens is a great contrast,” he says on the stimulating colour contrast provided by the integrated greenery. While the green wall, complete with a self-watering system from Vertical Green, is the focal point of the living area, pops of green in the form of herbs, ferns, bonsai, and creepers enliven the other spaces.
For a more varied and interesting look for the walls, the homeowners sourced teak veneer plywood from four shops. The pieces, cut into strips, were then laid randomly.
Walls were hacked to open up the kitchen, as part of an open-concept living area. For the peninsula counter that separates the kitchen from the entrance foyer, a slab of ash wood was used. Kept raw and unfinished, the beauty of the natural material is highlighted.
Furnished with only the essentials, the master bedroom maintains a calming and soothing atmosphere.
As the couple travel often for work, they selected plant types that don’t require as much maintenance and attention. They even purchased wild plants from Bangkok’s Chatuchak market.
“On Tuesdays, the market has lots of exotic plants on sale,” Irene says. Because of the many plants at home, their daughters are also involved in gardening, she smiles.
Wealth, for this bachelor, is enjoying the luxury of space to be surrounded by verdant greenery and the things he loves.
For Singapore-based Canadian designer Tyco Tat, gardening has always been something he loves. Since moving to Singapore five years ago, he has collected over 100 pots in his rented Bukit Ho Swee apartment. The three-bedroom HDB resale flat, which he rents from landscape architect Koh Jiann Bin, epitomises the idea of a “greenhouse”.
Sitting next to a rattan rocking horse in the living room is an original Louis Poulsen PH Artichoke, which Tyco repurposed as a standing lamp and made home for one of his spider plants. The flexible shelving unit behind it showcases many of Tyco’s tools, which he uses for pottery making.
Thanks to Jiann Bin’s expertise, he offers Tyco free reign over the selection and often provides care tips for the plant species.
“There are many different types of plants in tropical regions, which I’ve never encountered before. Many fascinate me, so I love collecting them,” Tyco shares. From a range of Philodendron species like the Monstera Deliciosa, to ferns, succulents and cacti.
Greenery fills the interiors of the flat, especially in the kitchen that sits strategically next to the windows — the perfect setting for his indoor garden.
Of course, Tyco’s bedroom is not short of some of his favourite plant species, like pots of Monstera Deliciosa, which he uses as bedside decor accessories.
The variety of plants bring colour into the white-and-grey apartment.
Having limited floor area did not stop Tyco from collecting, as he cleverly installed extendable poles between the walls as a way to maximise hanging space for his pots. This way, the plants are not overcrowded.
Smaller pots of succulents and cactuses have a dedicated shelf beside the kitchen sink.
When Jiann Bin purchased this resale unit, he kept the interiors pared down, with white homogenous tiles on the floor, a full-height display cabinet, as well as flexible storage units in the living room. Over time, Tyco decorated the space not just with his myriad plants, but also his unique, handcrafted range of ceramics and pottery that he designed.
Clarence Chua and Candice Li were so inspired by their honeymoon in Africa two years ago that they decided to decorate their five-room executive condominium in Bukit Panjang in the tropical-colonial style.
The couple, both 33, were influenced by the Macushla House, a guesthouse in Nairobi, Kenya; the world-famous Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe; and a few restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa.
Clarence says: “We like that raw, grand quality and tried to recapture that in our home.”
The living and dining areas of the 1,050 sq ft apartment are filled with lush potted plants that tower above a person of average height and antique-looking wooden furniture.
Framed botanical prints and world maps hang on the walls and black-and-white bamboo blinds are installed at the windows. The balcony is a mini garden, furnished with fake carpet grass as well as standing and hanging potted plants.
Because the apartment’s palette is black, white, green and brown, the couple stained their furniture, such as their light-brown mirrored dining table from Courts, a darker colour to match the decor.
They also chose solid tropical wood furniture, such as teak and rattan, as they like how the wood contrasts against the white walls and greenery.
As flowering plants require full sunlight and are not suitable as indoor plants, the couple, who have no children, opted for leafy ones such as dracaena, bird’s nest fern and philodendron.
Their expenses included a self- installed irrigation system for the plants. Before that, Candice says they found themselves rushing in the morning to water the plants before leaving for work.
After they returned from a vacation in Bali last year, they were inspired by the outdoor showers there and decided to adopt a similar look for the guest bathroom, which they completed three months ago.
The floor is covered with loose gravel, stepping stones and moss balls, and the sink is decorated with pebbles.
Clarence says: “It’s a relaxing retreat for me to enjoy some quiet time in the morning and a welcome respite at the end of the day. People usually treat their bathroom time and space very functionally, which is a waste as we spend more time in there than we realise.”
As for Candice, she prefers hanging out at the balcony because it is “quite chill and private at night”.
The couple, clearly nature lovers, have even preserved the carcasses of Clarence’s pet tarantula and scorpion in a frame, which is displayed on the television console. Clarence had felt it was “a waste to throw them away”.
He adds: “It also fits our nature theme, like the classification and collection of animal specimens.”
What is less morbid are the 20 small animal figurines such as rabbits, guinea pigs and parrots placed around the home. The couple had used them as table markers in place of numbers during their wedding dinner banquet.
Spotting one in the flat – for instance, a cute rabbit “hiding” in a potted plant – can be a delight.
Other interesting discoveries abound. In the guest room, there is a wall covered with more than 40 themed chess sets, such as a safari animal set from Kenya and one with nesting doll pieces from Russia.
Lest you think Clarence is a chess master, he says he cannot play the game. He buys themed chess sets – he got his first from Laos in 2007 – as travel souvenirs.
The decor has drawn comments from friends and family, such as “very British India”. Clarence says: “Visitors might get the feeling of embarking on an exotic adventure, with the lush plants, animals and travel trinkets all over. But for the most part, it’s for ourselves.”
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Text: Eliza Yusof and Domenica Tan/Home & Decor and Alyssa Woo/The Straits Times
