Home tour: An eclectic Singapore apartment with interiors inspired by artist Joan Miró

Colour is a hallmark of this home, sophisticatedly employed to draw focus, highlight specific elements, and relate to the owner’s art collection. Materials such as steel and marble, used in their natural states, also contribute to the colour compendium. “The colour of Agora beige marble is similar to the earth tone in some of Miró’s works, applied to features like the intersecting green-brown rectangles and circles in the floor of the entrance lobby,” Soh points out.

This marble medley and polished steel-and-fritted glass double foyer doors present a bold harmony of antiquity and futurism. A protruding pink marble block—a clean-cut sculpture within the white space—subtly divides the walkway and study room. A blood-red Takashi Murakami Enso artwork with a circle and a round wall lamp from Marset are like two eyes, and the marble block itself a tongue. Together, they abstract a face as a homage to Miró’s fantastical characters.

This playful collection of parts marks the start of a short art gallery walk toward the living area, lined with a Miró Majorette drawing and a Banksy piece. Along this trajectory, two windows look into the kitchen. They are framed by various materials in moss, mustard and mandarin tones that continue on the other side of the wall. In the kitchen itself is a backsplash of green glazed tiles, an orange Lacanche stove and a hood wrapped in dark slate; the spirit of Miró’s art is palpable even in this utilitarian space.

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“This approach also governs how we went about placing various furniture of different materials and scales together,” says Soh, highlighting a tall bookshelf, and smaller and lower pieces in the living room.

A limited-edition Moonsetter lamp from Louis Poulsen is a centrepiece here, as are a trio of PH 5 lamps from the same brand in the dining room.

The open-plan communal spaces are well-suited to entertaining. In the wine room, 1,500 bottles are kept in a constant 13 degrees Celsius environment. Oak flooring and carpentry soften the glass-and-steel walls, while a Patagonia marble counter provides a surface for the placement of wine and cheese.

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In the living area, a tangerine-hued sofa beckons lounging and conversation. Cushions in assorted sizes along its expanse inject intimacy into the ample space. Between the living and dining areas, a bespoke bead-blasted steel rack mitigates the height difference while serving dual purposes: as a bench in the former and a counter in the latter.

These spaces segue into the home theatre, whose hexagonal plan breaks the apartment’s predominant rectilinear language. A customised ceiling light inspired by the egg-shaped forms commonly evident in Miró’s paintings echoes the room’s shape. Double-glazed windows, padded wall panels and acoustically padded oak floors help with the acoustics in this zone.

While small, the powder room contains a host of delightful touches, including a yellow oval vanity, a square mirror with a round light, a polished metal washbasin, a teardrop-shaped tap from Gessi and a shower clad in swirling splashes of marble-effect bamboo veneer tiles by artist Federico Pepe for Florim.

In contrast, the master bedroom, which was made more spacious by combining two smaller bedrooms, employs a monochromatic palette. Behind the bed, Soh created a robust wall feature of matte steel rods and plates, a dark mirror finish and a black marble slab that, framed in steel, is akin to a piece of art. It joins with a wall of glass blocks that separates the sleeping zone from a bathroom-turned-meditation room.

It is noteworthy that much work went into creating a cohesive, enlivening backdrop for the home’s art collection, which was carefully integrated into the interior architecture like the cast of an ensemble. Works such as Andy Warhol’s heartfelt Untitled (Cat), Yves Saint Laurent’s collage-like Tickets to Happiness, Damien Hirst’s screen-print of butterfly wings Kindness and Mel Ramos’ polished stainless steel sculpture Dita colour the home as much as Soh’s interior scheme.

Miró once famously said that in a painting, you should be able to discover new things each time you look at it. To him, a painting must give off sparks and dazzle like the beauty of a woman or a poem. This home certainly does.

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