Home tour: a bungalow in Singapore’s Ladyhill enclave that unfolds like a family storybook

The journey through the house begins in the basement, where the family enters directly from the garage. The arrival sequence begins with an intimate foyer, a deliberately restrained introduction that offers only a glimpse of the people who live here. The idea was to reveal “a little bit of their personality, just a hint”, as the firm’s design director Victor Lorenzo explains. 

“As you enter, it becomes more personal.” EightyTwo likens the approach to that of reading a book, where every page or every room is a chapter. The key was for all the chapters to connect to one another, with the family at the heart of the story.

The architecture provides a strong framework for this progression. The staircase is intentionally kept clean and uncluttered, allowing its form to take centre stage. Beyond it, the spaces become increasingly revealing. A piano positioned against an original brick wall offers an early indication of the family’s interest in music, while a canvas depicting the land before the house was built introduces a more personal layer to the story.

Positioned along the route towards the living and dining areas, these details offer further clues about the people who live in the home. The house is also designed to be used without ceremony while leaving room for intimate personalisation.

At the heart of the home are the spaces that support the family’s daily rituals—where they all come together for meals, reading sessions and conversation—and weekends that often spill into gatherings with friends and relatives. Those rhythms informed the way the communal areas were shaped.

The piano is one such example. Its position was carefully considered not simply as a design gesture, but for the experience of playing it, whether for the family or alone.

The dining room is anchored by a 10-seater stone-topped table, over which hangs one of the home’s most significant features: a sculptural Bomma crystal pendant chandelier. Its looping form introduces an unexpected note of whimsy into the house’s otherwise strong linearity.

It was chosen as it prompted an immediate and rather irreverent comparison to “wet noodles”—a description that struck a chord with the family. Upon closer inspection, however, the chandelier’s complexity begins to emerge: LEDs are integrated three-dimensionally into the glass, transforming what appears playful from afar into a highly intricate piece of lighting.

Elsewhere, HC28 and Wendelbo furnishings were selected for their quality and understated character, while remaining low maintenance enough for a growing family. Aratamete curtains and sheers soften the daylight entering through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. By night, the spaces take on a different character, with softer, low-level and concealed lighting creating a warmer, more intimate atmosphere.

The formal energy of the lower level gives way to softer, more relaxed spaces upstairs, with the bedrooms and family areas offering privacy and rest. Natural light continues to move through the house, while the surrounding greenery remains a constant presence beyond the full-height glazing.

Perhaps the most revealing room is the study, which responded to a more complex brief. “It’s a three-in-one space. It had to function as a workspace for the parents, a play area for the children, and the family’s primary storage area,” explains Lorenzo.

It was a complex demand, but one that was central to the family’s desire to remain connected. The designers solved it not just by working across different levels of the room, but also its visual planes. The parents’ desk is positioned against an architectural niche, framed by tinted mirrors and an illuminated artwork, that provides a composed backdrop for video calls.

The mirrors were among the most carefully considered elements of the room, explains Lorenzo, helping to ensure that the composed view remains unchanged even when the rest of the space has been taken over by the children. The floor was left open for them to play and read, accommodating the inevitable disorder of family life without allowing it to dominate the space. On the opposite side, mirrors serve a different purpose, visually extending the room and drawing the greenery outside further into it.

Beyond the shared spaces, the mood shifts. The bedrooms are softer and more personal, with colour and treatments used to distinguish one from another without disrupting the thread that runs through the house. The master suite takes a more restrained approach, with softened textures and carefully considered finishes. The children’s rooms allow a little more whimsy. The colours, however, were kept muted and unsaturated, allowing them to feel playful without tipping into the overtly themed.

In the bathrooms, the focus shifts from colour to materiality. From a distance, the surfaces appear almost plain, but a closer look reveals subtle texture and movement. The fittings and finishes follow the same approach, leaving the details to reveal themselves gradually.

It brings the house back to the idea that shaped it from the beginning. No two rooms at Ladyhill House are quite the same, nor do they feel detached from one another. The meaningful details are woven into a larger whole, and the story unfolds chapter by chapter with the family at its centre.

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